Frat advisor's assaulters guilty

An Irish jury last week found two men guilty in the brutal gay-bashing assault of Philadelphia author and Penn Sigma Nu Alumni Advisor Robert Drake in Ireland last January, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. The Irish Circuit Court jury of seven men and four women found Ian Monaghan, 20, and Glen Mahon, 21, both of Sligo, Ireland, guilty of "recklessly causing serious harm." The defendants claimed Drake had made a pass at one of the men and that the other then struck Drake in the face to make him stop. Drake, 36, had been living in Sligo to research a novel when he was assaulted inside his apartment, where he was found lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood more than 12 hours later. Scott Pretorious, Drake's partner of six years and the chief radiology resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said, "Robert's friends and I are very pleased that these men have been convicted of this heinous crime, but we need to remember that Robert is permanently brain damaged." "Ask yourself who is better off: innocent Robert or the perpetrators?" Pretorious added. After spending nearly two months in the intensive care unit of Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, Drake returned to Philadelphia late last March and was eventually admitted to a rehabilitation hospital, where he underwent five months of therapy to learn to walk and use speech again. He was released from the hospital two weeks ago but his mobility and speech remain gravely impaired. InterFraternity Council Executive Vice President and Sigma Nu brother Andrew Exum, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said, "[The verdict] obviously pleases us but our No. 1 concern is with Robert's recovery." Last year, members of Sigma Nu sold about 1,000 buttons bearing the name "Robert" to raise over $3,000 for the Robert Drake Fund to help cover flight and treatment expenses for the man who had dedicated hundreds of hours to the fraternity. Sigma Nu President Erik Franks, a Wharton junior, said the charges cannot be harsh enough, considering Drake's permanently impaired condition. "They pretty much left [Drake] for dead," Franks said. Sentencing has been adjourned until January 10 and Monaghan and Mahon are free on bail until then. The maximum sentence for each is 10 years in prison.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.