Tough on Crime

A bogus workman who was beaten up in prison has been told "you deserve anything you receive" by a sheriff. Eddie Newlands, 37, from Perth, was sent to jail for 10 months on Thursday after conning a 91-year-old woman out of £5,500 of her savings. Sheriff Margaret Gimblett said she had no sympathy and described what he had done to the pensioner as "despicable."

From the BBC News website

I say three loud cheers for Sheriff Gimblett. What a refreshing change from the normal do-gooders all too prevalent in our society who say some offenders shouldn't be punished but given help. Crime is rife in this country. And how many times to you read about cases where the offender gets off with a ridiculously light sentence, sometimes avoiding a custodial sentence in favour of community service?

It's the victims of crime who should be considered when sentence is passed down. My dear old mum was mugged on her way to work in Aberdeen in 1996. She had just turned sixty years old but was still working for a crust as she had always done throughout her life. She was attacked at 7.00am. Thankfully, she wasn't injured but her purse was stolen and she was, unsurprisingly, traumatised by the incident. I don't think the police ever caught her attacker. To this day she is still quite wary when going out on her own. Now I know violence is abhorrent. But I still maintain that if I'm ever in Aberdeen and come across my mother's assailant, I would exact revenge on the little barsteward.

There's not enough done to help victims of crime in this country, but help aplenty to those who instigate it. Social workers and psychologists fall over themselves to help violent and dangerous neds 'rehabilitate' and earn their way back into society. There isn't the same assistance given to their victims, many of whom are affected for life.

So, well said Sheriff Gimblett. Let the barsteward get all he deserves in jail. Even though he'll probably be out in about six months, free to do it all again....