Sounds Like A Self-Correcting 'Problem' To Me....

Almost 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales stuck behind bars under an abolished “irredeemably flawed” indefinite sentencing scheme should be re-sentenced, MPs and peers have said. The indefinite nature of jail terms under the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) scheme has contributed to feelings of hopelessness and despair that has resulted in high levels of self-harm and some suicides among prisoners, according to the justice select committee.

Gosh, how to react to that news..? 

Blimey, this is seeing a lot of use lately...

The committee’s report, published on Wednesday, says that an independent panel should be appointed to advise on the process of re-sentencing IPP offenders, acknowledging that it is likely to be a complex task.

It further calls for the current time period after which prisoners can be considered for the termination of their licence after release should be halved, from 10 years to five. Neill said: “After a decade of inertia the status quo cannot be allowed to continue.”

Why not? Has it kept people safe? And by 'people', I don't mean the dangerous criminals... 

We Have No Justice Any More...

A minimum term of 18 years: 

Nigel Malt, 45, reversed his car over his 19-year-old daughter Lauren Malt in West Winch in Norfolk after she tried to protect her boyfriend Arthur Marnell. Malt backed over Lauren, then stopped and drove forward over her body on January 23 this year, after he threatened her partner with a crowbar. Afterwards, the defendant put his daughter's body in the passenger side of his Mercedes car and drove to the shop where the girl's mother, his estranged wife Karen Malt, worked. Karen Malt, fighting back tears as she read her victim impact statement at Norwich Crown Court, said: 'I remember the call saying 'I will bring your daughter over, she's dead'. 'I was screaming 'which one' to him down the phone but he wouldn't tell me.'

Allison Summers KC, mitigating, said: 'Had he not been drinking, it's highly unlikely he would have behaved in the way that he did.'

A minimum term of 28 years:

Jamie Crosbie, 48, used two knives and a saw to kill father-of-three Dean Allsop, stabbing him 17 times in their street in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich after hearing engine noise from Mr Allsop's son's motorbike. Two women who tried to help 41-year-old Mr Allsop - his partner Louise Newell and their friend and neighbour Kerryn Kray, formerly Kerryn Johnson - were also attacked by Crosbie. Police previously released dramatic bodycam footage of his arrest, which showed his reaction to being told that his victim was dead and he was facing a murder charge. He said: 'That makes me happy, that's a good thing, that's the best news I ever heard.'

Elizabeth Marsh KC, for Crosbie, said he had been convicted of "three very serious offences". Miss Marsh said it was a mitigating factor that Crosbie was "provoked" and "taunted" by Mr Allsop and insisted if this had not taken place the murder would not have happened.

I can see no good reason why either of these men should ever see freedom again, how about you, Reader? 

And frankly, I wouldn't be sorry if that sentence also applied to their lawyers too. 

Another Case Of 'Working As Intended'..?

Terror suspects like Shamima Begum could be treated like victims if they exploit modern slavery laws, the terrorism watchdog warned last night.

Would anyone be surprised at this? 

It sparked calls for an inquiry into claims the Met and the government knew the alleged people smuggler was responsible for helping Begum and her two fellow schoolgirls join ISIS while also working as a double agent.

Would anyone be surp ... oh, I'm just repeating myself now! 

He's not right on everything, mind you:

Mr Hall voiced particular concerns with the idea that a child recruited to a terrorist organisation was automatically a victim, 'if they did so entirely of their own free will'.

'It is at odds with the fact that children are not generally seen as victims when they commit other crimes, just because someone suggests they should do so,' he added.

Well, I guess he's spent so long on terrorism that he's failed to see the direction the wider justice system has been heading in. 

Why Should The Justice System Care About The Criminal's Mental Health..?

Shouldn't it be more concerned with that of the victim?

A thief who assaulted and stole thousands from a vulnerable neighbour has dodged jail because he is transitioning.

Judge Robert Linford told Truro Crown Court the 'extremely unusual' decision was made because the 26-year-old would currently have to be held at a women's prison.

Andrew's defence barrister argued this would affect his mental health and delay the process of his transition by months, if not years.

It's a woman. That's why she has to be held at a woman's prison.  

