I actually thought you were taking the piss earlier on Thraw. but seriously? you dont see a difference between a 47 year old man going after a 14 year old than if it was a 17 year old man? if you have a daughter and you found out a 47 year old was after abusing his position of authority, or if you saw your daughter off with a 17 year old lad from school, which one would you be most pissed off with? regardless of illness or whatever, illness doesnt absolve him or make excuse for him for doing that. its sick what he did, and completley and utterly wrong. just because he was ill or mentally unstable doesnt mean he can abuse a child.
I couldnt give a fook how sound he seems in his articles, to be honest, I was never particularily a fan, mainly because I thought his articles on the camogie feiles etc sounded seedy and perverse, ironicly enough. the way they were written didnt sit right with me, and I never really thought much of him after.
It’s a little known fact that Alan Shatter signed the “half your age plus seven” rule into law immediately when he became Minister for Justice. Howvever Tom Humphries should still be in the clear under the new law as a quick calculation shows:
its not ok if the guy is 17. Whatever age the guy is he will be prosecuted for statutory rape. Humphries covered it up for 18 months which indicates he knew he was doing wrong and therefore cant have been suffering too much of a mental defect.
Do you honestly believe a 14 year old girl has the capacity to legally consent to sex with an older man ?
Oh I know. I said he should be punished. But I reckon he lost the plot and that he’s fundamentally a decent man who’s gone astray. It could happen to one of us and I’d hate to think someone would be calling for me to rot in jail. He needs help, not medieval punishments or death.
That’s implying he got into mentoring in order to fuck young girls. I don’t think that’s the case. I think he got into mentoring for the right reasons and somehow developed feelings for a girl he was mentoring or came into contact with. It’s obvious she had feelings for him too and perhaps she instigated it. That’s very different from what you’ve just said.
Doesn’t matter who started it, what does matter is that Humphries should have had the good sense not to get involved with it, regardless of whatever mid-life crisis he may or may not have been going through. There is no excuse here for Humphries to use, like I thought she was older, the thing is he knew this girl, knew her age and he knew the consequences of getting involved and knowing all this he still got involved.
In my humble opinion, he had a chance to think about this and he had chance to walk away from it before anything ever happened but no he didn’t do that. There is no excuse for this.