Judiciary strikes again

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From here; http://www.herald.ie/news/courts/man-who-assaulted-french-students-in-violent-robbery-escapes-jail-sentence-after-turning-his-life-around-30802121.html

A man who assaulted and tied up two French students in their bedrooms during a violent night burglary has been given a suspended sentence, after a judge praised him for “turning his life around”.

During the break-in at the house in April 2011, the two terrified victims woke up to find two men armed with knives in their home.

Stuart Whelan (28) of Keeper Road, Drimnagh, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning a man and woman at Herberton Road, Rialto on April 4, 2011.

Whelan also pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Brian Fearon and possession of a knife at Cork Street on November 25, 2009. During this attack, Whelan stabbed the victim in the leg, severing his artery and causing life-threatening injuries.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring sentenced Whelan to five years in prison but suspended it in full for three years.

She said Whelan had been a threat to the community from 2009 to 2011 and had committed very serious offences, but had since reformed himself “against the odds”.

“I don't believe in miracles but I do believe in hard work, and you've worked hard,” she said.

The court heard Whelan is a “completely different person” since he took part in the Betel Drug Rehabilitation programme. He volunteers in various charities, works part-time and has trained in Addiction Studies.

Gardaí said Whelan has caused no trouble since 2011.

The court heard that the two French students were terrified when Whelan and a co-accused broke into their house in April 2011. Laura Boucila, a foreign student at Griffith College, woke up to find a man in her bedroom.

This man put his hand over her mouth and demanded money and her laptop before holding a 30cm long knife to her neck. Another man, also armed with a knife, came into the bedroom and asked for money.

The raiders then went into the bedroom of the woman’s housemate, Paul Barraud, and demanded his car keys.

When Mr Barraud said he didn’t own a car the men kicked him in the face and stabbed his arm before stealing a laptop, a camera and two mobile phones. The burglars then used computer cables to tie up the two students.

The woman told gardaí later that she had feared for her life.

Whelan, a father-of-one, has 90 previous convictions including drug dealing and criminal damage.

Unbelievable that someone with 90 convictions is in court for armed robbery and not only ends up avoiding jail time, but gets praised by the judge :rolleyes:

GarIT

Irish judges really are some of the greatest dangers to the safety of our society.

We also need to abolish the concept of suspended sentences for anything other than 1st convictions.

BoJack Horseman

There is no review mechanism for judges.

There should be, but there isn't.

RobertKK

I wonder how the judge would feel if two men with knives entered her bedroom, tied her up, stabbed her in the leg and cut an artery.
I hope it never happens to her.
But one should put themselves in the mindset of the victim.

He caused no trouble since 2011, but the crime deseves a prison sentence. A traumatising crime was committed and it could have caused a woman to die.
A suspended sentence was not the right sentence.

ardle1

So he volunteers for different charities, he also works part time....
So he took the advice of his solicitor and avoided jail time. And judges still can't see past this 'romantic' miracle change in personality!? lol I say lol.....

BlaasForRafa

ardle1 wrote: »

So he volunteers for different charities, he also works part time....
So he took the advice of his solicitor and avoided jail time. And judges still can't see past this 'romantic' miracle change in personality!? lol I say lol.....

She must be a real soft touch. Do a bit of charity work, get out of going to prison, handy out, he'll probably go back to robbing and assaulting people now that he's got the free pass.

ScumLord

That's ridiculous, if he's so reformed he should be willing to take his punishment too.

Wossack

changed it around at the 91 mark? its a Christmas miracle!

hfallada

We have prisoners who have been in and out of prisons their whole lives. No matter how long their sentences are,they still end up in the prison system for their entire life.

Yet there is finally an individual with a **** load of previous convictions and has never not committed a crime in 4 years and yet most people think stick in the prison for punishment. The main purpose of prison is rehabilitation and to get people to stop committing crimes. This individual is no longer committing crimes. If he goes to prison, the only thing is going to get of it is his addiction back. Our prisons cost nearly €80k per prisoner per year and our infested with drugs. Prison isnt the only answer, rehab usually is. But this country has hardly any rehab beds.

If we lived in a perfect world with no addiction/drugs. There would be nearly be no crime in this country. The root of most social issues in Dublin is drugs. Look at most people in the courts in the last few months for a serious crime and you struggle you find one that doesnt have a drug addiction. Most people are homeless in Dublin due to Drugs. Most crime in the city is drug related. If we had a functional rehab system, we would have a fraction of the homelessness and crime in Dublin

I would be all for sending him to prison, if he had a few convictions since 2011. But he hasnt. I imagine his crimes were to fuel his drug addiction which he no longer has. If he goes to prison, he will leave with a drug addiction and most likely end up in the prison system again for trying to fuel his drug addiction in the future. People can change.

strobe

What would be the benefit to anyone to send this man to prison? Punishment for punishments sake. Childish in the extreme.

