Justice? Is this a sick joke?

[Zuiko]

Maybe I find this incident particularly shocking because it happened in my home town, but on what planet are these sentences not a joke?

It makes my blood boil; if I was Home Secretary I would send all judges on a re-training course and require them to pass an exam on appropriate sentencing before they could continue in their jobs. I'm afraid that these days the Law neither deters or protects and is no longer fit for purpose.

What do you think?

http://home.bt.com/news/uknews/shocking-cctv-of-men-pushing-blind-man-onto-train-tracks-11363939249825#disqus_thread

[Guest]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I think the judge left some zeros off the perps sentences.

[Zuiko]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I think the judge left some zeros off the perps sentences.

Hi Stewart, I agree!

Nice to hear from you by the way, how are you keeping?

[Phill D]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I'm in the same camp as both of you. What an appalling incident. It definitely should have been a much longer sentence in my view.

[pdk42]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I abhor this sort of senseless violent crime and at least on the face of it the sentences seem extraordinarily light. However, we don't know anything about the specifics of the case or of any constraints the judge had in terms of maximum terms. Remember too that the judge is presumably acting only within the boundaries of the offences that the CPS must have brought. However, given the grave outcome that might have prevailed if a train had come, I wonder if an attempted murder charge might have been more appropriate.

[Zuiko]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I abhor this sort of senseless violent crime and at least on the face of it the sentences seem extraordinarily light. However, we don't know anything about the specifics of the case or of any constraints the judge had in terms of maximum terms. Remember too that the judge is presumably acting only within the boundaries of the offences that the CPS must have brought. However, given the grave outcome that might have prevailed if a train had come, I wonder if an attempted murder charge might have been more appropriate.

Paul, you are right - sometimes media reports don't reflect the full facts and unique circumstances of a particular case. However, these examples of almost uunbelievably light sentencing occur often enough to convince me that there is something seriously wrong with the Criminal Justice System. If 22 months is the maximum sentence stipulated by Law for assult and GBH of this severity, then the Law shiuld be changed. Maybe attempted murder may have been a more appropriate charge, he might have got 30 months.

[StephenL]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I've just read this and was appalled. As you say, we may not know the full facts, but on the face of it I would have thought a charge of attempted murder should have been brought.

[David M]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

It's the same in Canada. In one local case the creep plead guilty to 4 of 11 charges and was released by the court because he'd been on remand for a few weeks.

[Greytop]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

What a sickening crime, really shocking.
I can only agree with the other comments regarding lenient sentencing.

[Guest]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

Hi Stewart, I agree!

Nice to hear from you by the way, how are you keeping?

Thanks John, I'm doing very well.

Not to compare justice systems, as ours has horrific problems of its own, but over here those two thugs would have been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and possibly hate crimes as well. And given long sentences, likely. And I'm always left wondering, Why? Was the crime motivated by money, hatred, pure evil? And how does the judge sleep at night?

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

We seem to have a two tier justice system in this country. If an otherwise law abiding citizen strays over the speed limit they have the book thrown at them, and in some cases are sent to jail even though they have hurt nobody.

Meanwhile our burgeoning low life treat the law with utter contempt, and seem able to commit the most appalling crimes safe in the knowledge that the state will defend them, and that at worst they will only get a few weeks at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Regarding the charges and sentence, it all depends on what the Police were able to establish.

If a charge of Attempted Murder were to be brought the Police would have to show that the attack was pre-mediated or planned, which clearly it was not. Their defence solicitor (who's fees are paid by the taxpayer) would probably argue that his clients didn't have the mental capacity to plan such an attack. Even if the victims had died they would only have been charged with Manslaughter, and would probably have claimed Diminished Responsibility.

The case was heard in the Crown Court so it should have been thoroughly tested by Counsel on both sides, but even at this level the Judiciary are under pressure not to clog up our overcrowded prisons any more than necessary.

[sapper]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

Judges have to operate within the law, if the law requires 22 month then that is what they get. Attempted murder charge needs to be proven. Maybe the law needs changing, cannot blame the judge for sticking to guidlines.
But, it does seem a very light sentence.

[shotokan101]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

Definitely not an appropriate sentence IMO even if we don't let ourselves be influenced by none of the victims disabilities - which we don't know if the assailants were even aware of - and I think the "attempted murder" option is pretty nonsensical unless there was a train arriving otherwise the courts would be full of attempted murder cases on a Monday morning after drunken weekend assaults spilled over onto the road.

Just trying to put some of the earlier comments into perspective and not trivialising the incident which is disgraceful.

Jim

[insider]

[Zuiko]

Re: Justice? Is this a sick joke?

I appreciate that potentially we do not have all the facts of this case but we do have the following facts:-

1) Two men were victims of an unprovoked attack which endangered their lives.

2) One of the victims sustained an injury that required surgery and is still causing him problems.

3) The incident was recorded by CCTV, which provides compelling evidence of the nature of the attack.

4) The culprits pleaded guilty to GBH and were convicted of that charge.

With this in mind it's hard to envisage any additional facts or mitigating circumstances that could warrant a lenient sentence. It must mean that in this case the judge did not use the sentencing power at his or her discretion or, even more worrying, the sentence was actually constrained by the guidelines! Either way, this cannot be right.