When sentences and crimes don’t add up

Three men who filmed themselves gang-raping a 16-year-old girl before dousing her in caustic soda were today sentenced to between six and nine years in jail, reports The Guardian today.

Not very tough sentences, given that this gang has left her with scarring to 50 per cent of her body and unlikely ever to lead a normal life.

One of the accused, however, was not sentenced. That is because he, Stephen Bigby, was stabbed to death in a gang fight in Oxford Street before he could face trial.

Not much sympathy for him, given that: 'The men had used their mobile phones to record the suffering of their victim... They could be heard laughing during the attack. Her attackers – possibly as many as 10 of them – had hoped the powerful corrosive would destroy forensic evidence.'

Politicians are fond of saying that society isn't working, but this really seems to prove that. Just what sort of upbringing have this men had to behave in this way? It is so far short of civilised behaviour it defies belief and the sentences meted out do not seem to mirror the crime committed.