ScumLord

hfallada wrote: »

Yet there is finally an individual with a **** load of previous convictions and has never not committed a crime in 4 years and yet most people think stick in the prison for punishment. The main purpose of prison is rehabilitation and to get people to stop committing crimes. This individual is no longer committing crimes. If he goes to prison, the only thing is going to get of it is his addiction back. Our prisons cost nearly €80k per prisoner per year and our infested with drugs. Prison isnt the only answer, rehab usually is. But this country has hardly any rehab beds.

The problem is this guy committed a horrible crime, a crime where he threatened people face to face and came close to killing one person. Instead of being punished for it he's had his quality of life improved. He effectively got away with what he did. The court seems to place more emphasis on him being ok than giving justice to the people he attacked and robbed.

Good for him he turned his life around (although we don't know that he won't go back to his regular ways now that he got off scot free with his violent crime) but that doesn't mean he should get away with what he did, any person with a bit of self respect and respect for other people should be willing to pay for their crimes.

If we lived in a perfect world with no addiction/drugs. There would be nearly be no crime in this country.

I'm afraid that's just nonsense, crime existed before drug laws came in, all the anti drug laws did was turn drugs into the currency of crime. That will never change under prohibition and the only way to stop drug crime is to take their cash crop off them.

Addiction is a problem we can deal with, organised crime is something we can't win against as long as the criminals are better funded than many states.

GarIT

hfallada wrote: »

We have prisoners who have been in and out of prisons their whole lives. No matter how long their sentences are,they still end up in the prison system for their entire life.

Yet there is finally an individual with a **** load of previous convictions and has never not committed a crime in 4 years and yet most people think stick in the prison for punishment. The main purpose of prison is rehabilitation and to get people to stop committing crimes. This individual is no longer committing crimes. If he goes to prison, the only thing is going to get of it is his addiction back. Our prisons cost nearly €80k per prisoner per year and our infested with drugs. Prison isnt the only answer, rehab usually is. But this country has hardly any rehab beds.

If we lived in a perfect world with no addiction/drugs. There would be nearly be no crime in this country. The root of most social issues in Dublin is drugs. Look at most people in the courts in the last few months for a serious crime and you struggle you find one that doesnt have a drug addiction. Most people are homeless in Dublin due to Drugs. Most crime in the city is drug related. If we had a functional rehab system, we would have a fraction of the homelessness and crime in Dublin

I would be all for sending him to prison, if he had a few convictions since 2011. But he hasnt. I imagine his crimes were to fuel his drug addiction which he no longer has. If he goes to prison, he will leave with a drug addiction and most likely end up in the prison system again for trying to fuel his drug addiction in the future. People can change.

The purpose of prisons should not be rehabilitation, it should be to keep society safe by removing criminals from society. If this guy got an appropriate sentence for each of his convictions he wouldn't have been able to commit 91 crimes. If he went away for 5 years every time he committed a crime those 91 convictions would be a maximum of 10. It has been proven time and time again, rehabilitation does not and can not work.

The reason for the high cost of prisons is the cost of rehabilitation. All a prison needs is a good set of walls and two meals a day. Prisoners shouldn't be allowed out for gym or to watch tv. Prisoners are criminals, it doesn't matter how much they suffer once they cant hurt society.

We wouldn't need half as many prison guards if cell doors were only ever opened twice, once to put the criminal in and once when their sentence is over.

IsaacWunder

Violent offenders belong in jail. Non violent offenders do not.

In Ireland we do it the other way round.

suicide_circus

Sickening. This man is a danger to society. The verdict is a slap in the face to his victims. Shame on the judge.

strobe

GarIT wrote: »

It has been proven time and time again, rehabilitation does not and can not work.

Has it Gar? Care to expand on that a bit?

suicide_circus

He should be rehabilitated. But he also be jailed.

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strobe wrote: »

What would be the benefit to anyone to send this man to prison? Punishment for punishments sake. Childish in the extreme.

So what, you think we should let people do as they like, rob people at knifepoint and stab them?? And jailing him for this would be childish?! The mind boggles.

GarIT

strobe wrote: »

Has it Gar? Care to expand on that a bit?

All I have to say is 91 convictions. The first 90 attempts at rehabilitation have clearly failed. The vast majority of criminals in our jails have committed more than one crime.

Jails should be to keep good people safe, not to help criminals.

ScumLord

GarIT wrote: »

It has been proven time and time again, rehabilitation does not and can not work.

I don't think it has and I don't think we really have proper rehabilitation in this country.

