SQLFusion - Same oldjustice system in Cornwall

It's still the same old justice system
Editorial: Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 10:00
Editor
Editorials - A common complaint among several sexual abuse victims who have testified at the Cornwall Public Inquiry has been the lenient sentences given to their perpetrators.
The victims said they were left feeling betrayed by the court system when it came to punishing the guilty.
One inquiry witness testified how frustrated and alone he felt after his abuser's lawyer cut a backroom plea bargain deal in return for a lenient sentence. The victim wasn't even asked to read his impact statement.
Some would say that the courts have become more serious when it comes to sentencing child molesters and their ilk.
That's what we would like to think.
But in Cornwall court on Monday it was more of the same old slap-on-the-wrist justice when a city man already serving 18 months house arrest for possession of child pornography - he was acquitted of a previous charge three years earlier - got a six-month sentence (less one day) for sexually abusing Jamie Marsolais, now 34, when he was a young boy.
Marsolais was understandably disenchanted with the six-month sentence.
"It's not exactly justice," Marsolais told the Standard-Freeholder.
In handing down his sentence, the judge said, "the entire community is a victim when a young person is made to suffer an act of sexual violence."
Unfortunately, the sentence didn't reflect this view.
A six-month sentence for someone twice charged with possession of child pornography and once convicted just doesn't cut it for sexual assault.
So what if the accused was genuinely sorry for his crime and that he pleaded guilty. Such "death bed" confessions should be taken with a grain of salt. For victims of crime, especially sexual assault, it's just another example of an all-too-lenient justice system.