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Fifty people shake hands with man guilty of 'odious' sex assault

Parish priest also one of thug's admirers

By
PATRICK ROBERTS,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, December 17, 2009, 7:40 AM
Updated Thursday, December 17, 2009, 2:32 PM

 

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Dannny Foley

Fifty people lined up outside court yesterday to shake hands and commiserate with a "revolting" Irish man jailed for five years for sexual assault. The local parish priest was also one of the thug's admirers.

Danny Foley was a bouncer in the town of Listowel who picked up the 22-year-old victim as she was leaving the nightclub in which he worked.

Police later found the woman naked form the waist down and semi-conscious alongside a garbage container, with a man “crouching over her.” Her body was covered with bruises.

By any measure, it was an extraordinary scene when 50 mostly middle-aged men  lined up to shake the bouncer's hand and hug him before his sentence was read.

Judge Donagh McDonagh yesterday stated the woman’s victim impact statement was one of “remarkable dignity.” He said Foley’s “revolting” claims, the “odious  language" he used to describe his victim and his claims were attempts “to add insult to injury” and to “demean and denigrate her further in the eyes of the jury and the public.”

The judge also strongly criticized Castlegregory parish priest Father Seán Sheehy, who said in a statement that Foley was always “respectful of women.”

“He always struck me as having the height of respect for women. There is not an abusive bone in his body,” the priest said.

In her victim impact statement, the woman spoke of being “judged.”

“Even though my name has never been mentioned in the press, Listowel is not a big town and everyone knows it’s me. I feel as if people are judging me the whole time. I’ve been asked by people I know if I am sorry for bringing Dan Foley to court. I am not sorry for it. All I did was tell the truth,” the woman said.
 

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4 Comments

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Posted by kickstar on Dec 20, 2009, 02:45 PM EST
Name these 50 overt supporters of Sexual Abuse, Print their names in the National Press,Name and shame These Cowards who are so Gutless they have to be sucking up to a Cowardly Bullying Moronic Sex Abuser whose progress through life amounts to acquiring a career as a Bouncer, This knuckle dragging deviant is worth knowing I don't think. And to heap insult on injury the little girl now says people are casting dirty looks at her and refusing to serve her in a shop. What kind of backward morons are these folk who take the side of a rapist over an innocent victim, What did they want her to do? keep quiet about it and deny anything ever happened.What would they do if the little girl was their child, Do they think it's OK for people like this to go around doing these things with impunity?.
Report abuse
Posted by STOCIOUS on Dec 17, 2009, 01:01 PM EST
OUTRAGOUS
Report abuse
Posted by kickstar on Dec 17, 2009, 12:52 PM EST
“He always struck me as having the height of respect for women. There is not an abusive bone in his body,” the priest said...... He worked as a BOUNCER You EEjit. I'd say that might qualify for abuse at times....Just look at the guy he is not to hard to read...He is an abusive moron and so are you Mr sheehy so go and boil your head,
Report abuse
Posted by kickstar on Dec 17, 2009, 12:33 PM EST
Hey sure it would be a very natural thing for a priest to support a sex offender I am not surprised he see's no harm in this kind of crime,An Garda Síochána should have taken the names and addresses of the 50 other enablers who also think it is right to go around Raping and beating up young girls, This inbred Moron should be locked up for life for what he done to that little girl,You know there has to be a Frankenstein out there somewhere looking for his monster.
 


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