tomdoyleireland-blog

[tomdoyleireland-blog]

Irish Injustice

One night last year I bumped into my uncle at the local pub, he annoyed me, I insulted him, he walked away to the other end of the bar, we never spoke for the rest of the night, I went home at 2 AM. 

At 8 AM - whilst I was at home sleeping in my bed -  I was awoken from my sleep by a heavy blow to the back of the head, I heard my uncle’s voice say “call me a ‘BLANK’ again”, a second punch landed on the back of my head, I rolled over and fell out of bed, after landing on my back my uncle fell on top of me and punched my face, at this point I swung my legs around his waist, hooking one leg over the other, I hooked my arms around his upper body, I told him to “calm down”, he tried to move but he soon realised he was going no where,

My father entered the room (yes I still live with my father, whatever...) my father saw what was going on but didn’t intervene (he looked very confused), then my uncle started to cry...and cry... I thought “this is pathetic”, I let him go - expecting him to walk away in shame - he sat up with tears rolling down his face, then he lunged down and strangled me with both hands asking “IS IT GETTING DARK?!!! IS IT GETTING DARK ?!!!”, my father grabbed his arm, my uncle - realising that him and I were not the only two people in the house - stood up, I gave him a clout ‘round the ear, he left. 

I watched as my uncle got into his car - which he had reversed down the drive for a quick exit -  and drive away. The whole situation seemed surreal, I took a photo of my bloody lip, not for evidence - I wasn’t even thining about pressing charges at that point, if I was I would have taken pictures of the back of my head because that’s where the main injuries were - no, I wanted a picture to remember the story. As the day went on I realised that this wasn’t a funny story at all, I was incredibiley lucky to have escaped with my life, I suddenly realised that my uncle would not have expected to have faired so badly, attacking a man who was fast asleep in his bed, my uncle had VERY BAD intentions (I also knew this from this things he said as he was hitting/strangling me)

The next day I decided to press charges, The Gardai took photo’s of the lumps on the back of my head and the bruises on my neck, I sent the Gardai the picture of my bloody lip. The Gradai arrested my uncle, he was charged then released, an entire year passed, which brings us to today. 

We went to the courthouse and the first thing my uncle offered to do was to try and pay for my silence, he did this through a Garda intermediery, I informed her that I didn’t care if my uncle offered me 1 million euro, I would not drop the charges, the Gardai then spoke to my uncle, then the Gardai came back, she stated that my uncle was offering me a “substantial” sum to stay quiet, I told the Garda that I still didn’t care about the money, she spoke to my uncle and came back with a new offer, my uncle would plead guilty to “assault” and give still give me the “substantial” amount of money if I dropped the other charge, I told her for the third time “No I don’t care about the money!!!”

I was waiting to go into court when I had a thought “there are people out there who could use really use that money...”  I decided to drop the other charge and allow my uncle to only be prosecuted for “assault” IF the “substantial” amount of money went to children with speical needs, my uncle took the deal. 

We went into court, my uncle pleaded guilty for “assault” and the Judge approved of the local charity that I chose http://cottageautismnetwork.com/ , everything was going great, my uncle would at least get an assault conviction for what he had done to me (a tiny bit of justice finally) and also a charity for children with special needs would also recieve a “substantial” amount of money... But then...

The Judge didn’t convict my uncle for his brutal and cowardly assault, DESPITE HIS GUILTY PLEA!!! (the reasoning? Because my uncle is a respected member of the community... apparently...???!!!)

The “substantial” amount of money that my uncle had repeatedly tried to bribe me with in order to buy my silence? So he could avoid prison? The money that was now going to benefit all these children in need? The number I didn’t question in case it would seem like I was considering taking up his offer of accepting the money for myself? 1,500!!! SERIOUSLY!!! 1,500!!! FIFTEEN HUNDRED FUCKING EURO!!! I thought the “substantial amount” would be about 10 Grand!!!

I suppose 1,500 for those kids is better than nothing... at least they got something, that was the silver lining I spoke of on Facebook...

Sorry for being a downer but as the Gardai told me today, “that’s just the Irish justice system”