On page 13 of today’s Times (I take both the print and digital version) there are three headlines which sum up how our criminal system is failing the victims and the taxpayer.
The first headline reads; Asylum seekers who snatched £25K Rolex, walk free. The story details how an Egyptian aged 21 and an Algerian, aged 25, jumped a man walking at 2am through London’s Soho.
They hugged him and then put a hand over his mouth to stop his screams being heard. Fortunately, the police were on hand in moments, arresting the pair and recovering the watch.
To my mind that is a serious offence. It involves violence in the street and the stealing of a very expensive item. The judge at Southwark crown court didn’t agree. Where do they find these judges?
Instead, the pair were ordered stay at an asylum centre and face a curfew for six months between 9pm and 6am. They also received a community order, must complete 150 hours of unpaid work and banned from visiting the western half of the London Borough of Westminster. How painful!!
None of that amounts to a bucket of spit. I want them off the street. Starmer takes a different view. With his attitude to illegal migrants, he’ll probably be handing them a peerage.
The second headline reads; Fatal crash driver left boy in road. The story tells how a van driver hit a 7-year-old boy on the esplanade in the town. He drove on a short distance and saw CPR being carried out as he the boy lay on the carriageway.
Instead of returning to see how the lad was and explain to the police what had happened, he fled telling the police later; ‘’The whole f***ing thing just stressed me out.’’
That boy died. The mother criticised the driver for leaving her son on the road ‘’like an animal’’.
Instead of the driver being jailed for his heartless act he received a 14-week sentence suspended for a year for failing to stop at the scene of an accident, and driving with a valid insurance.
Surely if you don’t stop when, even accidentally, you kill a child that must be a jailing offence. At what date did judges decide that should just be a slap on the hand?
The third headline reads; No English so just a fine for assault.
The story concerns yet another asylum seeker, this time a 26-year-old from Jordan. Magistrates at Poole in Dorset were told he had been pestering female joggers on Bournemouth seafront.
When a female police officer tried to arrest him, he shoved her and hit her on the head with his jacket. He was charged with assaulting the officer and being drunk and disorderly.
But the magistrates only fined him £26 because he was unable to even receive community service because he doesn’t speak English and that would require a full-time interpreter. Incredible.
His knowledge of English, the court was told, did stretch to saying ‘’f**k you’’ to the police officer. Incredible.
I don’t doubt that prison places are in short supply but unless nasty criminals are being locked up the voters and taxpayers will lose faith in the criminal system.
This page of The Times is simply a snapshot of a what is happening every day in our courts.
With the collapse of local and provincial newspapers and digital sites, our courts are not being covered properly by journalists, and there will be many shocking, examples of criminals being allowed to walk free despite facing very serious charges.
The reality is that judges can’t get preferment, and are actually more likely to be refused promotion, if they aren’t seen to be liberal in their sentencing policy. If you dislike woke keep away from judges.
I would be grateful if any politician (or judge) would take the situation as seriously as I, and I suspect, you do.