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Saturday 10 May 2008

Crime and punishment

From The Telegraph comes this story of another violent unprovoked attack in Britain and the pathetic sentence handed down to the perpetrator:

""A judge has told a teenager who carried out an unprovoked attack on a married couple that he was "the personification of yob Britain."

Joel Herd, 18, assaulted the couple while they were walking home from a village restaurant.

He punched businessman Andrew Miller, 41, unconscious and repeatedly hit his wife, Jane, 42, in the face.

Judge Roderick Denyer said: "Here was a respectable couple walking home after a pleasant evening in a restaurant and this man attacks them. He didn't know even them."

"It was outrageous behaviour after an offensive remark was made to Mrs Miller."

Turning to Herd, he said: "You were drunk, you had smoked cannabis and you were out of control.

"You are, I am afraid, the personification of yob Britain."

Prosecutor James Wilson said: "The couple were making their way home when they passed a group of youths in the centre of the village where they live.

"Herd shouted to Mrs Miller: "Get your **** out".

"As the couple crossed the road Herd punched Mr Miller in the mouth and to the right temple. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

"Mrs Miller saw Herd stamping on her husband's head - he then punched her two or three times and she too fell to the ground."

Newport Crown Court in Wales heard Mr Miller came around and tried to protect his hysterical wife.

But Herd told him: "I know where you live, I'm going to kill you and your wife".

Mr Miller suffered split lips, bruising, and cuts to the back of his head. The court heard he now suffers from headaches.

Mrs Miller - whose handbag was stolen in the attack - had bruising to the cheek and ear.

The court heard the couple felt "violated and shattered" by what happened to them in their home village of Caerleon, near Newport.

Herd's previous convictions included burglary, causing criminal damage, being drunk and disorderly and harassment. "



So what "punishment" was handed down to this thug who attacked two innocent people, punching both and stamping on one's head? The judge had called him the "personification of of yob Britain" and he had previous convictions for burglary, causing criminal damage, being drunk and disorderly and harassment. He also threatened to kill both of the couple "I know where you live, I'm going to kill you and your wife". So what would be a fair sentence? Well the judge decided that an adequate sentence was three years in a young offenders' institution. So in 18 months Joel Herd will be out and able to threaten and attack more innocent people in the Newport area, I wonder if Andrew Miller's headaches will have disappeared by then? As I have said before: if the punishments are feeble, the chances of prosecution slight and the chances of detection even slimmer; then why should the thugs be scared of committing vicious crimes?

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