Prosecutor Katie Churcher said Andrew came up with a litany of reasons why he needed the money from his neighbour, who was said to be vulnerable. These included needing a locksmith, a train fare, a medical emergency and moving to Manchester.

Andrew was actually funding a drug addiction, buying cannabis and cocaine, and settling debts with dealers.

So many of these cases hinge on drugs, don't they? Is anyone looking into a connection? 

Finally! What Took So Long?

A judge has told a paedophile that the time has come to stop helping him and start punishing him.

Considerable efforts have been made to try to rehabilitate Barry Hardman, 32, but so far nothing has proved effective as he continued to access sick child abuse images online.

Because 'nothing' is all that they've tried! 

Hardman, most recently of Bodmin but formerly of Penzance and St Austell, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order and three charges of making indecent images of children.

Representing Hardman, Robin Smith said that he wants help to address his perversions but was realistic about his situation.

Adding to this, Steve Butterworth from the Probation Service said Hardman was “a man who chaos tends to follow”.

'Chaos' being a pretty good description on the Probation Service, of course... 

Judge Linford then went to speak about how the police visited Hardman’s home, leading to the offending coming to light. 

“What Mr Butterworth said is worrying. The time has come when efforts made to help you stop and efforts made to punish you start. The breach of the sexual harm prevention order was particularly serious because of your efforts to use the dark web and use software to disguise what you were up to.”

The efforts should have started from the first offence. Why didn't they? These people cannot be 'helped to stop offending'. Why are we wasting taxpayer money on them? 

Does This Headline Not Concern Anyone?

I mean, if they don't even know the age of the alleged victim...?

A jury returned unanimous verdicts on Roger Robinson, 69, of Beachy Road, Crawley, on April 6 and found him guilty of fourteen counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict on one count of rape.

*blinks* 

The jury heard that the abuse had taken place over a period of 17 years.

Her Honour Judge Shani Barnes told the jury it was hearing a “very complex” case for “several” reasons, not least the historic nature of the offences.

She had added that due to the lack of forensic evidence it was vital that the jury consider everything they had heard during the trial “in an analytical way”.

Does it sound to anyone else as if that occurred? 

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here...

...or, , if you work for Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, maybe you do:

A psychiatrist who downed three bottles of wine before a head-on crash has been allowed to keep her job after she was deemed 'no risk' to patients.

Unless those patients are driving home when she's clocking off, I presume? 

Dr Deborah Staite, 50, was uninsured and did not even have a driving licence at the time of the collision in 2020.

She had failed to renew it after serving a previous ban for drink-driving, a tribunal heard.

/facepalm 

GMC lawyer Laura Barbour told a hearing of the medical practitioners' tribunal service: 'The public are entitled to assume that the doctor treating them abides by the law.

'This is a case where the doctor's conduct was so serious that action must be taken to protect members of the public and maintain confidence in the profession.

'There is a risk of repetition.'

Well, yes. clearly. She's already a multiple offender! 

Philip McGhee, for Staite, told the tribunal: 'A reasonable and properly informed member of the public would not expect Dr Staite to be punished by an order of suspension… given what she has already gone through.'

Wanna bet? I'm one of those, McGhee, and I expect her to be suspended. 

The tribunal found Staite's fitness to practise was impaired but that suspension would be 'unnecessary, disproportionate and punitive'.

She will face a review hearing in three years.

What's wrong with a punitive measure? Do they think she shouldn't be punished? 

"You were teenagers in Gloucestershire, but you spoke in the patois of urban gangsters..."

It's becoming a sadly familiar tale...

After the guilty verdict, Josh's family called on lessons to be learnt to avoid similar tragedies.

But lessons about what went wrong are likely to be far harder to elaborate and spread than simply 'it's social media won dun it!'... 

They said: 'We feel all parents need to learn an urgent and desperate lesson to take closer notice and involvement in the lives of their young people, in particular on social media.

'Similarly far too many lives are being destroyed by knives, with social media an aggravating factor.'

Social media is, however, just the medium by which these animals communicate with each other; it's not the cause. That's something far deeper, and harder to reach.  

'Parents and communities cannot rely on the authorities to provide a moral education to their children.'

Sadly, for far too many, it's too late. They have relied on this, for far too long. And a generation of nihilistic killers has been born.  

