Sunday 25 September 2011

Crumbs From The Table…

…that’s what the victims of our pathetic justice system content themselves with:
Carrie Maclaren was killed walking home from celebrations on New Year's Day 2010, when a car driven by Shamail Ali Syed mounted a kerb, hitting Carrie and four of her friends.

Mohammed Afzal, who had been driving alongside Syed in another car, then stopped driving and collected Syed before fleeing the scene.
And what did he get? Would you believe, just seven years.

And that the family is satisfied with that?
Syed, 25, of Goodmayes Lane, Ilford, north-east London, was convicted at Wood Green Crown Court of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, two of causing grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving, and one of causing bodily harm by wanton and furious driving .
"I think the family believe he got what he deserved," said Mr Hammersley. "If they had pushed for the limit, which was nine years, there may have been an appeal, which nobody wanted. "
Yes, you now have to be satisfied with a lesser sentence because you’ve learned that if a harsh one is imposed, it’ll get thrown out.

I ask you, is this ‘justice’?

8 comments:

ivan said...

You kill someone - 25 years non negotiable, with those of the religion that can't be named getting 30 years. The only negotiable part is how much is added to that. Also there is no parole for those no negotiable years. The one exception to that - anyone unlawfully on your property.

Something like that might start people thinking

SBC said...

The real injustice is the fact that his mate only two years for Perversion.

He should have gotten the same sentence as the driver did.

That would be justice. You perjure yourself then you get whatever the tariff in question for the case was...with policeymen who commit perjury or suppress evidence getting an automatic life sentence.

As to the driver's sentence, that seems just...as we , as a nation, steadfastly refuse to regard cars and dogs as lethal weapons.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of being condemned as a racist (though in mitigation I have to say a religion is not a race) I would say that Mohammed Afzal is one turd of a human being and ought to be shoe-horned off to some other country where his religion's strange idea of life is more to his liking.

And his mate too.

They can drive like maniacs there as much as they want.

Captain Haddock said...

The concept of British "Justice" belongs firmly in the Land of Myths & Legends .. along with that of Politicians being "Honourable" or the Arthurian tales of Camelot ..

Woman on a Raft said...

Carrie Maclaren, 20, was killed instantly in the incident.Her friend Chelsea Cannon, who was also hit, and died three months later. Three other people were injured in the incident. One of them, Jack Martindale, 21, of East Barnet was in a coma for three months and continues to receive treatment.

Shamail Ali Syed 25, of Goodmayes Lane, Ilford, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years on two counts of death by dangerous driving, grievous bodily harm and assault by wanton furious driving.


The leniency of the sentence possibly reflects the guilty plea. The trouble with our currently derisory penalties for murder is that they lower the ceiling on other crimes. I'm assumimg most people would agree that there is still a degree of moral difference between driving deliberately in to teenagers and driving like a complete f-wit. Although it's a slim margin.

The difficulty is that if the sentences were allowed to rise for this, it would rapidly over-take the penalty for murder.

If we fix this by making life mean life for murder, then we stand a chance of getting a sense of proportion back in to other crimes.

SBC said...

"still a degree of moral difference between driving deliberately in to teenagers and driving like a complete f-wit. "

Not really. Sure we all make mistakes when driving but If you drive like a tosser (ie 'racing'on the public highway in this case) then you deliberately take the risk that, at the very least, that someone might get hurt or killed. Same logic that the courts apply to carrying a knife.

JuliaM said...

"Something like that might start people thinking..."

Maybe, but then, no-one ever expects to be caught, do they?

"The real injustice is the fact that his mate only two years for Perversion.

He should have gotten the same sentence as the driver did."


Spot on!

"If we fix this by making life mean life for murder, then we stand a chance of getting a sense of proportion back in to other crimes."

Indeed. But I'm beginning to think I'll never see that again in my lifetime.

"Same logic that the courts apply to carrying a knife."

Unfortunately, those 'harsh penalties for carrying a knife' turned out to be just soundbites after all.

Dead Dog Bounce said...

I wrote about this in this post.

The solution is air-conditioning :)