Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Vile Crime , Pathetic Sentence

Everything about this crime is vile.

The victim was a young woman with learning difficulties. The ordeal lasted 2 hours and involved 10 men. They horrifically burned half her body with caustic soda, to try and destroy DNA evidence, which has left her scarred for life- and her body is so damaged it still cannot control it's own temperature. The defendants were smirking in the dock, they feel no remorse.

And they will hardly feel any punishment either it seems. They got sentences of 6 years, which means they could be out of jail in 2 1/2 years.

I don't know anyone involved in this case, but I wanted to shout in fury at the radio when I heard the sentences. What IS the maximum sentence for rape anyway? And why wasn't it imposed here?

And , come to that, why can't I find a mention of this on the Guardian website today?

The Guardian report is here

3 comments:

Praguetory said...

I feel like I have let down everyone that I live in a society where such a meagre punishment is delivered for this crime.

Charlotte Gore said...

I'll second that.

Jane said...

I agree with you about these sentences. But, now that I'm living in Canada I'm frequently surprised by how short prison sentences for violent crime are here.

Just one example: 3 young men pleaded guilty to aggravated assault that caused death - a beating that culminated in throwing their victim off a roof. In the UK they would probably have been convicted of murder. Here they got two years conditional imprisonment and six months probation.

I was concerned that Britain imprisons more of its population than any other European country. Am I conditioned to expect long sentences, particularly for violent crime, or is it that the Canadian sentencing policy is too lenient?

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