Justice system

arcon5

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/locked-up-for-seven-years-thug-756926

Don't get me wrong, I hope every single rioter and thug gets caught and punished but this guy punches someone and steals a bike and gets 7 years? He may deserve it but bloody hell... 7 years? How can our legal system justify sending somebody to jail for 7 years whilst sex offenders are out in a fraction of that, amongst a catalog of much severe offenses resulting in puny offenses or even community service!!

Labmanager

are not you UK based? I'm not....catalog and offenses confuse me muchness...are they real English?

pimento

To discourage the others.

McKneff

No 'may' about it, he did deserve it.

But he'll be out in 3/4 mores the pity.

System

they went a bit over the top with some of these rioting sentences. The most ridiculous was the two years that the two guys got who set up the facebook page about looting in Warrington.

This crime was particularly nasty and the press got on the bandwagon so it was always going to be a lengthy sentence!

esuhl

I initially though that 7 years sounded incredibly harsh... till I read the article. I'm usually quite liberally-minded, but this guy deliberately assaulted someone and broke their jaw!

pimento wrote: »

To discourage the others.

That's a terrible reason to impose harsh sentences. The law should be about upholding morality and protecting the public, not using people as pawns in a socio-political game.

But, as I said, I don't think that 7 years is particularly harsh in this instance. Maybe I'd expect 4 or 5 years, but in practice he'll probably be released by then, so the sentence is about right (in my opinion).

arcon5

esuhl wrote: »

I initially though that 7 years sounded incredibly harsh... till I read the article. I'm usually quite liberally-minded, but this guy deliberately assaulted someone and broke their jaw!



That's a terrible reason to impose harsh sentences. The law should be about upholding morality and protecting the public, not using people as pawns in a socio-political game.

But, as I said, I don't think that 7 years is particularly harsh in this instance. Maybe I'd expect 4 or 5 years, but in practice he'll probably be released by then, so the sentence is about right (in my opinion).

The problem isn't necessarily the fact he got 7 years, it's about the fact the sentence in comparison to more severe crimes it out of proportion. I've read of rapists getting less time than this - which has the most severe impact on the victim?

But otherwise I do agree with the points you made.

Rex_Mundi

I do think that some of the sentences handed out after the riots were excessive and kneejerk.

However, in this case, the seven year headline figure does not tell the full story.

It was 4 and a half years for the assualt and the same for the robbery to run concurrently (4 and a half years in total).

He also got an extra 2 and a half years for one charge of violent dissorder and two charges of burglary committed on the same day.

These sentences together make the seven year total.

The judge would have had to consider previous convictions (if any) in his sentencing (which we don't know about).

When you look at it like this. This sentence seems quite reasonable.

SAME STORY DIFFERENT REPORT

Evilm

If you think 7 years for that is too long then you should be aware of the new laws they are trying to bring in about downloading copyrighted material - They are trying to bring it in that you can get 10 years for that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoLGQYCk3xg

antrobus

arcon5 wrote: »

... but this guy punches someone and steals a bike and gets 7 years? ..

Nope. He got 7 years for grievous bodily harm, robbery, violent disorder, and two counts of burglary. GBH is a tad more serious than simply 'punching someone' and you can get life for GBH depending on the circumstances.

Azari

antrobus wrote: »

GBH is a tad more serious than simply 'punching someone'

Agreed.

For example, punching someone so hard that you break their jaw in two places and they need two metal plates inserted that they will have to retain for the rest of their lives.