COMMENT: Sex assault victim deserves support and respect
Wednesday December 23 2009
THE people of Listowel have been reticent about expressing their views on the Foley sex assault case, which produced the appalling spectacle of a priest up to 50 locals making a public show of support for a convicted sex attacker in Tralee Circuit Court last week.
That this show of support was made directly in front of Foley's still traumatised victim makes the matter even worse and one shudders to think of the impression it left on the mind of the unfortunate woman who has since outlined in painful detail to the nation's media how she has come to feel like an outcast in her home town.
The fact that the people of Listowel have been slow to make their feelings on the case known is regrettable but people are entitled to keep their opinions to themselves if that's their wish. However, it is hardly acceptable that many of Listowel's local political leaders — who were elected to represent the people of the town — have also remained silent. This has helped fuel an unprecedented torrent of negative comment about their town and, indeed, about Kerry generally.
Let us set the matter in context. If Listowel faced a petty accusation in the national media of over-charging tourists for a cup of coffee we could expect local councillors to jump, uninvited, to the town's defence.
Yet, when the town is accused of supporting the perpetrator and ostracising the victim of a vile sex assault the response seems to be keep the head down, say nothing and hope the problem will pass with the season of goodwill.
That is not good enough from anybody who claims to speak for the people of Listowel.
The fact is that Foley was unanimously convicted by a jury of 10 men and two women of sexually assaulting a barely conscious woman. That he comes from a good family and is regarded as a respectable member of society doesn't make this any better; it makes it worse.
We can feel sympathy for Foley's family, for they too are victims, but there is nothing to condone in this crime, no cause to sympathise with the perpetrator. Sympathy should go to his unfortunate victim but instead she has been left feeling as if she is guilty.
This is not something that we, the people of Kerry, want to be associated with. This is not how we see ourselves or want to be seen by others.
What happened in a carpark in Listowel on June 15, 2008, was a horrible, cruel crime. That locals, and worse still a priest, offered a public show of support to the perpetrator of this crime was cruel to the victim and an insult to women generally. Let us not be afraid to know this for what it is.
