Express & Star comment: Sentences slap in face for decency
In an age when the police are obsessed with hate crimes, when will crimes against the elderly and the vulnerable receive the same priority?
Those who are decreed to have committed a crime with a racial element rightly face stiff sentences due to their repugnant intentions and motivation.
But what is more despicable than someone conning their way into an elderly person's home and stealing from them?
Sadly, the type of reprobate that carries out this sort of crime does not receive the same sort of treatment that is reserved for other members of the criminal fraternity.
The case of Selina Spencer, who made off with a hard-up pensioner's food and heating money after tricking her way into her home, is all too typical.
The shameless drug addict – who unsurprisingly is no stranger to prison – barged her way into a 67-year-old woman's property and rifled through her purse while she wasn't looking.
The £120 she escaped with was all the pensioner had to live on for the week.
After admitting robbery – her sixteenth conviction no less – Spencer was jailed for a measly three years, meaning she will more than likely be back on the streets in around 18 months time.
