> A probation officer said Feeney should be considered dangerous, but Judge Sherrard felt the threshold wasn’t met, and while accepting his offending has escalated, it was the first sexual offence.
> It was noted Feeney received support from prison chaplain Fr Michael Bingham who, although recently passed away, found “the character image of the defendant being a menace to vulnerable women is one I find hard to reconcile given his moral sensibilities”.
> Feeney was sentenced to four-and-half-years in prison — the bulk of which has been served on remand — and handed a seven-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
>However, the judge declined to ban Feeney from contacting women through the internet because he did not “want him excluded from normal life”.
> “It’s not the online contact which proved problematic but rather the behaviour afterwards,” he said.
> Sex offender registration was ordered indefinitely.
> Concluding, Judge Sherrard told Feeney: “You are still a young man. There’s nothing that will stop you moving on with your life in a more productive way, finding work or finding a wife or partner, getting a family and a home.
> “The order imposed is the lightest touch I can afford.”
Ah yes, good. Thank goodness we are giving the lightest possible punishments to rapists. /sarcasm.
emilyeverafter t1_irxjqsn wrote
Reply to Judge encourages Tyrone sex offender to find wife and start a family by TheSenateRises
> A probation officer said Feeney should be considered dangerous, but Judge Sherrard felt the threshold wasn’t met, and while accepting his offending has escalated, it was the first sexual offence.
> It was noted Feeney received support from prison chaplain Fr Michael Bingham who, although recently passed away, found “the character image of the defendant being a menace to vulnerable women is one I find hard to reconcile given his moral sensibilities”.
> Feeney was sentenced to four-and-half-years in prison — the bulk of which has been served on remand — and handed a seven-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
>However, the judge declined to ban Feeney from contacting women through the internet because he did not “want him excluded from normal life”.
> “It’s not the online contact which proved problematic but rather the behaviour afterwards,” he said.
> Sex offender registration was ordered indefinitely.
> Concluding, Judge Sherrard told Feeney: “You are still a young man. There’s nothing that will stop you moving on with your life in a more productive way, finding work or finding a wife or partner, getting a family and a home.
> “The order imposed is the lightest touch I can afford.”
Ah yes, good. Thank goodness we are giving the lightest possible punishments to rapists. /sarcasm.