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The most horrific crimes involving the degradation of an innocent person.
A collective sense of shame that somebody visiting Ireland had suffered in such a vile way.
Those are the words used by Mr Justice White when sentencing Eoin Berkley to 14 years in prison for the abduction and rape of a teenager.
Eoin Berkley of Hampton Wood Way, Finglas, Dublin admitted raping the girl at the Irish Glass Bottle Company site, Pigeon House Road on three occasions between 15 and 16 July 2017.
The Spanish student, like so many others that travel to Ireland to learn English during the summer, was staying with a host family in Dublin during her stay.
Described to the court as “naive and shy” the 18-year-old was just like any other tourist in the capital, taking in the sights on a day out in the city centre on the Saturday afternoon when she met Berkley.
Appearing friendly and approachable, he told her he lived on the beach and invited her to see where he lived.
She agreed and walked with him to a derelict site near Sandymount where he had a number of tents pitched.
What happened afterwards is the stuff of nightmares for both the victim and any parent that sends their child abroad to experience a new country and to learn another language.
The 21-hour ordeal involved her first being pushed to the ground and having her hands tied behind her back with a dog leash.
She told him he was hurting her but he laughed and told her she was stupid and that he had “done this before”.
When she attempted to leave the tent, Berkley dragged her back in and told her he had previously killed six people and was going to kill her.
He repeatedly tried to strangle her and at one point he picked up a small saw and told her that if she didn’t stop struggling he would cut her hands off.
She begged him to kill her in the least painful way possible and he gave her some tablets and he then put some black gloves on. She took the tablets and fell down and he began abusing her.
Over the hours that followed Berkley raped the woman on three separate occasions. On the Sunday he told her he wasn’t going to kill her until Monday.
He told her that if she tried to run away he would throw a rock at her head. He told her that he’d stopped having feelings about people since the age of ten and said he had cut the paws off household pets.
After hours of being brutally abused, the teenage managed to escaped when Berkley took her down to the beach and he fell asleep.
She rang her father on the phone.
“I’ve being (sic) kidnapped. I’m going to be killed,” she told him.
Her father told the court this was the worst phone call a father could ever get.
As if the mental scarring of such a horrific crime is not enough, the woman said for months after the rape she had to take medication in case of infections.
She constantly thinks about how she thought she was going to be killed during the attack and she is afraid to sleep at night now.
According to the victim impact statement, she said she thinks about what happened every day.
“I was afraid, I did not want to be afraid,” she said.
In handing down his sentence, the judge said the victim had been violated in a horrendous way, adding that there was a collective sense of shame that somebody visiting Ireland had suffered in such a vile way.
He said the ordeal she went through involved excessive cruelty, degradation and demeaning behaviour.
The judge said that the victim was so terrorised that she was effectively a prisoner for 21 hours. Throughout the attack she showed compassion for others, he said, noting that one reason she didn’t call out for help was she was afraid she would put strangers in danger.
Berkley’s history in care and prison
Berkley’s 25 previous convictions include unlawful possession of knives and a realistic firearm and threatening and abusive behaviour.
This included a conviction in June of last year for being caught walking around with a realistic looking imitation AK-47 rifle, for which he received a two and a half year sentence.
Gardaí had received multiple calls about a male walking around near Dublin Airport and Santry with what looked like a firearm.
Detective Garda Michael Harkin told the court last year the imitation Kalashnikov rifle Berkeley had in his possession was “the most realistic” of its kind his colleagues had ever seen.
At the time, the court was told Berkley only had convictions relating to drug offences and public order breaches, he had no secondary school education and had speech and language issues when he was younger.
The court also noted that Berkley did not present in court expressing any desire for rehabilitation, just that the case be finalised.
Berkley’s defence counsel in the rape trial, Michael Bowman SC, told the court that his client went into foster care at the age of four as his mother had psychological problems which were compounded by alcohol.
At the age of 14 his foster care situation broke down because of his own behavioural difficulties and he was institutionalised at Ballydowd, a facility for “unruly youths”.
Counsel said that after leaving Ballydowd he had lived in flux mostly in homelessness, often coming to garda attention in situations which caused concerns around his mental health.
A month before the kidnap and rape a garda inspector in the Dublin city area directed his detention under the Mental Health Act. He was seen by a doctor who deemed him fit to be released.
Two days later Berkley’s brother rang a garda station and said Berkley needed to be detained under the Act. Gardaí told him there was no basis for his detention and advised that Berkley seek medical care.
