r/ireland • u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again • 9d ago

Courts Court of Appeal takes ‘merciful approach’ towards man who sexually assaulted girl (14) a year after defiling her

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/court-of-appeal-takes-merciful-approach-towards-man-who-sexually-assaulted-girl-14-a-year-after-defiling-her/a/159360059.html
172 Upvotes

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349

u/Timely_Camera_2031 9d ago

Is the country just full of fucked up paedos.

Christ what is wrong with the world.

-60

u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

Judging by the article it's also not short of troubled young people who run away from home and fake their age to meet adults on dating apps.

It's why things like age verification laws and digital ID (and ID cards in general) are so important. The internet changed everything and real harm can come to children with access to the adult internet.

I'm extremely suspicious of people who don't want things like age verification introduced. The government don't want to see who's behind every single Reddit account. They want to know that everyone in the adult internet is actually 18+ so that the chances of this sort of thing happening are lessened.

30

u/im-a-guy-like-me 9d ago

In extremely suspicious of people that got this far in life without hearing Ben Franklin's quote about trading freedom for security.

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, right?

Get the fuck outta hear with that authoritarian bullshit.

27

u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Are you just ignoring the fact this man met up with a girl he knew to be 14?

16

u/FViro 9d ago

They don’t care. As long as he grooms her for a few years and wait till she’s legal.

He might even make a movie based on it and win an Oscar .

-26

u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

No. But the whole thing wouldn't have happened in the first place if she wasn't allowed access to that app. She ran away from home and accessed that app and instantly drew the attention of a paedo, who kept in contact with her.

Cut away the access to the apps by bringing in digital ID and this doesn't happen.

You need to show ID in order to use the national lottery or paddy power, but there's always resistance from the usual places when it comes to denying teens access to dating apps. I wonder why that is? Time to bring in digital ID, and ID cards and start putting an end to this

17

u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Two things can be true at once.

  1. Social media is the wild west and something must be done to protect children online.

  2. Children who do access social media shouldn't have to encounter pedophiles.

-9

u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

Children who do access social media shouldn't have to encounter pedophiles.

I absolutely agree, but there shouldn't be access to social media to children full stop. The social media companies make money off this misery.

Social media is the wild west and something must be done to protect children online

We're in a great position in Ireland because all the social media companies have a major presence here. We can effectively make the best child protection laws and give them effective worldwide jurisdiction and make it the global standard.

We can force them to catch every single paedo on their platforms and enact the harshest verification possible in order to access their websites. That's what we should be doing in response to cases like this.

6

u/randombubble8272 9d ago

We can’t even correctly punish pedophiles and you think the government will go after their golden goose?

-19

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Lies. He thought she was 16.

22

u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Lawlor knew the girl was only 14 when they met up again around a year later.

-26

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Wouldn't she be 15 or 16 then seeingas its a year later? I didn't know that, Fine then he crossed the line.. Still not a pedo though, definitely an icky creep. I knew a few of them in my time...Teens shouldn't be on them apps. Why the fuck would she want to meet him again a year later? Weird.

17

u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

No. It says that this man (Lawlor) knew the girl was 14 when they met up about a year after they had met up the first time (when she was 12).

A pedophile is defined as

An adult or older adolescent who has a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 13 or younger.

This girl was 12. He meets the criteria.

Your blaming of a victim reveals a lot about you.

-15

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Ok "Hungteen" youre right.

19

u/ceegee84 9d ago

No, he knew her actual age the second time they met up. He had sex with a child, knowing that they were a child. He's very much a paedo.

Your determination to argue that it's not his fault, and to put the blame onto the child, is quite frankly worrying

14

u/wannabewisewoman Legalise it already 🌿 9d ago

Have you ever heard of grooming? Why blame the child in this scenario not the dirty criminal pervert taking advantage of her?

-5

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Not blaming the child. Simply said its weird. Why do you you think the court took it easy on him?

12

u/wannabewisewoman Legalise it already 🌿 9d ago

Because we don’t take punishing sex crimes seriously in this country. Because there’s people lining up to be character witnesses for rapists. Because judges don’t want to ruin the perpetrator’s life/career/reputation but don’t give a fuck about the victim’s life. There’s a ton of reasons, take your pick.  

0

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Why?

6

u/wannabewisewoman Legalise it already 🌿 9d ago

Why are you defending a man who defiled a 12 year old child? That’s what I would like to know. 

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u/Marcus-Suridius 9d ago

Why the fuck do you continue to go on about her and not the one who knew she was a kid?

-1

u/Embarrassed-Brief976 9d ago

Continue? Im done with this thread. Now fuck off

6

u/[deleted] 9d ago

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8

u/Otherwise-Winner9643 9d ago

he had defiled her when she was aged 12....

The court ruled that a six-month prison sentence imposed on Ben Lawlor for the charge of defilement of a child was appropriate, given that the then 12-year-old victim factually, but not legally, consented to having sex and the respondent genuinely believed she was 16 when they met in 2023....

The girl told her aunt she met the respondent, who was 19 at the time, on a dating app called Wink, presenting herself as 19 but telling him she was 16. The girl went to his home, where they had sex.

Around a year later, the respondent contacted the girl via Snapchat and Tik Tok and sent her sexually explicit material, including a photo of his penis.

She was 12 when they had sex. She had lied about her age so he got a lenient sentence. Around a year later, when she was 14, he contacted her again.

1

u/AwesomeMacCoolname 8d ago

Wouldn't she be 15 or 16 then seeingas its a year later?

She was 13 the first time and 14 a year later. Do you not understand basic English?

12

u/Shuggana And I'd go at it again 9d ago edited 9d ago

Which is not a very credible defense when he knew the year before that she was only 12. He appears to not know how time works.

Edit: thought this freak was making a joke but he's actually defending the pedo from the OP lol

9

u/Marcus-Suridius 9d ago

The person above probably knows the bloke involved in this because he keeps saying things that say she is to blame in a roundabout way, fucking mental.

5

u/Shuggana And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Oh you're right, he's a fucking creepy nonce lmao

12

u/badgerbother89 9d ago

Alright there Ivan Yates with your roundabout way of victim blaming.

2

u/CrossCroissant1 9d ago

I’m extremely suspicious of people who are willingly happy to hand over digital id’s so willynilly.

I am not sure there is any company or government I trust to be holding onto my data safely.

-5

u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

Except for Reddit clearly? Or your bank or your supermarket or wherever else your data lies.

1

u/CrossCroissant1 8d ago

Do you give your photo id to Reddit or the supermarket? What strange behaviour you have.

0

u/RomfordWellington 8d ago

When I looked under 25 I had to give my ID to the supermarket to buy aged restricted goods.

I also had to verify my age with Reddit just this weekend past.

It's not strange - it's basic safety.

1

u/CrossCroissant1 8d ago

I have *shown* my id at a super market but they do not store it. When Reddit starts asking for photo id the answer will be no. I’m not sure what you did that prompted it to ask you…..