Sarah Payne’s Killer Sentence is Reduced

Roy Whiting who was convicted a decade ago of murdering 8 year old Sarah Payne was appealing against his 50 year prison sentence yesterday.

The Minimum sentence had been handed down to Whiting by David Blunkett when he was home secretary and would have meant that Whiting would have been ineligible for parole until at least 2051 (At the age of 92). However due to a ruling from the Law Lords (Based on a European Court of Human Rights Case) it is now not legal for a Home Secretary to impose a minimum sentence, Whiting was therefore free to ask for the case to be reconsidered. It was and the Judge, Mr Justice Simon, agreed that the sentence was possibly to high and instead has imposed a minimum sentence of 40 years. Now I feel it is worth pointing out that this is the earliest date he can apply for parole, not his release date. (Although as an 81 year old I imagine there would have to be real concerns around his mental state and remorse to keep him in prison.

This is quite a sensitive issue around Crawley as Roy Whiting was born in Horsham and grew up in Crawley; in fact this case was breaking when I first started visiting Crawley and was obviously a very big deal for the local community, especially as Whiting already had a conviction for abusing a young girl in the Langley Green neighbourhood of Crawley.

The question I wanted to raise was not as to if it is right to set a sentence of 40 years (As I think this could have been much worse, imagine the outcry had the judge set a minimum 20 years sentence) but as to the actual fact that it is illegal for politicians to set minimum sentences, I am torn on this subject as surely the rulings of the courts should be accountable to the people, but then the people are not always correct. I am a believer that we should always have an unelected check on the elected officials as the will of the many is not always right. However I do believe that at the top of anything as important to a society as law and order should have someone accountable at the top, for this reason I would like to see directly elected commissioners/sheriffs to run the police forces (No taxation without representation.)

Now for the final word on this I will leave it to Sara Payne OBE, Sarah’s mother and now a civil safety campaigner, and I have to say a shining example of someone who has turned a personal tragedy into a positive for society and someone who deserves our admiration as well as sympathy. (Quotes lifted from BBC News)
"We expected [the minimum sentence] to be cut and to be honest it could have been a lot worse," she accepted.
Ever since her daughter was so cruelly taken away from her, she has demanded that British justice do more for victims rather than merely focusing on criminals.
And even in her disappointment at the court's ruling - the family were "reeling", she said - her message remained the same.
"The family don't get a parole date. There's no end to this," said Ms Payne, alluding to the family's grief.
"I will continue the campaign for a safer Britain for children. As long as sex offenders walk the streets I will always be there."