Another week to stretch my patience.
I complain about judges who give minor sentences…you know, those wise souls who let out sex offenders and dangerous criminals without any liability for their mistakes.
Now I find it is not just wise men and judges in Australia…it’s spreading across the world to other countries. In Canada, a poor soul who is suffering from natal depression, drowned her two children in the bath. A two year old and a ten month old baby drowned and left for the husband to find when he came to the house.
I don’t fault the judge on the sentence of six years reduced to fifteen months, or those who let Allyson McConnell out after ten months. She spent her time, not in lock up, but in a hospital. A place to help her try to understand it was her illness that was guilty…not the poor woman herself. Anyone with young children knows how desperate you can become when coping on your own.
Divorced and alone with a deep depression, she was judged by a court that had kindness and understanding. She has to live without a family of her own and with the memories of what happened when she was only in her early twenties.
What is my opinion on this case? Well, it is not the crime or the punishment, but the decision to return the offender to Australia. Is there one rule for some and not others? Reduced sentence and returned home before any appeals are made. Are there any other Australians waiting for a reduced sentence and a return home?
Compare that with a judgement passed on another young person from a different country. A man attacked his friend, and the friend suffered damage to his spine resulting in paralysis. The court decided his punishment should be an injection that will render him paralysed for the remainder of his life. Obviously this sentence is being appealed.
The mother who killed her children was convicted of manslaughter, NOT murder or killing with premeditation.
From this you must agree, if you are going to commit a crime, pick a country with a system of justice measured with kindness.
by TOG
