Small expectations of UK Justice

A news story today, one that seems to illustrate what a collapse we have had in the expectations of the law in the UK.

An unemployed eighteen year old man was found guilty of arson in his own family home, the fire killed his two sisters (burns and smoke inhalation) and left his 'father' with 42% burns. The motive for this attack wasn't entirely clear, although he had had a row with the mother of his one year child, and the jury cleared him (or were directed by the judge) of the attempted murder of his parents, but found him guilty of manslaughter.

His punishment for causing the death of two members of his family by setting fire to the house, a paltry minimum of six years imprisonment. How this can be classed as manslaughter, only the UK criminal system can ever know .... surely the deliberate setting fire to a house with people in it must carry the risk of death, and therefore not be accidental death?

And his fathers reaction to this ..... he claims that claims his son has been "set up" by the police, and he has offered a £25,000 reward for the capture of the "real killer". How this mystery killer managed to get into his house, start a fire and then leave no evidence is not explained, nor is the reason why the police would 'set up' his son.

So there you are, the police catch a killer, the courts decide that somehow, deliberately setting fire to a house with your family in it is 'accidental', the judges decide that the tariff on two deaths in New Labours Britain is about six years, and his father decides that the police set up his son as the killer ..... And in seven years he could be out again, living in a street near you!

And no one comments on any of it. If this hadn't been in some poverty stricken area such as Tyneside, but in some leafy borough of Surrey, would the tariff been only six years, or even only manslaughter?

This whole sad story about sums up why the UK is in such decline.