More Red Flags Than A F1 Race With Verstappen And Hamilton Neck And Neck...

A man disappeared to have sex with his girlfriend – leaving her three-and-a-half year old son in the bath.

*sighs* Luckily, he didn't drown. 

He admitted neglect by leaving the boy alone in the bathroom but was found not guilty last month of causing him grievous bodily harm.

Eh..? 

The 29-year-old, who we are not naming in order to protect the toddler’s identity, said he’d returned to the bathroom to find the boy had seriously wounded his genitals.

Wait, what..?! 

Mitigating, Paul Prior told the court: “What happened to the boy that day must be set into its proper context. This is not a family which was characterised by domestic violence, for example.

“He was step-father rather than father and he had no experience with children, although he had been left alone with the boy on previous occasions they were rare.”

His client had no previous convictions and ‘impressive’ references. They included a letter from barrister Anthony Trace QC, who described the defendant as a ‘fine young man with a great future ahead of him’.

Never mind any of that, how the hell did the kid end up with a serious injury to his genitals if he was alone? 

Turns out, because he wasn't...

The mum claimed she had gone to her bedroom to check for messages from her own mother, with whom they were due to go on holiday the following day. She left her son in the bathroom with the defendant, she said. The boy, who had finished his bath and was being towelled dry, had said he needed to go to the toilet.

“I heard screaming and shouting coming from the bathroom. I dropped the phone and ran straight back into the bathroom,” she said.

Her boyfriend, who looked ‘shocked’, was rubbing the boy’s back trying to calm him down. 

An accident of the 'he fell on it, officer!' variety? 

Doctors said the boy's injury could not have been self-inflicted.

That jury needs to take a good hard look at itself. And so do social services.  

I Think We All Know How It's Going To End, Don't We?

Mrs Bell didn't fully co-operate with the police investigation but did tell that she had been attacked and suffered injuries.

Miss Atkinson said: "She confirmed that he threatened her with an axe and said he was going to hit her with it. She said that he had never shown this level of aggression before but she was scared about how it was going to end."

It's only going to end one way, isn't it? 

Bell, of Rivington Park, Appleby, Cumbria, pleaded guilt to grievous bodily harm following the incident in November last year.

Well, it's a long spell in chokey for you, and well des... 

The court heard how Mrs Bell wants to rekindle their relationship.

*blinks* 

Judge Timothy Stead (Ed: *deep sigh*) sentenced Bell to a two-year community order where he will perform 15 rehabilitation activity days and take part in an alcohol monitoring programme.

He said: "It is a great disappointment to see you hear (sic) at this age, it is the only time you have done anything wrong."

Actually, doubtful - it's simply the first time he's been caught. 

"It is a significant wrong – I don't want to be heard saying that domestic violence is in anyway a lesser form of violence than that which could be regarded as general violence against other people, it is the reverse, it is more serious."

Which is why you...haven't put him behind bars where he belonged?  

It's A Cliche, I Know...

...but it's really true that in this country, if you want to kill someone and get off lightly, do it in a car:

A mother-of-two who killed a cyclist in a hit-and-run crash while over ten times the prescribed limit for cocaine and later told police she thought she had hit a fox has been jailed...

Well, I should think so! 

...for five years.

Wait, what? 

Moughan, who has two daughters aged 18 and 12, sobbed on Monday as Judge Simon Hickey handed her a five-year jail term and a six-year driving ban, telling her no sentence 'could possibly do justice in the family's eyes'.

Probably true, but y'know, at least try... 

Ms Pearson said Moughan then drove on towards Selby with a smashed windscreen and on the rims of her wheels as her tyres had been seriously damaged in the crash. She said: 'By 11.55 pm, [Moughan] reached Selby [where] police were dealing with another incident.' Officers were alerted to the noise of Moughan's car as it drove past them because it was being driven 'on two of the rims [and] its tyres were completely flat'.

She added: 'The front windscreen was completely smashed.'

Good grief! 

Moughan was stopped and breathalysed, and when asked about the collision, she told officers she thought she had hit a fox.

They have foxes that big? What does the local hunt use, pitbulls? 

