Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with 10 years in jail for the men who tried to rob those Arsenal players and their wives back in July.
The widely circulated video of the incident gave only a glimpse of the fear they’d struck into the couples they’d confronted in north London.
Yet here’s the thing. What must the parents of 17-year-old Ellie Gould be thinking?
The Wiltshire teenager was stabbed 13 times in the neck after she ended her relationship with Thomas Griffiths, 18, to focus on her A-levels.
He then staged the crime scene to make it look as though she’d killed herself.
Griffiths will serve a minimum of 12-and-a-half years. Effectively two-and-a-half years more than the men who tried and failed to rob the Arsenal footballers.
There is a good chance he’ll be free aged 30. Twelve years is the starting point for any murder (whatever the circumstances) committed by an offender aged 17 – Griffiths’ age at the time.
Ellie’s parents will never get her back.
What must the family of Craig Perrott be thinking? The 61-year-old cyclist was left for dead by a motorist who used his car as a weapon and crushed him against a parked car following a dispute in south London.
The motorist was sentenced to 30 months in jail. Mr Perrott has had to have four titanium ribs and a titanium pelvis fitted to replace obliterated bones.
The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme gives victims the power to ask the Attorney General to reconsider sentences at the Court of Appeal.
Legislation brought in last month will add a further 14 offences to the scheme, yet crimes such as murder are already covered. So while there could be some comeback for Perrott’s family, there is none for Ellie’s loved ones.
The scheme has only just been amended to include a range of sexual offences after it emerged in July that a third of public requests to extend “lenient” sentences were rejected because the crimes committed were not eligible for review.
We concern ourselves with issues like Brexit, but more needs to be done to keep the public safe – and to act as a deterrent.
