When a Dublin firefighter was sentenced to at least seven years for raping a woman in a Boston hotel in 2024, Irish Times readers learned almost immediately that eight of his colleagues, three nurses, religious figures and a schoolteacher submitted character letters to a United States court in his favour.<\/p>\n
Journalists covering the Boston case had no difficulty accessing letters telling the court Terence Crosbie \u201cwould have been in line for a promotion\u201d and that the offending was \u201ccompletely out of character\u201d and \u201cutterly inconceivable\u201d. Crosbie had pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
In this State, the submission of pre-sentencing character references for people convicted of crimes is a common practice.<\/p>\n
It was only at an appeal hearing last April, more than a year after Daniel Ramamoorthy was sentenced for sexually exploiting a teenage boy, that the public learnt many pre-sentencing character references had been submitted on his behalf, including one from a former TD. <\/p>\n
Judge John Edwards said it was \u201cquite extraordinary\u201d that not a \u201csingle one\u201d of these letters mentioned the victim or the \u201cvile nature\u201d of the offending. <\/p>\n
The charge related to a request for the boy to send a picture of his penis. Ramamoorthy (40), with an address at Whitebarn Road, Rathfarnham, and also in Germany, had pleaded guilty to a separate charge of possessing child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography.<\/p>\n
Edwards\u2019s comments led to significant public debate and speculation over the identity of the former politician. A couple of ex-TDs clarified they were not the one referenced before Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>\u2019s Jim Glennon, who represented the Dublin North constituency from 2002 to 2007, confirmed he had provided a reference for Ramamoorthy. <\/p>\n The decision to do so was \u201cnaive\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d, he said in a statement offering an \u201cunreserved apology to the victim and to their family\u201d.<\/p>\n But the contents of his and 22 others\u2019 character references on behalf of Ramamoorthy remained sealed until this week, when The Irish Times successfully applied to the Court of Appeal<\/a> for their release. The publication argued the constitutional guarantee that justice shall be administered in public required these references to be shared.<\/p>\n