Moughan was arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving, and later released under investigation. But two months later, police found her slumped in another damaged car, heavily drunk.

/facepalm 

Neil Cutte, mitigating, said Moughan had never been in trouble before her first conviction in December, had been in full-time employment and was previously 'highly thought of'.

Not any longer... 

In sentencing Moughan, Judge Hickey said: 'It's a tragedy that was completely avoidable.'

Well, yes. And she clearly didn't learn her lesson, did she? I've never seen a case with more aggravating factors. So a five year sentence - which we all know she won't fully serve - doesn't quite seem fitting, does it? 

Weakening Justice Even Further...

A mother imprisoned for causing serious harm to her baby has told the court of appeal she lied at her trial because of the control her former boyfriend had over her.

Ah, the modern-day equivalent of 'pleading your belly'. 

The woman, known as Jenny, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the appeal court it was her partner at the time who caused their son’s skull fractures and bleeding on the brain in June 2017.

The landmark hearing has the potential to change the way coercive control is understood in cases where a victim feels that abuse has led them to lie in court.

And of course, if she wins, there'll be a rush to the lawyers from every female incarcerated for killing her child, or standing by while her partner did so... 

At the original trial the woman, Jenny, said she caught her cardigan on a cupboard door while preparing her son’s feed, causing him to fall to a concrete floor. She was given a 10-year extended sentence, later reduced to five.

On Thursday she told judges the baby’s father punched her in the head as she held their son, causing them both to fall.

So she lied. Why do they never do them for perjury when they change their story? 

She claimed she was unable to tell police the truth because her boyfriend was present.

“I did not want to anger him or agitate him as he [was holding] my baby.”

While police were in the room? Pull the other one, love! 

Representing the Crown, John Price QC said the appeal was seeking a “second bite at the cherry”.

Actually, a third. She's already had her sentence reduced, remember... 

He said: “The evidence the applicant gave introduces nothing new about the degree of force with which the child struck the floor – whether that was caused by a cardigan catching or by a punch.”

He focused on the veracity of her reasoning as to why she failed to tell the jury the truth. “We submit there is no credible explanation for that,” he said. Price pointed to witness reports that after the incident the child’s father shouted that she had thrown the baby and she replied: “I was feeding the child, you hit me and that is how the baby dropped.”

Price argued they later changed their accounts and formed “a cynical agreement to further their mutual interests”.

Yup, no doubt. Why not? It's likely to work, these days... 

(Lady Justice) Macur acknowledged that coercive control victims could find themselves isolated. But she added: “I keep coming back to that incident. We have still got to make a decision about whether her evidence is worthy of belief.”

She's a proven liar. If that doesn't help with the decision, what will? 

I Really Don't Understand Juries Sometimes...

...and I've been on one!

A female getaway driver for a gunman who killed an innocent law student in a 'senseless and shocking' drive-by shooting has been jailed for 15 years.

No pussy pass for her, and rightly so. The crime was awful. 

Aya was shot in the chest by hired hitman Zamir Raja, 33, in Blackburn, Lancashire. She was not the intended target of the shooting, which came after a long-running feud between rival tyre firm owners Feroz Suleman and Pachah Khan.

Ahhhh, feel the enrichment! 

Judy Chapman, of Great Harwood, the girlfriend of Uthman Satia, drove the gunman and driver from Bolton to the Toyota Avensis which was used to carry out the shooting and collected them afterwards.

She was found guilty of Aya's manslaughter but not guilty of the attempted murder of Khan following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

*blinks* How come? 

Not guilty of the attempt on the actual target, but huilty of the accidental killing of a bystander? In what world does that make sense?

Compare And Contrast, Pt 783245896512

A teenage car thief who killed a father-of-three when he rolled over his head after stealing his vehicle has been jailed for less than five years.

The boy, who was 14 at the time of the crime and is now 15 so cannot be named because of his age, sped off in restaurant-owner Mohammed Islam's silver Mercedes, as the owner shouted 'No! No! No!' and held on to the car.

He went 'flying' as the teenager — who has an IQ of 66 — 'floored' the vehicle, Manchester Crown Court heard.

A car thief and killer at 14. What was the victim doing at the same age, I wonder?  

