Lavinia Kerwick was interviewed on last night’s Late Late Show about a horrific ordeal where she was brutally raped and beaten by an evil thug in her native Kilkenny at the age of 18.
A trial ensued and in 1992, the judge gave himself a year to improve himself.
Lavinia couldn’t believe what she heard. They were expecting a 7 to 10 year sentence. She said she felt that was raped again in court after such a disgraceful sentence given to her evil rapist.
She said the life that she was trying to pickup again and try to rebuild was taken away.
The rapist was given one year to “prove himself as a man”.
She rang Gerry Ryan the next day and waved her anniymity. This was historic. She said Gerry was the first person to ask her name and that conversation was the first time she opened up publicly about it. She remembers the conversation ver batum.
Lavinia said:
“I lost me, who I was. I didn’t know who I was because that rapist raped me and I never asked for that.”
Unknown to her at the time, the Kilkenny woman was making history.
She said that the rapist was able to pick up his life but her life was destroyed. She felt that certain people would have been happy if she died as she spoke so much about her horrific ordeal.
She said that she’ll never regret going public with her case.
In 1993, her rapist walked free. The entire sentence was suspended. Lavinia said that it literally destroyed her watching her rapist walk off scot free after doing such a horrible evil act.
She rang Gerry Ryan the next day again and told him what happened.
Lavinia wrote to the Minister of Justice at the time, Padraig Flynn.
Between them both, they came up with the historic Victim impact statement – something that had quite literally changed the judicial system in Ireland forever.
Lavinia finished by advising anyone who was raped to seek the help they deserved to which the audience gave her a standing ovation.
What an incredibly brave and inspirational woman.