Former footballer Ian Wright expressed disappointment yesterday as a Kerry teenager who sent him racially abusive messages escaped a criminal conviction.

The solicitor of 18-year-old Patrick O'Brien revealed that his client had voluntarily made a €500 donation from his pocket money to the Irish Network Against Racism organisation.

He also described him as a good young man who was "getting on extremely well as a student at IT Tralee".

But should character references play a part in legal proceedings?

Today FM courts correspondent Frank Greaney, Conor Hanly, Lecturer in Law at NUI Galway, and Noeline Blackwell, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, joined us to give their views on the issue.