Mr Islam, 53, who came to the UK alone from Bangladesh as a 14-year-old, had worked 'tirelessly' all his life, first to bring his family over to Britain and then to build up a successful restaurant business.

Ah.  

Simon Csoka QC, mitigating, said the teenager has significant learning difficulties and an attention deficit disorder, but was now making progress.

In what..? 

He added: 'He does have comprehension of the enormity of the loss he has caused.'

Does he? That's nice. 

With an IQ of 66 I was expecting this to be another case of the products of cousin marriage within the victim's own 'community', but looking at the co-defendant names, I'm not so sure... 

Co-defendant Connor Read, 18, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, was given 13 months detention suspended for two years and ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work.

A second teenager, aged 15, is yet to be sentenced for conspiracy to steal. Two others, both aged 18, are due in court on the same charge on Tuesday.

Hmmm... 

Good Riddance, And Thank God You've Failed...

Prisons reflect society back to itself: they embody the ways we have failed, the people we have failed, and the policies that have failed, all at immense human – and economic – cost.

We haven't failed the people in prison; they've mostly failed themselves. 

As chief executive of the prison reform charity the Howard League for the past 35 years, reforming prisons has become my life’s mission. In October, I will leave my work with one sad but inescapable conclusion: prisons are the last unreformed public service, stuck in the same cycle of misery and futility as when I arrived.

So you've wasted your life just as surely as those behind bars? How fitting, karma's working overtime here... 

Minister after minister has done nothing to address the central question haunting our prison system: what is it all for?

It's to punish the guilty and keep the innocent safe from their depredations. What else could it be for?  

At the heart of prisons is the fact that they are fundamentally unjust. They embed and compound social, economic and health inequalities.

Ah, yes. If someone commits crime, it's never because they are greedy or bad - it's because they were 'driven to it' by factors outside their control. 

What would your solution be, then Frances, were someone ever stupid enough to grant you any real power? 

The whole system needs radical overhaul, starting with a swingeing reduction in the number of people we imprison. Custody is the most drastic and severe response the state has at its disposal and should only be used in exceptional and rare instances – either for the most egregious crimes, or when someone poses a serious and continuing threat to public safety. Abiding by that principle would virtually empty our prisons of women and children, and drastically reduce the number of men behind bars.

And drastically increase the crime rate. Brilliant plan! 

Over the past 35 years, I hope that I have contributed to making things just a bit better. I am most proud of the work we have done with police forces to reduce the arrests of young people, saving hundreds of thousands of children from experiencing the trauma and lifelong damage of being arrested.

Young people like these, you mean? You sicken me more than they do, 

"Rules? Those Are For Other People..."

A father of three was sentenced to prison at a hearing described by campaigners as a return to secrecy in the family courts.

The 15-month suspended sentence was delivered anonymously despite firm rules to judges they should never give prison or suspended terms without naming the individual.

What do rules mean to the people who feel entitled to rule over us? 

The ruling came after the man repeatedly defied a judge's order to stop trying to make contact with his sons.

Ah! Just as with police the real crime here is not doing as you're told... 

Open justice campaigners criticised the decision and yesterday senior judges launched an inquiry into the suppression of the father's name.

The ruling by Judge Gillian Matthews QC appears to run directly against open justice rules established eight years ago that say no adult should be handed a prison sentence in the family courts without being publicly named.

A female judge? Weren't we always told we needed more of these to 'improve' the dispensation of justice? 

How's it going? 

Her sentence follows an earlier nine-month prison term imposed on the father in December 2019 after he snatched the three boys from their mother. The children were taken back from him by police who stopped his Mercedes on the M4.

At the 2019 sentencing, Judge Matthews did allow him to be publicly named.

Wait, what? So...he's already been identified? By the same judge? 

My flabber is well and truly ghasted...

Dishonesty Is At The Heart Of The Transgender Movement...

...and this is the result:

Violent offences committed by men who self-identify as female are being recorded as having been perpetrated by women – leading to claims that the practice is distorting official crime figures.

Well, of course it is. It's distorting everything, all for the sake of a section of the population so tiny, there are probably more giant pandas... 

At least 16 police forces record crimes according to offenders' own declaration of their gender. Feminist campaigners and politicians say that the male biology of transwomen differentiates them from women, so it is more important to record offenders' biological sex than their self-declared gender.