Mr Justice White said he had to take into account the mitigating factors outlined to the court. He said Berkley was taken into care at around 15 months old and placed into various care settings. He was kicked out of school at the age of 12 for “extreme violence” and never went back or had a job.
In a report handed into court the doctor found Berkley had a significantly compromised development and suffered from a severe personality disorder.
Questions will no doubt now be asked as to what could have been done to prevent such a horrendous crime, and whether more could have been done when red flags about Berkley’s mental health issues were flagged with the authorities.
The judge said he was not optimistic about the prospects of rehabilitation.
He said it was unfortunate that such a young person was going to prison for so long but said Berkley had to bear total personal responsibility for that as these were the “most horrific” crimes involving the degradation of an innocent person.
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Remember it was germany which was the first country to breach the limit of 3 percent
They were also distinctly unpleasant neighbours to Poland in 1930/40 too!
And they killed millions of jews too!
Not to mention some desperate songs in the Eurovision down the years.
not to mention starting two world wars!
Patrick
It appears as if you don’t particularly like Germans then. However apart from that particularly irrelevant comment is there anything else you might like to add either of relevance of even more intellectual than your first go!
WIR GEHORCHEN!
The IMF, the OECD, the world bank, in fact everyone, are all saying austerity is not working
… all except Frau Merkel, that is – she who must be obeyed.
We spent 800 years wanting independence and the minute we get it, we hand it all over to Germany and the German controlled faceless unelected ECB
sorry she appear to have one hell of any ally among TDs in our Dail who have not yet raised Art 29 5 2 of Bunreacht na H’Eireann to say – we do not approve the agreemnt between minister and Commissioner O Rehn that we will merege Anglo Irish and INBS until it suit u and u consent to it s liquidation
U can see memornadu of understanding on dept of finance webiste. No TD ever asked me in 11 that this merger and approval of EU to liquidation is a platform – did they ask u.
And now it banks back on agenda and the bondholders while credit union looisng 15 million – small deposit and people complaing about preotection of deposit in cyprus.
Grow up . And te your local TD that Govt needed his /her vote to breach that agreement when under consitution his apporval and dail needed for it to be legally binding in the first palce – no ecb gagging the coutnry then for no agreement still in negotiaiton,
Shifting numbers that mean nothing.
Mean nothing? I thought this website was obsessed with our debt levels???
Hey David. Do you think that anyone out with the elite care anymore about deficits? It’s too late for us. Even if we get to the stage when we don’t have a deficit, it will mean nothing to us. The damage for us is permanent. It will take at least 25 years for this country to return to full employment, and in the meantime hundreds of thousands of people are barely surviving. Then you have the younger generation emigrating in their droves. This is the price ordinary Irish people are paying so that the elite can maintain their lavish lifestyles. It’s tantamount to genocide.
For the thousands who have emigrated to England, 7.4% or 7.5% mean nothing
Higgins what?
Closing the deficit is a vital step in lowering unemployment. It’s very difficult for an economy to create jobs when no one has confidence in the public finances.
Rodrigo
You’ve lost the run of yourself with that comment. Just to be a little bit pedantic may I point out that our current emigration figures aren’t remotely near the numbers that left these shores in the eighties. Suggesting that the current economic situation is similar to genocide is completely and totally ludicrous and merely devalues your arguments on any fiscal matters. Much more important is the effect such misrepresentation can have on the minds and emotions of people who are struggling to survive this entrenched period of austerity which would in many respects be worse if the current Programme was not being implemented. In such circumstances we would have no lenders of last resort to the State which would simply collapse to a far greater extent than even that of Greece.
Economic success is as much about sentiment as it is about fiscal performance and the negativity you spew helps to prolong the misery so maybe you will reflect on what is being said before you try to drown me in abuse and inaccuracies.
And how can anyone have confidence in the Dept of Finance when they baldly state …”a deterioration of the debt GDP ratio does not represent a worsening of the fiscal position….” What else does it mean, if not that?
The extra money borrowed this year was borrowed to test our re-entry to the financial markets. Most of it was short term debt that is re-paid in a number of months. The ratio is currently 123% but by year’s end that will be 110%. It’s the difference between the gross and net figures.
Their point is that the money wasn’t borrowed to be spent, it was borrowed just to prove that Ireland can borrow successfully.
What?
