Star comment: It’s time for judges to be stronger
Just what does it take for someone to be sent to prison in this day and age?
Any right thinking member of society would agree that jailing a comwoman who posed as a charity worker to trick people into handing over their money in a shocking and callous fraud is a wholly appropriate and justifiable sentence.
But apparently not.
As it turns out, such crimes are deemed well below the threshold of an actual custodial punishment.
When Claire Kierczek exploited people's generosity she was already serving another suspended sentence for a similar offence.
And the reason she was not immediately jailed for reoffending – like she should have been – was because she has a drug addiction.
What planet is Recorder Christopher Donnellan QC, who oversaw this case, living on if he thinks the British public is best served by having lowlife like Kierczek on our streets?
Suspended sentences are meant to act as a warning to criminals to change their nefarious ways.
They are ought to serve as a last and final chance.
Deciding not to jail those who break the terms of such a sentence makes a complete mockery of the law and flies in the face of justice.
Has any thought been given to her victims? Or how about the charities who lost out because of her crimes?
You can't look at this case without asking yourself – 'how is this woman not behind bars?'
Unfortunately, readers of the Express & Star will not be surprised.
Time and again we have written about the absurd leniency of our judiciary.
Have judges forgotten that prison is not just a means of punishment but also a way to keep the public safe?
It certainly seems so.
We wonder how Recorder Donnellan would act if Kierczek was living in their neighbourhood?
Non-sentences such as these are the reason so many criminals keep on reoffending.
They are happy to take the risk knowing that odds of not going to prison are tilted in their favour.
Meanwhile the public are expected to accept all of this in the name of justice.
Well, it doesn't look or feel like justice to us.
It is time that judges stopped being so soft and stood up for the ordinary man and woman on the street.
Why are the rights or feelings of repeat criminals being put before those of honest law-abiding citizens?
