Justice for the Criminal

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions will consider appealing the sentences, criticised as an "abomination", given to four youths who bashed to death a teenager in an unprovoked attack. Aged 16 and 17 at the time, the four attacked Kurt Smith, 19, and his friend Sean Clifford, then 19, as they walked across an oval in Emu Plains towards a party on New Year's Eve in 2002.
They are only babies then, how can they be responsible for anything they do.

One of the youths, who kicked Mr Smith in the head after he lay helpless on the ground saying "wake up", could be released on parole as early as October, after serving 2 years. The worst offender was sentenced to five years and nine months, with a non-parole period of three years and nine months - he could be out next year due to time already served.

The sentences, handed down yesterday in the NSW Supreme Court, outraged victims of crime. The NSW Opposition called on the Government to instruct the DPP to lodge an appeal to "make sure the judge got it right".
Oh I'm sure the judge got it right, this is afterall, justice for the criminal.

Mr Smith died from brain damage caused by multiple blows to the head and Mr Clifford suffered a broken nose and fractured vertebrae in his neck. Mr Clifford was in court yesterday and walked out suddenly during sentencing, but returned later. The Crown had alleged the four, who can be only known as NA, BM, MD and JT, attacked Mr Smith, then chased him across the Great Western Highway and rammed him headfirst into a telegraph pole.
The offenders will never be named, we the public must never know what a murdering bunch of bastards they are.

But a judge found yesterday that he most likely ran into it while trying to escape, or hit the pole after being pushed.
So what if he was disorientated after being kicked and bashed about the head, its his own fault he ran into the pole, it was never proven that these four 'flower smelling' babies actually rammed him into the pole, so therefore, they must be innocent of that.

They were originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter during the trial.
Manslaughter: "The unlawful killing of one human by another without express or implied intent to do injury."
Well Mr Judge, you see we never intended to kill him, we never intended to injury him either, you believe us don't you.

Peter Rolfe, the convenor of the Homicide Survivors Association, said the sentences were an "abomination". "The fact that a 19-year-old has lost his life at the prime of his life and these guys have got sentences which are around a five-year maximum is just unbelievable," Mr Rolfe said.

Justice Greg James said "the attack on the deceased was brutal ... and cowardly. There seems no basis on which one can conclude that the attack was in any way provoked." He said it was unclear what motivated the "explosion of violence", that such "gang violence" would not be tolerated, and the sentences had to reflect that.
Yes the harsh sentences handed out will show the criminals what they'll have to deal with for such behaviour. I'm sure the criminals will be praying that they never come in front of this judge.

But the four had good rehabilitation prospects, each was "truly contrite". None had a criminal history and all committed the crime as juveniles, he said. He also said while they intended to harm Mr Smith, they did not plan to commit any grievous bodily harm or kill him.
They were just babies you see, no idea what they were doing, how could they, there is no proof that kicking and beating someone about the head repeatedly will cause grievous bodily harm.

Justice James noted that one had attempted suicide in jail and had written him a letter expressing his remorse.
There we go, he's sorry, slap his wrists and send him on his way. Justice for the victim or the family, outside the court, turn left or right, walk to the corner and whistle.

The Attorney-General, Bob Debus, yesterday sought the DPP's "opinion on the prospect of any future appeals", a spokesman said.

I was in a similar situation about 2 years ago, fortunately for me it happened on a bus during daylight and I managed to hold em off by sheer grace of God and get the police called, being the brave souls they were, the four of them suddenly had dental appointments and yoga classes to attend to and had to head off hastily prior to the police arriving, being the dumb bastard that I am, I forgot to ask for their names or business cards so we could arrange a meeting at a later stage.
You really have to be caught up in such a situation to feel the raw viciousness, the see the ugliness of it all, the sheer unrestrained hatred to know what its really like to be a victim.

Each of us reacts differently when confronted with what this family has to deal with now, Kurt Smith was their son, someone's brother, a friend, a cousin, a nephew, a colleague, an Australian and a human being. Some will be angry, some will lose the will to go on, sooner or later they have to deal with the fact that he's life has been taken away and for those closest to him, it will be like a heavy stone they always have to carry. All we can do is pray that they find the strength to go on and hope we never have to go through the same.

All the justice system can offer victims is counselling and a victim impact statement, yet the system seems to bend over backwards to accommodate the criminal, anything goes, every excuse is accepted, ADHD, mother didn't hug you, father didn't play ball with you, too much TV, too little TV, the gun jumped into your hand, it's the government, the victim resisted, I was drunk, the police were harsh.

I don't think the majority of the public are asking that these four criminal thugs being taken to the back of the court and be shot to death, maybe the public are not asking for life sentences either. Whether they intended to kill Kurt Smith or not, he is dead, whether they are sorry or not, he is still dead and their actions caused his death. The law dictates the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they intended to murder him, they could not, hence the manslaughter charge, yet the criminal does not have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he/she is sorry, a mere letter and a few tears are all that's necessary.

What sort of message does this send to the public, if I had been killed 2 years ago, I would just have been forgotten in the quest to excuse the criminal, I would merely have become a statistic for politicians to drag out to say crime is rising or dropping, depending on which side your on.

Coming back to an adequate sentence, is ten years enough, even that may be too much, recently a man was sentenced to 11 years jail for killing a little baby in the most brutal way, how can we ask then for more than 10 years.

Recently on one of the current affairs programs we saw what criminals really do when sentenced to community service, they were just lazing about, smoking pot, taking drugs, not doing anything. Gang rapists in juvenile detention facilities have luxuries like oral sex performed on them by visiting girl friends, pizzas every weekend, tvs, movies, playstations, chocolates.

In the Macquarie Fields riots a man who spoke to the media was beaten and bashed in front of his children, what did he get, an inquiry.

A mentally ill man threatened the premier of NSW, he was traced, tracked, arrested and thrown in jail in record time.

Recently the Indonesian justice system has copped a fair amount of criticism from people in Australia over the Corby case. Now that I think about it, they have every right to say "Fix your own system, then come complain about ours."

1 comment:

  1. So true. I was friends with Kurt. He was such a gentle soul. Those thugs who took his life were not shown justice. Crazy to know that "MD" is now pushing up flowers after years of crime. He was a fine product of our justice system.. God will bring justice, though.

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