{"id":407084,"date":"2026-04-19T18:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407084\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:55:10","slug":"sex-abuse-case-character-references-from-public-representatives-unacceptable-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407084\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex-abuse case character references from public representatives \u2018unacceptable\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public representatives <\/a>should not give character references for defendants in cases involving sexual exploitation or abuse, the Taoiseach has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that\u2019s acceptable and I don\u2019t think public representatives should do that,\u201d Miche\u00e1l Martin told reporters on Sunday. <\/p>\n

His comments follow a Court of Appeal case in which a judge said it was \u201cquite extraordinary\u201d that a TD and others who provided such references for a former government adviser <\/a>convicted of sexually exploiting a 13-year-old failed to mention the victim or the \u201cvile nature\u201d of the crime committed.<\/p>\n

Judge John Edwards made the comment at a hearing for Daniel Ramamoorthy (40), who was appealing his sentence of two years and four months for exploiting the minor at a Christian children\u2019s camp in 2017.<\/p>\n

Ramamoorthy\u2019s lawyers said the sentence was excessive and argued that the sentencing judge had failed to give sufficient weight to their client\u2019s \u201cexceptional background\u201d and history of public service.<\/p>\n

Edwards, sitting with Judge Tara Burns and Judge Patrick McCarthy, noted that numerous character references had been submitted on Ramamoorthy\u2019s behalf, including one from a TD<\/a>. It was \u201cquite extraordinary\u201d, he said, that not a \u201csingle one\u201d mentioned the victim or the \u201cvile nature\u201d of the offending.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said the court knew from \u201cbitter experience\u201d that people held in the \u201chighest regard\u201d by society were capable of serious offending.<\/p>\n

Ramamoorthy, described in court as a motivational speaker, social media influencer and entrepreneur, had at one point acted as an adviser to the Department of Enterprise on start-ups.<\/p>\n

A decision in the case is expected later this month.<\/p>\n

Asked at the annual Fianna F\u00e1il <\/a>1916 Arbour Hill commemoration in Dublin on Sunday if the TD was a member of his party, Martin replied: \u201cI have no idea who the TD is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that \u201cthere\u2019s a court case under way, so I don\u2019t want in any way to prejudice the outcome of that\u201d,<\/p>\n

But, he added: \u201cIf I could say more generally, as a general principle, I don\u2019t believe public representatives should be giving character … references in terms of, particularly, cases that involve sexual exploitation or sexual abuse or anything of that nature.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Another Fianna F\u00e1il heave that wasn\u2019t <\/p>\n

Asked about the arrest in Dubai of Daniel Kinahan, Martin said: \u201cI can\u2019t comment on that at all and due process will take its course.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he welcomed the extradition arrangements in place since last year with the United Arab Emirates and said they were working effectively. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s positive because we work globally with other countries on matters of this kind, and it\u2019s good to see that we have that good sharing of information and operational strength in terms of the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public representatives should not give character references for defendants in cases involving sexual exploitation or abuse, the Taoiseach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,27006,1843,43,36222],"class_list":["post-407084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kinahan-cartel","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}