O yes and Higgins you never got back to me about what you said earlier about this government being responsible for creating 5000 jobs. as i said 100000 people have emigrated since this government started so if i was to ad that to the live register it be over half a million . So there be a lot more out off work if they did not leave the country . Were is the hundred thousand jobs promised . Now get back to your dog
@ Kevin,
You should really consider joining the greens. There more of an opportunity for you there. Rotor Heads and Flat heads
Quentin. I absolutely stand over my genocide comment. This government are trying everything they possibly can to get rid of the less well off. ( the ordinary people) We are deemed a burden on society, and a hindrance to the elite. They’ve proved this over and over by their policies which take from the poor in order to benefit the rich. They won’t rest until they’ve completely Wiped us out.
@rodrigo you’re spouting empty rhetoric. Go to Rwanda and tell them Ireland is undergoing a genocide and see what they think.
It’s a little known fact that the less well off in society are the ones who use the most public services. Fixing the public finances is the only way to ensure they continue to have this money spent on them.
Dude. Genocide? Seriously? I think you need some more Bacofoil…
It means that the cash difference between what the State spends and the amount it raises in taxation hasn’t got worse even if the debt to GDP ratio has.
Nirvana for the Government is when GDP grows at a much faster rate than the fiscal deficit. That would mean our debt to GDP ratio improves with actually changing anything.
No, read the article. By year end debt to gdp will be 123% not 110% as you claim.
the deficit thats looming on pensions is what is going to finish us off est.130 billion in 4 years time but also the unemployed figures are totally false if you include all that have emegrated and all who have been knocked off the list because their stamps ran out the self employed not allowed claim and the startling figure of 80,000 extra people claiming disabilty you start to get to the true figure of unemployment nearer to 25%
Havnt they heard the austerity policy has been Proven to be flawed so these targets are à nonsense, cop on before you do more damage
If austerity isn’t working, why is our deficit closing faster than predicted?
What Higgins ?
Oh Higgins the blind man can’t see
David. You’re right, our deficit is closing faster than predicted. However, for that to mean anything to ordinary people, it needs to translate into economic growth and money in peoples’ pockets. Austerity does not allow growth and only succeeds in putting money from ordinary peoples’ pockets into the pockets of a minority.
Because GDP is not a true measure of national income
Higgins thinks its just the deficit closing.
For the middle to lower class citizens of Ireland it feel like a noose around our neck thats closing.
@Higgins. I won’t expect any reply from you or your idiots. “the deficit has been reduced” at what cost? The impending sale of bord gais at a knockdown price? How about the destruction of your economy? Oh or the great give away of oilfields? What about the landing of private banking debt on mine and my children’s shoulders?
Wake up and see what’s happening you foolish easily manipulated morons.
Economic growth and prosperity is proceeded by the closing of the deficit. The deficit must be closed or on a certain course to be closed before strong growth can take place in the economy.
@ Kevin,
Page 7 of the dickh*ads Manual ?
Does that include the selling of profitable state assets, and the giveaway of natural resources? Does that make sense Higgins? Or do you just have to agree with whatever that easily wooed fool enda dictates to you?
I beleibe u are f gael man. So wsas I.
Do u forget sir that another term of agreement by Cowen that Irleand will capitalsie banks and downsize them. But that memorandum certainly not working – is it.
We will follow the UK anyway, they bailed out their banks, so did we, they hammered the poor, so did we, and now that they are starting to change tack on austerity, so are we.
We are not independent, we are in thrall to the brits and in hock to the huns.
GDP in Ireland includes MNC profits, which are repatriated out of the country.
That’s great news, why not give yourselves a bonus, an extra month off as you only get 6 months off a year. Then you can increase the social welfare further just to make sure nobody on the dole ever wants to work
We’ve been ‘tricked’ alright. These figures are a nonsense. The austerity is a legal stranglehold on the country, contrived and cruel. We will not come out of this for 15 years and by then, what will be left of our forests, energy resources and our young educated? Thanks to FF and the Greens and subsequently FG/Lab – we are a sold-out basket case. Any green shoots we have will be eaten in desperation.
Bah bah bah. Percents and stats. Bah bah
It’s the debt-to-GDP ratio I would be more concerned about than the deficit. If it continues the way it’s going, we will all be living in penury for the next century and beyond.
That’s what tho plan is Declan get us into such a heavy debt that we’ll NEVER be able to repay.
I love my pug! Hahaha!
ruff ruff
“Higher prefunding for 2014 and 2015″ is that what it sounds like. A mccreevy trick of fiddling the numbers.
Debt to GDP of 123% is unsustainable in a zero to low growth economy.
Even if we temporarily get the exchequer deficit down, by use of measures of crippling austerity, blighting the lives of so many, we won’t sustain the unsupported funding of a debt to GDP ratio of 123% but the idea is that we ignore this fundamental reality.
Paddy thinks that he can walk on water. Paddy can live on nothing.
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