Rehabilitation is working in Iran, where once they cut bits off people for being caught with drugs they now rehabilitate (which includes getting the offenders work on release) and they've seen big improvement in drug related crime, they supposedly have one of the best drug rehabilitation programs in the world.

Rehabilitation can work but it's not a one size fits all approach and you can be working against a lifetime of bad habits.

Just jailing someone for a set amount of time and releasing them again without any effort towards rehabilitation practically guarantees your making a more dedicated criminal everytime you send someone to prison.

strobe

fullstop wrote: »

So what, you think we should let people do as they like, rob people at knifepoint and stab them??

You know I don't think that fullstop.

GarIT

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't think it has and I don't think we really have proper rehabilitation in this country.

Rehabilitation is working in Iran, where once they cut bits off people for being caught with drugs they now rehabilitate (which includes getting the offenders work on release) and they've seen big improvement in drug related crime, they supposedly have one of the best drug rehabilitation programs in the world.

Rehabilitation can work but it's not a one size fits all approach and you can be working against a lifetime of bad habits.

Just jailing someone for a set amount of time and releasing them again without any effort towards rehabilitation practically guarantees your making a more dedicated criminal everytime you send someone to prison.

All we have to do is make jail sentences longer so that it is not possible for people to commit as many crimes as they currently do.

If we started jailing people for sentences of 20+ years the drug industry would die rapidly. Having enough drugs to sell should be a 50 year sentence, assault 20+ years, violent assault 50 years, there would be so few criminals on the streets the crime would be nearly non existant.

The worst a person could ever do is three assaults or burgalries or one voilent assault or murder.

bodice ripper

GarIT wrote: »

All we have to do is make jail sentences longer so that it is not possible for people to commit as many crimes as they currently do.

If we started jailing people for sentences of 20+ years the drug industry would die rapidly. Having enough drugs to sell should be a 50 year sentence, assault 20+ years, violent assault 50 years, there would be so few criminals on the streets the crime would be nearly non existant.

its working so well in the US....

Beano

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't think it has and I don't think we really have proper rehabilitation in this country.

Rehabilitation is working in Iran, where once they cut bits off people for being caught with drugs they now rehabilitate (which includes getting the offenders work on release) and they've seen big improvement in drug related crime, they supposedly have one of the best drug rehabilitation programs in the world. ....

Would it not be the thought of getting further bits lopped off that stop them reoffending?

GarIT

bodice ripper wrote: »

its working so well in the US....

The US has extremely short prison sentences.

bodice ripper

GarIT wrote: »

The US has extremely short prison sentences.

I fail to agree

strobe

Beano wrote: »

Would it not be the thought of getting further bits lopped off that stop them reoffending?

The point he was making is that the lopping wasn't working. And they have curtailed the lopping quite a bit in favour of active rehabilitation efforts instead. And the situation has improved compared to the lopping days.

GarIT

bodice ripper wrote: »

I fail to agree

Show me one case where somebody has recieved 50 years for selling drugs or 20 years for punching somebody.

Grayson

GarIT wrote: »

All I have to say is 91 convictions. The first 90 attempts at rehabilitation have clearly failed. The vast majority of criminals in our jails have committed more than one crime.

Jails should be to keep good people safe, not to help criminals.

can you show what attempts were made at rehabilitating the previous 90 times? If you're going to say that it's a failure, you have to show that someone actually tried it.

Grayson

GarIT wrote: »

The US has extremely short prison sentences.

their three strikes rule has placed people in prison for 20 year sentences because they owned a bong.

ScumLord

GarIT wrote: »

All we have to do is make jail sentences longer so that it is not possible for people to commit as many crimes as they currently do.

If we started jailing people for sentences of 20+ years the drug industry would die rapidly. Having enough drugs to sell should be a 50 year sentence, assault 20+ years, violent assault 50 years, there would be so few criminals on the streets the crime would be nearly non existant.

That doesn't work anywhere, all it's done is made the organised crime gangs more violent. Long jail sentences only encourage shoot outs to the death in the states, more heavily armed gangs, more violence on the street between gangs, more witnesses getting killed because the stakes are so high. As I pointed out Iran used to cut bits off people and it did nothing to slow down the drug trade through their country (they're on the heroin trail). Rehabilitation worked. The next step is legalising drugs, that's the only way to effectively combat drug crime.

The bottom line is we can't afford to jail that amount of people. You'll essentially be locking up a lot of people for simple possession because the amount of drugs it takes to qualify as dealing is pretty small.

Beano wrote: »

Would it not be the thought of getting further bits lopped off that stop them reoffending?

They stopped cutting bits off them for drug possession.

2011

In other news a man was jailed for urinating on a judge's car.
Link.

A man accused of urinating on a judge’s car, which was parked outside a courthouse, was jailed at a District Court sitting in Co Monaghan.