Express & Star comment: Despair as courts fail to get tough
Another day, another case of British justice to make you despair.
Natalie Severn admitted smuggling heroin into Oakwood Prison near Wolverhampton in June last year.
The 31-year-old was already mother to a young child at the time and became pregnant again shortly before appearing at Stafford Crown Court in April this year.
The circumstances of the pregnancy are not known, but it is absolutely right – and entirely predictable – that she would face a prison sentence for her crime.
Our prisons are depressingly infected with drugs and drug abuse.
Anyone smuggling any drug – let alone a killer such as heroin – should face the full force of the law.
And yet, Judge John Gosling described Severn as ‘a decent woman’ in court.
What sort of ‘decent woman’ puts her liberty at risk to smuggle hard drugs to her boyfriend in prison – particularly one who is already responsible for a small child?
And what sort of ‘decent woman’ ends up pregnant shortly before appearing in court where she must have known she was likely to be jailed?
Naturally, Severn claimed to have been under duress from a conveniently unidentified man when she attempted to smuggle the drug.
To his credit, Judge Gosling DID jail the criminal Severn for 20 months.
Many would see this as hardly an excessive sentence, but alas, Severn’s lawyers disagreed and this week they argued that her punishment was far too harsh and should have been suspended.
She is ‘finding it difficult’ in custody with ‘considerable anxiety for her unborn child’, the court was told.
Perhaps she should have thought about this before attempting to supply heroin.
We are not told who was paying for the legal team’s expensive appeal, but chances are it is the public purse.
And the verdict?
Judge Brian Leveson, sitting with two colleagues, ruled that it was an ‘offence of exceptional gravity’.
So far, so good.
But then he added that the initial sentence was too harsh and should be reduced to 15 months, meaning that Severn is likely to be set free by Christmas.
How very decent of him.
