TWO TOTALLY OUT-OF-TOUCH JUDGES

The two stories below are from Australia -- obviously a good place to hurt other people and get off with the minimum punishment

No jail for a violent assault by druggies

An invalid pensioner dropping his teenage son at the movies was mistaken for a drug dealer, chased home and bashed with a baseball bat by two brothers who also destroyed his car. But Shammi and Shamal Chand escaped with fully suspended sentences when they faced Southport District Court yesterday, angering victim Brett Paterson who said they should have gone to jail. ``It was a violent attack and they should have done time for what they did to me,'' said Mr Paterson, who still bears the physical and emotional scars of the attack. ``I don't think justice has been done.''

Mr Paterson was dropping his 15-year-old son at the Harbour Town shopping centre about 10.30pm on October 1, 2004, when his ordeal began. he court was told Shammi Chand, tired from working long hours in a Redbank Plains furniture business he was establishing, had contacted an associate to get some amphetamines. The Chand brothers drove to the Gold Coast to buy the drugs but the associate disappeared with Shammi's money at Harbour Town.

Mistaking Mr Paterson for the drug dealer, the Chands then followed him home to nearby Labrador, ramming his car with their four-wheel drive utility along the way. Mr Paterson grabbed a baseball bat to defend himself but that was broken and turned on him. As Shamal Chand held Mr Paterson down in his driveway, Shammi Chand bashed him ``four or five times'' with the broken bat, the court was told. Shammi Chand had then twice reversed the 4WD into Mr Paterson's car, causing it to be written off.

The Chand brothers pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company. Shammi Chand also pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. Handing down the sentence, Judge Ian Dearden said the Chand brothers had inflicted ``misery'' on Mr Paterson who suffered ongoing physical problems, had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and was unable to work.

But Judge Dearden said he also took into account the Chands' own misery following the death of their father at 56, the difficulties Shammi Chand faced supporting his extended family and Shamal Chand's battle with drugs and mental illness. The judge sentenced Shammi Chand to 18 months' jail on the assault charge, wholly suspended, and Shamal Chand was sentenced to nine months' jail, wholly suspended.

The story above is not previously online but appeared in the Brisbane "Courier Mail" on Saturday 18 March 2006, Page 33. Reporter Greg Stolz




Breaking into a helpless old guy's home and bashing him to death is not a "particularly heinous offence"???

Two teenagers who killed an 86-year-old war veteran for just $8 have been sentenced to 10 years' detention. The two boys, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to murdering Stanley James Smith in his Toowoomba home in November 2004. An autopsy revealed Smith had been hit at least five times on the head and at least three times on the back of the neck. At the time of the murder, the teens were aged 14 and 16.

The 14-year-old said Smith had been sitting in the lounge room watching television when they broke in and the other boy was going to hit Smith but "he wouldn't do it". "I hit him. I thought I knocked him out. I didn't want to kill him," the younger boy told police. The boys then took $8 from the kitchen. The pair also pleaded guilty to breaking into the home of a pensioner four weeks earlier, hitting her with a vacuum cleaner pipe and stealing her handbag containing $35.

Prosecutor Richard Pointing asked for the maximum penalty of 10 years' detention to be imposed on both boys, but he did not request that they be named under new legislation that can allow juveniles to be named for serious crimes.

In sentencing, Justice John Muir said he found that the killing was not premeditated and therefore could not be ruled a "particularly heinous offence" according to the Juvenile Justice Act, thus limiting the maximum sentence to 10 years' detention.

Outside the court, Smith's daughter Denise Miles said juvenile perpetrators of serious crimes could be named under Queensland law and it was unfortunate Justice Muir had not seen fit to allow the names of the youths to be published.

Report here



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