OPINION
By BDN editor Ben Smyth
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I RECENTLY attended a leadership workshop where part of the discussion was around how the brain worked and how people deal with change.
One of the take-away tips was to vocalise how we were feeling at a moment of particular stress - or indeed at any time - in order to trigger active responses to that stress or emotion.
Well, I'm standing up now to say I feel sick, I feel angry, I feel like railing against injustice... I feel helpless.
And I'm not even a victim here.
Maurice Van Ryn is still to be sentenced for abhorrent crimes he was arrested for almost 12 months ago and pled guilty to in November.
On top of that he was found to have offended while previously out on bail, and then a further victim bravely came forward resulting in new charges including child rape.
First, the bail.
Was there any point where someone in the judicial system thought it might be prudent to keep a repeat offender and predator of children behind bars after he pleaded guilty?
I mean before a public outcry as to his ongoing freedom caused the attorney general to step in.
Or how about the latest jaw-dropping tactic by the defence to appeal for leniency due to overcrowding in the prison system?
I understand as defence attorneys it is their role to fight on behalf of their client, or as he has already pleaded guilty, try to mitigate whatever sentence is coming.
But you can't tell me a report on prison overcrowding has any relevance whatsoever to the consideration of sentencing a multiple child sex offender.
If it did, why wouldn't every defence attorney raise it regardless of the crime with which their client has been charged?
For that matter, why wouldn't the Crown prosecutor think to object to the tabling of the report?
No doubt there were several families sitting behind him fuming that they couldn't interject themselves and hoping against hope their own legal representative would speak up on their behalf.
I have spoken to several of these family members and to some degree can feel their anguish.
This has been a long drawn out case and for some, all they wish for now - aside from a happier, healthy future for their children - is that what they have been through and fought for will help others to come forward.
Terrifyingly, that is all too likely.
On that note I will also say I am truly sorry and just as hurt that there are other families out there going through this process without the same level of public interest in their plight, simply due to the status of the offender.
That is not fair, but it does not mean the community is not just as outraged, and not just as supportive of the children and families involved.