SENTENCING

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The man has been cleared of trying to rape a young woman in her bedsit. Ebrahim Bismillah, of Great Horton, Bradford, said he tripped in his slippers and accidentally fell on the 22-year-old while asking for a cigarette. He was acquitted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of attempted rape and an alternative charge of sexual assault. Bismillah told the jury he walked into the woman's room when she was sleeping because he wanted a cigarette. He nudged her awake and she started screaming loudly. He covered her mouth because he was worried the neighbours would complain about the noise. He said he made no sexual attack on the woman but slipped on the carpet in wet slippers and ended up on top of her. (Source: Asian Image, Nov/07)

Even before the convention of human rights became part of our law, rules existed to ensure a fair trial. In recent years, a number of these rules have been altered to assist the police. A defendant who relies upon an alibi now has to give particulars well before the trial so the police can check it out and interview witnesses. The words of the caution which the police are required to administer to a defendant at the time of arrest have also been changed to assist the police. The defence now are required to provide a statement of defence well before the trial begins. All defence experts' reports now have to be provided to the prosecution well before trial. Disclosure to the defence of unused material is now reduced under the new rules. However, despite all these alterations to assist the police, the sad fact remains that both conviction and detection rates remain low.

We have the highest prison population ever, and far higher than other European countries. The proportion jailed after conviction at crown court is now 63%, a rise of more than 14% over the past eight years. The lesson yet to be learnt is that, too often, sending someone to prison proves to be counter-productive and often forces a former prisoner into a career of crime. The real problem is the lack of alternatives to prison, particularly for young offenders.

As in any system there will be bad decisions by magistrates and judges. There is no greater deterrent against the commission of crime than the prospect of being caught and this is what is lacking. The chances of being caught, are low and are worth taking, and what is urgently needed is an imaginative police strategy to improve detection rates. We need a new approach. We need plans for a police saturation and targeting policy in areas of high crime similar to those which proved so successful in New York. We need more officers, particularly on the beat.

A criminal turned up at court with his bag packed ready for jail — then was freed by a soft judge. Burglar Ashley Hardy, 37, already had sentences totalling 34 years to his name and expected another long stretch. He admitting breaking into a mum-of-two’s bungalow and stealing £5 from her nine-year-old son’s money box. But Judge Jack Bayliss let him off with a three-year rehabilitation order and told him to mend his ways. Hardy beamed as he strolled from Guildford Crown Court in Surrey. Hardy, of Farnborough, Hants, had 18 convictions for 60 offences including fraud and having a gun. But Judge Bayliss told him, “I’ve decided to try to prevent you from committing crimes when you are at liberty.”

A vicious rapist who has a history of violence, including convictions for raping a 13-year-old girl as well as assaulting two women, is on the run after being released from prison on licence. A spokeswoman for the Home Office said, "The decision to release a prisoner on licence is made by the judge when he passes sentence or a parole board. But everyone is fully risk-assessed before they are released." But, despite being a dangerous sexual offender and disregarding the terms of his release on more than one occasion, he was still deemed fit for release.

Shopkeepers terrorised by 13-year-old triplets were disgusted after the tearaways walked free from court after being handed two-year supervision orders. The trio have plagued the town centre in Gillingham, Kent, for three years, mugging old ladies and stealing from shops. They faced sentencing for breaking earlier Anti-Social Behaviour Orders imposed by a youth court. But JPs who had threatened to send them away during the previous appearance just passed the new orders, under which the triplets must see social workers. The magistrates, sitting in Chatham, insisted their hands were tied over sentencing.

Though adults can be jailed for breaking ASBOs, kids of 13 can only be locked up if they have been convicted of at least three crimes and none of the triplets has. JP Ann Echlin said they needed “support”. And their mum was ordered to pay just £15 towards the case’s £75 costs. It was also revealed the family were evicted from their housing association home three years ago one of the three has been expelled from schools four times. He mocked a social worker during the hearing then yelled, “Mum, we can’t do nothing in here.”

A judge let a paedophile off lightly — because prisons are overcrowded. Matthew Skuse, 37, was jailed for just two-and-a-half years for an horrific sex attack on a girl of four. A paediatrician told a court her injuries were the worst he had seen in 35 years. The maximum sentence is 10 years. But judge Paul Clark said the country’s senior judge, Lord Woolf, had warned that prisons were overcrowded and courts should bear this in mind. He told Oxford Crown Court: “In view of the Lord Chief Justice’s comments, I think this is a case where I should keep the sentence shorter than I otherwise might have.”

A man who committed more than 100 crimes before being jailed for life for kidnap won compensation because he was not educated properly. The High Court heard Bolton Council had agreed to pay damages to Marvin Pomfret after it was alleged the authority failed to act on expert advice when he was a teenager. Pomfret, 23, had been serving a life sentence, for kidnap and other offences, at Full Sutton high security jail near York since 1995. It is thought he won a five-figure sum. However, Bolton Council said it acted appropriately in assessing Pomfret's needs and decided not to fight the case because of the cost implications for council taxpayers.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips argued in a speech that mandatory life sentences for murderers meant prisons risked becoming "full of geriatric lifers". A Home Office spokesman said, "The Lord Chief Justice is entitled to his view and has expressed it. The Home Secretary believes that murderers and other dangerous offenders should be kept in prison as long as is necessary to protect the public."

Lord Phillips questioned the need for a mandatory life sentence for murder and suggested murder law reforms would not succeed unless changes were made in the sentencing regime. “I’m not in favour of mandatory sentences, full stop,” he said. He added that it was regrettable that Government guidelines on the length of time murderers should spend in prison had the effect of "ratcheting up" sentences. (Source: The Sun, Mar/07)

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