Broad Daylight

I was shocked this week after reading an article reporting the rape of a woman in Kanturk Co.Cork.
The young mother was brutally attacked in a public toilet facility on Church Street of the town at around 2:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon.
The woman had been jogging in the town park prior to the incident. She decided to use the public toilet across the road before collecting her young child from a near-by primary school.
The attacker followed her into the toilet and grabbed her from behind. He then proceeded to rape her.
Isn’t it terrible that such a disgusting crime can happen in a small town like Kanturk in the middle of the afternoon in a building so close to the busy street? It shocks me.

None of us can imagine how difficult it must be to come back from such an atrocious sexual violation unless we have experienced it ourselves. The media cover the incident as a news story but there are real lives that were cracked and broken on Tuesday afternoon as a result of one man’s crime. It is horrible to look at this incident as an outsider but imagine how difficult it would be to face if the victim was your wife, friend, mother or daughter. It is an impossible situation.

Women in the town are afraid to walk alone. Teachers won’t let their pupils out of their sight. Parents are warning their teenagers. And they have every reason to be fearful.
It is heartbreaking to think that our society has reached the point where women have to look over their shoulders in the middle of the afternoon.

Everyone is thinking 'Thank God it wasn't me.' But the thing is, it could have been.

The most terrible thing about the incident is that her attacker, like so many before him, will get a short sentence of three years or less. He will then be released with the opportunity to continue with his normal life. Will his victim ever get this chance? Probably not.
The details of that day will impact her life long after the injuries heal and the rape is old news. But forget about that.

I’m sure he’ll learn his lesson, right?
PM