Justice For All?

I was much struck by one aspect of the biker murder trial, that is the sentencing ....

Bikers Challenge The Police

.... all the participants (whether the gunman or not) were given 'Life' (well what passes for a Life sentence in the UK i.e. you will be released at some time) sentences. One look at their supporters, gives you a clue that apart from a 'leather fetish', threatening behaviour is another big factor in their lives! 

Now I am not particularly objecting to that sentence (although hells angels killing each other seems less murder, and more like a public service to me). No, I was more struck by the fact that this crime attracted a life sentence, with a minimum tariff of twenty five years, when other 'murders' attract less. For example an IRA murderer got 'life' but no tariff (meaning they could be out in ten years), but it was an 'execution' so almost identical to the biker murder. 

• Another chap, Peter James Bastin, 48, imprisoned with a life sentence for murder and burglary, escaped from the North Sea Camp Prison, Lincolnshire (My god, he's being housed in a Butlins camp!) ... which is in fact an an open prison in Lincolnshire (Open prisons usually mean that serious offenders are being 'groomed for release). Note: The BBC say it was burglary, but the Yorkshire Post says Peter Bastin was jailed for life for the buggery and murder of a 10-year-old boy in 1978, which maybe explains the thirty years served before his escape.
  
• Martin Garratty a 41-year-old alcoholic was found guilty inflicting forty two wounds on, and then asphyxiating a 65 yr old disabled woman neighbour. He got "life" with a tariff of a minimum term of 17 years in jail.  
• Martin Joyce, 22, was found guilty of murdering an "Afghan Refugee" Enayit Khalili, and was sentenced to 'life' but his tariff was only fifteen years. Although as he actually lay in wait for, then walked up and stabbed Mr Khalili, which surely makes it more 'personal' than a gun shot?

Finally, the fact that the monstrous Tanya French,who helped to rape a 12-week-old baby, is now free to walk the streets after serving just 30 months of a five-year sentence (as if that was ever enough?), just highlights the inadequacies of the failing UK 'justice' system. 

Does someone make a decision on which victims are 'worth more'? It always strikes me that the UK has a lottery of a sentencing policy, where 'like for like' crimes, can have wildly varying penalties. Hardly what I call "Justice for all"