Sunday 9 May 2010

You Know What'll Stop This Happening?

Better regulation!
A driver who used his car as a weapon to murder a cyclist after he accidentally clipped his wing mirror has been jailed for life.

Sean Fitzgerald chased his victim for 300 yards before mounting the pavement and ramming him off his mountain bike.

He fled the scene leaving warehouse worker Paul Webb for dead. While on remand before his trial Fitzgerald rang his wife to say he was only 'sorry about his car'.
Well, surely this is a total failure of government regulation? How can someone whom the State licenses to operate a motor vehicle act in this wa...

Oh:
Yesterday at Warwick Crown Court Judge Richard Griffiths-Jones ordered Fitzgerald - who had no insurance or driving licence - to serve a minimum of 13 years in prison.
I wonder if he was also banned from driving for 'life'. And if that 'life' would also be 13 years..?

5 comments:

My Thoughts My Country said...

This sort of thing really makes me angry.

A life sentence should mean at least 25 years in prison before he is up for parole.

13 years isn't a life sentence, so why do they say it?

Rant over.

English Viking said...

@ My Thoughts My Country,

I disagree. A 25 year sentence should mean 25 years, a life sentence should mean life.

JohnRS said...

As usual, the voters have been cheated by the slime that inhabits the courts and Parliament.

When they stole capital punishment from us (without us being allowed to vote on it) they promised us life sentences as a subsitute. Life, we were told, meant life and would mean that murderers would be kept out of circulation exactly as they are when they are executed, but at least we would never hang anyone who was innocent.

But, of course, as usual, they lied.

Now we have life sentences that are little more than a decade. We have early release after only part of the sentence has been served. We have parole numpties, trick cyclists, soft judges and other time wasters making it easier and easier to let killers walk the streets.

I never voted for any of this. I object to it and want the chance to turn it around. Where is the party that will give me any of this?

Leg-iron said...

You know what would really stop this happening?

The judge says 'You have the choice. Prison for the rest of your natural life, or five years. Which would you like?'

The sap will choose the five years.

Five years later, a guard walks into his cell with a loaded gun and says 'Time's up'.

Life should mean life, but they can opt for a shorter life if they like.

I'm going to have trouble getting votes on that one, aren't I?

JuliaM said...

"This sort of thing really makes me angry."

Me too.

"A 25 year sentence should mean 25 years, a life sentence should mean life."

As John R points out, it's what we were promised as a sop when they abolished capital punishment.

"I'm going to have trouble getting votes on that one, aren't I?"

Not as much as you might think, I suspect!