5 years for unprovoked assault causing death

Giveaway

appeal the leniency please, but also look at bringing new charges that will result in heavier sentencing

biko

The fella Vytautas should have been deported for the rape.
Would have saved Seamus' life.

Rezident

suicide_circus wrote: »

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/we-are-extremely-disappointed-family-of-seamus-bell-criticise-killers-sentence-37740816.html

a man out celebrating the christening of his twin baby girls was followed and punched in the head, all totally unprovoked, causing him to hit his head and later die.



Cant get my head around it at all. This sentence is nothing short of a slap in the face to the family. No justice here. Hope this is appealed.

Totally agree. I have to say I am losing all respect for 'The Legal System' here, it seems to be a money-making scam for lawyers and scroungers all paid for by our insurance premiums.


It only adds insult to injury that when they do actually catch and convict someone, especially of something so shockingly bad as in this tragic case, that he gets off so lightly! And every criminal with 73 previous convictions will also get off lightly, because they have had a hard time apparently. No wonder so many in my area take the law into their own hands, at that way there is some justice.



The legal system here is such a joke it is in danger of being bypassed and ignored by whole sections of society. It's authority is undermined every time one of these travesties occurs, which seems to be every week now.

heldel00

seamus wrote: »

frash wrote: »

It's Monaghan

For some reason I always though Carrickmacross was in Antrim.

Edit: I was thinking of Crossmaglen (in Armagh!). Rural village geography is not a strong point.

You're having a bad run of luck - Carrickmacross is one of the principal TOWNS in county Monaghan.

SCOOP 64

jeff bingham wrote: »

If the victim was a member of my own family I would take revenge into my own hands. And if I was unalbe to do it I would pay someone who could.
Some of the countries judges sicken me.

Were justice will not be served we do need a Equalizer for a person like this, the world would be better place without him.

no.8

That is a farcical sentence. His poor family. That judge is not fit for his post. There has to be some forum brought in place where the people of the nation can voice their anger and discord at sentences felt to overly lenient / severe (unlikely).

I hope Racys is dealt with properly the day he leaves prison.

Samuel T. Cogley

Is it possible that this was prosecuted by the DPP under Section 3, NON-FATAL OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON ACT, 1997 and they could not impose more than 5 years? If so DPP dropped the ball on this one.

Edit: No according to the Mirror it was manslaughter and there was a row before hand - not that, that justifies such a short sentence.

Mrsmum

I think it's the sheer innocence of the dead man here that makes the sentence so unjust. If there were words said or a bit of pushing and shoving between him and the thug or anything but absolutely nothing, just minding his own business, happy out one minute and dead the next. It's just the worst. Unprovoked attacks should carry extra severe sentences simply because they are unprovoked.

hmmm

We need to put pressure on our politicians. Every one of them should be asked whether they support these sort of punishments, and if they don't what they intend to do about it.

Wheres Me Jumper?

seamus wrote: »

For some reason I always though Carrickmacross was in Antrim.

Edit: I was thinking of Crossmaglen (in Armagh!). Rural village geography is not a strong point.

it's ok shamus. it's an easy mistake to make. i keep thinking Belfast is in Munster. them Corkonians and their funny accents, eh?

Pythagorean

Wheres Me Jumper? wrote: »

under the Accession treaty 2003 (i think) Bertie did have the opportunity to allow restrictions on Eastern European labour, but like Blair he choose not to.


some people would argue the UK's decision in this regard may have feulled the desire for Brexit.

Brit bashing seems to be popular here as far as Brexit is concerned "Upper class Tory twits", etc. But when you hear of cases such as this, you have to admit they have a point.

Franz Von Peppercorn

We don’t have a functioning legal system in this country.

Sir Oxman

suicide_circus wrote: »

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/we-are-extremely-disappointed-family-of-seamus-bell-criticise-killers-sentence-37740816.html

a man out celebrating the christening of his twin baby girls was followed and punched in the head, all totally unprovoked, causing him to hit his head and later die.



Cant get my head around it at all. This sentence is nothing short of a slap in the face to the family. No justice here. Hope this is appealed.

Wow.
Just wow.

Franz Von Peppercorn

hmmm wrote: »

We need to put pressure on our politicians. Every one of them should be asked whether they support these sort of punishments, and if they don't what they intend to do about it.

The law has to have minimum sentences because sometimes a fight might break out, between friends say, and someone of them hits his head, or has a prior condition which causes mortality. It’s up to the judges to apply proper sentencing when that isn’t the case.

Sir Oxman

biko wrote: »

The fella Vytautas should have been deported for the rape.
Would have saved Seamus' life.

