Star comment: Yet another sorry showfrom judge

All too often criminals are being handed woefully insufficient sentences for what many people would consider to be awful crimes.

This week we have seen a crew of rogue builders pass through the courts.

Despite the fact that they deliberately targeted elderly people, the ringleader of this group of rip-off merchants could be back out on the streets in around two and a half years.

Today we report on the case of Zimbabwe-born lowlife Kuzivakwasha Chigariro.

Over the course of a month the 22-year-old launched a series of sickening attacks on a little boy he was supposed to be looking after.

Chigariro's victim was left with a catalogue of dreadful injuries.

These included a broken arm, wounds to his lips and private parts, bites to his back and chest and scratches to his face and hands.

During the horrifying ordeal Chigariro forbade the three-year-old boy's mother from taking him to hospital.

Thankfully, she eventually took him in for treatment, setting in motion the chain of events that led to Chigariro's arrest.

Any right-minded person reading the circumstances of this case would be likely to consider Chigariro to be a stain on mankind.

There is no excuse for his actions against a defenceless child.

Yet astonishingly it was claimed in mitigation that biting and beatings had been regarded as an acceptable form of discipline during the defendant's upbringing in Zimbabwe.

Chigariro has been in Britain for the last 10 years.

Regardless of his upbringing, he will almost certainly have been aware that the savage assaults he carried out were completely unacceptable.

Which brings us on to Chigariro's punishment for this reprehensible crime.

Having been given a prison sentence of five years and four months by a judge, he may only serve a little over two and a half years.

It means Chigariro can expect to be back out on the streets before his 25th birthday.

This is, quite frankly, a pathetic sentence.

It is little wonder that so many criminals hold no fear of the consequences of a day in court.

In too many cases, the punishment does not even come close to fitting the crime.

When it comes to dealing with a parasite of Chigariro's ilk, they should be throwing away the key.