"Women are not playthings, consent is not a decision for the perpetrators."
The words of Ms Justice Tara Burns in a sentencing hearing in June resonated far beyond the courtroom at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin.
It is more than 30 years since 19-year-old Lavinia Kerwick went public in a radio interview on the Gerry Ryan Show after the man convicted of raping her was allowed to walk free from court.
Her comments had far-reaching effects leading to legislation allowing victims to give evidence about the effect of crimes on them, and to new laws allowing the DPP to appeal the leniency of sentences.
Society has changed dramatically since 1992 and the way the criminal justice system deals with cases involving rape, abuse and sexual violence has also evolved for the better. But to hear a judge of the Central Criminal Court spell out the law on consent, so clearly and push back so strongly against any notion of victim blaming, was still a landmark moment in 2022 and struck a chord for many.
Judge Burns had presided over the shocking trial in which four men were convicted of a range of sexual offences against the 17-year-old girl in the midlands in December 2016. A fifth man had earlier pleaded guilty to rape.
Four of the men were jailed for terms of up to 19 years for what was described in court as a "gang rape". A fifth man was jailed for sexual assault.
The incidents happened near Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath and Tullamore, Co Offaly. The young woman had become separated from friends after a night out and was offered a lift by the men who drove her to a remote location.
In court, in harrowing evidence and during a powerful victim impact statement, she described getting into the car as "a stupid, snap decision", but Judge Burns made it clear no blame should attach to her.
The judge said the men had acted like animals. The victim was not stupid or naïve she said.
And in her extraordinarily strong remarks she continued: "Because a woman doesn't call out or fight does not mean she is consenting. How was she to know what would become of her if she fought back or attempted to escape?
"It is from her perspective the issue of consent must be considered, not what the accused would like it to be afterwards."
After the trial was over, Lavinia Kerwick herself made contact to say she had been thinking about the young woman at the centre of the case. She expressed her hope that she had walked out of court and left her guilt and shame with those who had attacked her and that she would not lose the best years of her life.
The issue of consent was addressed further by the Court of Appeal towards the end of the year, while dealing with the case of a former RTÉ journalist, Mícheál Ó Leidhin, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman while she slept.
Rejecting his appeal, the presiding judge, Mr Justice John Edwards said a sexual assault while sleeping could not be viewed as a minimal or trivial sexual assault.
The judge said the fact that there had been sexual contact between the man and the woman earlier in the night, did not mitigate against the seriousness of the offence.
"All people have a right to feel safe while they sleep," he said.
There is no doubt that giving evidence as the complainant in a sexual assault or rape trial is a profoundly traumatic experience.
The complainant has to relive every tiny detail of what they allege has happened to them to a roomful of people. And for a fair trial to take place, defence lawyers have to cross examine them on those details, sometimes extensively.
Just over four years ago a defence counsel's comments about the kind of underwear the complainant in a rape case was wearing, sparked national protests and international publicity.
But the comments this year from senior judges can give those making a complaint some comfort that victim blaming is, in general, no longer a feature of such trials and that judges are very clear on what constitutes consent or a lack of consent.
July 2022 saw two men jailed within days of each other for the coercive control of their partners.
The first of those cases contained details which shocked even experienced court reporters. Former garda, Paul Moody pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to coercively controlling his partner, torturing and terrorising her while she was ill with cancer.
Moody beat, punched and choked the woman over two and a half years. He sent over 31,000 threatening, abusive, degrading and demeaning texts and phone communications and told her he hoped she would "die in pain".
He took naked pictures of her and threatened to circulate them online, stole her cancer medication and turned up at a hospital she was in, telling her he was there to watch her "bleed to death".
Sentencing Moody to three years and three months in prison, Judge Martin Nolan said he was a "bully" who made his partner's life "hell". He had abused his position as a garda to get information and engaged in a catalogue of vile and humiliating criminal behaviour, the judge said.
Two days after Moody was sentenced, 36-year-old Dean Ward was jailed for 17 years at the Central Criminal Court for a catalogue of offences against a woman, after effectively moving into her home following their first date.
Ward was convicted of three counts of rape and four counts of assault as well as a charge of coercive control.
Sinead O'Neill of Killybegs, Co Donegal waived her right to anonymity to speak out and show others that support was available.
The court heard Ward threatened her, raped her, controlled and manipulated her. He had a history of violence against women and showed no remorse.
Ms O'Neill said he took just six weeks to destroy her life and urged anyone experiencing domestic violence or coercive control to confide in someone.
Her words were echoed by Detective Inspector Cormac Brennan who praised the woman involved in Paul Moody's case. He urged people to come forward saying: "You have done nothing wrong ... Please take that first step, you will be believed."
While these high profile cases sent a strong message out to women to report abuse, others felt that message was not being heard in the lower courts.
In the same week in July as Paul Moody and Dean Ward were jailed, a young woman described her horror after her ex-partner who was sentenced to 14 months at Dublin District Court for sending her a string of abusive and threatening messages, lodged an appeal and was released on bail.
The woman described how she had been living in fear and was led to believe her ordeal was finally over when her ex-partner was sentenced.
On the day of the court case, she returned home, believing he was in custody, before learning from local people that he had been seen back in their hometown.
Legal sources familiar with the district courts, say it is common for those convicted and sentenced for assault to appeal and be released on bail pending that appeal.
The woman said she was reading news articles urging women to come forward, but that she felt utterly let down by the legal system.
The year started with a case of domestic violence which had the most tragic of consequences. In January, 54-year-old Alan Ward was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, 41-year-old Catherine Doyle from Clondalkin, Dublin.
The court heard Ward stabbed his wife to death in their bedroom in March 2019, and threatened to kill their 23-year-old son, Adam when he tried to help.
Adam told the trial his father would punch his mother during arguments, as well as put her down and insult her. Ward had a previous conviction for assaulting his wife. He was sentenced to the mandatory term of life in prison by Mr Justice Tony Hunt.
One of the final cases of 2022, also involved the murder of a woman by a man with whom she had been in a romantic relationship.
64-year-old Michael Leonard became "increasingly obsessed" with 72-year-old Mary O'Keeffe after she ended their relationship in late 2019.
Ms O'Keeffe was described as a positive, happy, kind person. She was a widowed mother of three with 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
In February 2021, Leonard lured her to a meeting in woods near Doneraile, Co Cork and murdered her by setting fire to the car she was in.
Leonard pleaded guilty and at his sentence hearing in December, the court heard he had emotionally manipulated Ms O'Keeffe, affectionately known by her family as "Moll".
After her murder gardaí, who examined CCTV footage, saw him near her home on 45 occasions between Christmas 2020 and early February 2021. She did not know he was there.
Almost 12 months earlier, Judge Hunt in Catherine Doyle's case referred to the "continuing conveyor belt of tragic cases, springing from domestic violence" coming before the courts.
The details of the horrific attack on Mary O'Keeffe show that conveyor belt is not slowing down, despite the positive messages on consent, abuse and coercive control coming from the criminal justice system.
Reporting: Orla O'Donnell, Legal Affairs Correspondent, and Vivienne Traynor, Courts Reporter