I think he raped in Lithuania along with another 11 convictions there


Which begs the question, should EU Freedom of Movement have some type of bar on cúnts like this?

Varik

It's never going to change, politicians here never have anything to do with justice as none of the others will ever do so either.

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Is it possible that this was prosecuted by the DPP under Section 3, NON-FATAL OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON ACT, 1997 and they could not impose more than 5 years? If so DPP dropped the ball on this one.

Edit: No according to the Mirror it was manslaughter and there was a row before hand - not that, that justifies such a short sentence.

The guy's a waste of life in any case but would have assumed that that would have made it premeditated and demand a harsher sentence.

UrbanFret

Sir Oxman wrote: »

I think he raped in Lithuania along with another 11 convictions there


Which begs the question, should EU Freedom of Movement have some type of bar on cúnts like this?

Yes. criminal records should be shown on passport and entry refused to Ireland. Also crininals should be deported upon conviction and not be a burden on Irelands tax payers,

Franz Von Peppercorn

Sir Oxman wrote: »

I think he raped in Lithuania along with another 11 convictions there


Which begs the question, should EU Freedom of Movement have some type of bar on cúnts like this?

We have that right under existing EU law. No idea why he is here.

The EU laws on this state:

“The Treaty provisions on free movement of workers provide that, subject to limitations justified on grounds of public policy, public security or public health, workers have the right to accept offers of employment and to move freely within the territory of the member states in order to take up such offers.”

Lots of room to stop people there, almost never legislated for.

erudec

erudec wrote: »

Can't the DPP appeal it? They've lengthened sentences before that were found too lenient.

At this stage with all the precedent cases, this is probably too harsh a sentence, alas.

It should be a cause of concern to each of us that our lives are valued so cheaply by Irish legislators and judges that somebody knows they could kill an innocent person and plead all sorts of "poor me" insults in front of the victim's family and get a mere slap-on-the-wrist sentence like this one. For taking a life. A 35-year-old man with three little children who are now fatherless.

Judges should be using sentencing as a deterrent, not as more legal precedent that will encourage violence against innocent people. Be afraid because the penalty for murder does little to deter it, and much to actually encourage it.

Stovepipe

if he had done this in Lithuania, he'd be thrown into a ****hole prison and left there.

suicide_circus

email the Director of Public Prosecutions office dpp@dppireland.ie

Ask them to review the leniency of the sentence of Vytautas Racys in the matter of the death of Seamus Bell.

Also make it clear to your local TD that inadequate sentencing for offences against the person is a serious election issue for you.

BeerWolf

The Justice system in this country disgusts me to no end to the point I would have no qualms with vigilantes meting out their justice on these violent multi-convicts...

Irish Guitarist

Of course he's going to say he's sorry in court. He's hardly going to say he doesn't regret it in the least.

Markcheese

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

We don’t have a functioning legal system in this country.

Our legal system works just fine, a little convoluted,a bit slow, but as legal systems go its fine..
We don't have a justice system though we have a legal system...

ohnonotgmail

Stovepipe wrote: »

if he had done this in Lithuania, he'd be thrown into a ****hole prison and left there.

He was found guilty of rape and other offences in lithuania and he still ended up here so this is nonsense.

Pauliedragon

Why are people surprised at this? This has been going on forever. It's not just us either, go through media reports from Aus, UK for example you'll see similar sentences and outrage. The only way to reign in these judges is for governments to take sentencing out of judges hands and introduce mandatory minumum sentences which they don't seem keen on doing for whatever reason.

Ulysses Gaze

Pauliedragon wrote: »

Why are people surprised at this? This has been going on forever. It's not just us either, go through media reports from Aus, UK for example you'll see similar sentences and outrage. The only way to reign in these judges is for governments to take sentencing out of judges hands and introduce mandatory minumum sentences which they don't seem keen on doing for whatever reason.

As you said, we need to get rid of judicial discretion in certain cases.

We also need to be able to make it easier to remove judges as well.

ohnonotgmail

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

As you said, we need to get rid of judicial discretion in certain cases.

We also need to be able to make it easier to remove judges as well.

Removed by who?

El_Bee

I mean, the idea of politicians having more power over the judiciary is a bit banana republic-y but on the other hand I'd say we're 3/4 of one anyway we may as well go all in.

Samuel T. Cogley

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

As you said, we need to get rid of judicial discretion in certain cases.

We really, really, don't.

The amount of injustice this causes in the US is unreal. People with guns to their heads storing drugs getting 10+ years.

What we need is proper sentencing from the capable Judges we have already.