Misplaced Empathy

A notorious child sex murderer has had his minimum jail sentence cut by two years after using his time behind bars to become one of the world’s few translators of music into Braille.

Whew! Thank god he didn’t take up ministering to injured frogs, or he’d probably be out by now!

Yesterday the Court of Appeal agreed to reduce his 30-year tariff for the sadistic murders of two teenage schoolgirls because of his “exceptional progress” in jail.

You know, it’s not like he’s got anything else to do, is it? What if he’d become World Sodoku Champ instead? Would they have added time on?

The mother of one of the murdered children said she believed Pitchfork had been manipulating the system by doing charity work just to get his sentence cut for good behaviour.

Well, yeah. But she’s not a judge, so what does she know…?

The three judges said they had read statements which “made us acutely aware of the continuing lifelong grief of the families of the two victims of murder. Their suffering is heartrending.”

But they said: “He has sought to address the reasons behind the commission of these offences. He has achieved a high standard of education, to degree level. In 20 years in custody he has never been placed on report.

Well, that should be the default setting, shouldn’t it?

Good behaviour = no further punishment.

Bad behaviour = extra time inside.

Kath Eastwood, whose daughter Lynda Mann was raped and murdered by Pitchfork, said she was angry he could be freed early. “He has got to do something with his time and he has decided to do this,” she told The Times. ”He is playing people. He obviously thinks he has won two years.”

Well, he has.

Isn’t our justice system wonderful…?