That this has to be spelled out shows what an utter mockery has been made of objective reality. 

Kate Coleman, of the Keep Prisons Single Sex campaign, said police forces that accepted offenders' self-declared gender misled the public and made it harder to tackle crime. She added: 'Males and male crime are hidden in the female data and statistics. This has serious implications for the accuracy of statistics and service planning and development.

'Data must be accurately recorded to enable male prisoners to be identified as male and male crime as male. Neither male prisoners nor male crime should be hidden by recording it as female.'

And that's not even the half of it: 

Ms Antoniazzi also raised concerns about misleading media reporting of offences committed by transgender offenders, highlighting BBC claims that child sex abuse by women had risen sharply, something that could be explained by male abusers identifying as female.

If you cannot accurately define a thing, you can't combat it. Is that the grand plan behind all this nonsense? 

If Only We Still Had Hanging...

...because I can't think who deserves it more:

A man who beat his elderly neighbour to death with a cricket bat while she picked herbs for her Sunday roast has been jailed for life.

He tried the 'not guilty 'cos I'm ill, see?' but the jury rejected it. 

Defence barrister Lionel Blackman told Judge Alexia Durran that Unmack had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008 and had been under the care of the Reigate Community Mental Health team.

And we can see how effective that was. As always. 

The family also revealed their anger over mental health services which had not managed to prevent Unmack from attacking the pensioner.

Ms Zachery explained: 'It should not have happened and the circumstances should be considered so that it does not happen again.

'Surrey Police and Surrey and Borders Partnership could have done much more to stop this and we hope that no other family will experience what we have again.'

Sadly, it's almost inevitble that they will, because all that happens is the authorities squawk about 'learning lessons' and then go right back to doing what they want to do, which is cooing over the dangerously mentally ill and prioritising their right to freedom over the rights of others... 

The court heard that Unmack had attacked women before, including an elderly woman with who he had previously struck up a relationship.

Even the judge couldn't help himself: 

Sentencing Unmack, Judge Durran told him: 'The jury rejected the defence that you were experiencing a psychotic episode but I accept that a mental disorder has affected your life for over 20 years.'

Wrong, judge. It's affected innocent people. That's what you should concentrate on. 

It's A Feature, Simon, Not A Bug...

Be it the Manchester bombing, children’s homes or Daniel Morgan, millions are squandered on probes that merely enrich lawyers

Thus thunders Simon Jenkins in the 'Guardian', clearly missing the point that often that's their actual purpose.

These inquiries must be the worst value for money in British government. Most were just kicks into touch by some embarrassed minister, producing a day’s headline some years later before gathering dust. The infected blood inquiry, into an NHS mistake half a century ago, is now costing £32m a year. Like this week’s Manchester Arena bombing report, costing millions, it is telling us little or nothing that a bunch of assiduous investigators could not have discovered in a few weeks.

Probably, but then what are we supposed to do, not find out that BTP officers drove five miles for a kebab over a two-hour lunch break, leaving no one on duty in the City Room Foyer on the night in question?  

There is soon to be the mother of all inquiries, into the coronavirus pandemic. It will inevitably seek to apportion blame. I sense that the present extreme caution of Whitehall’s politicians and scientists on lockdown is not driven by the public interest. It is driven by a sense of how their reputations will stand up under cross-examination.

That's always what drives them. And anyone who thinks it's anything else is fooling themselves... 

Liverpool's Gain Is Scotland's Loss...

A racist nan headbutted her neighbour for "constantly" ringing a communal doorbell after he lost his key.

Nakita Sullivan, 35​...

*blinks*

...screamed down an intercom at Aaroon Azim, warning: "Stop ringing my f***ing doorbell."

The gran-of-one marched downstairs where she let the "vulnerable" resident in and confronted him with a hammer. Liverpool Crown Court heard she headbutted him the face, before hurling a racial slur at him as she returned to her flat.

Lovely! 

Sullivan was previously jailed over a vicious gang attack, when she and her boyfriend battered a student for no reason.

But she walked free from court after saying she wanted to start a new life in Scotland with her grandson.

Ah, well. She'll fit right in, I'm sure...