Sentence must fit crime
The parents of the two young girls killed in the horrific car cash near Market Bosworth are rightly appalled at the lenient sentence of 36 weeks in jail given to the driver who caused this tragedy (Leicester Mercury, Page 2, Saturday, September 22).
We cannot, however, blame the judge who is restricted by sentencing guidelines.
Had the Crown Prosecution Service charged the driver with causing death by dangerous driving, instead of careless driving, I believe a longer sentence would have been possible.
The CPS works in weird and wondrous ways; a few months ago it authorised the prosecution of a young man for "assaulting" a girl because he had thrown a snowball at her – the judge sensibly threw that case out of court.
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Sentencing guidelines should be abolished and a policy of lex talionis – the punishment fits the crime – should be implemented.
Don Tallis, Wigston.
Comments
by heisspartacus
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 11:17PM
“Graham you are right here.
This is a trajedy so do not think my comment ignores two have died.
This man walked away, a cowardly act and punishable. His error was to turn against the flow of traffic, a stupid act in the dark.
His car did not kill these girls and how tragic the other persons did.
Some comments about this sentence see to ignore this salient point.
That all said I think he should have gone down longer for the acts he was culpable for”
by Graham_LE8
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 1:16PM
“Don Tallis' simplistic deduction that the combination of CPS 'undercharging' the offender and restrictive sentencing guidelines constitute an unjust outcome is unjust in itself - that the more serious offence had been committed would still require to be proven in court, and additionally establishing a case of death by dangerous driving might be somewhat difficult given that the young man concerned was not driving the vehicle that struck the girls (they having survived the original collision he caused), but unwittingly returned to their stricken vehicle thereby putting themselves in harms way a second time.
There's probably also an arguable case that the driver of the second vehicle was guilty of driving without due care (or death by careless driving too) - court reports note that it was dark and there were no street lights, consequently proceeding at a speed where your stopping distance exceeds the illumination of your own vehicles lighting is foolhardy at best.
An unfortunate unnecessary series of events happened, I too feel sympathy for the families who lost their daughters, and can see why they would feel let down by the apparent leniency of the sentence passed at the recent court proceedings, but understand why this is the case...”