Express & Star comment: Court leniency lets down the victims
Xena Randell is a violent bully. There can be little question about this.
Although only 19 years old, she has managed to rack up 13 convictions for 49 offences.
One of these offences included a suspended sentence for assaulting a police officer.
Putting aside the depressing fact that assaulting a police officer attracts only a suspended sentence these days, this woman is, quite frankly, a boil on the backside of humanity.
You would think that any sensible judge would take the view that society deserves a break from the violence that Randell generates.
You may also think she would, after so many brushes with the law, have some fear of the judicial system.
Alas, on both counts, you would be mistaken.
In a predictable spate of petulance after her latest bout of violence, assaulting a 70-year-old lady, Randell turned her back on Judge Anthony Potter and wrestled with court staff.
Quite rightly, he ordered that she be kept behind bars until she learned some respect for the court.
She was released after four days, but when she returned before the judge several months down the line, he praised her efforts to get a job and apparently bought the usual sob story about ‘trying to make changes’.
Despite the judge’s view that she was ‘a bully’, she was given a 12-month community order, 80 hours of unpaid work and an anger management rehabilitation course.
There may be a far wider need for anger management if judges continue to hand out soft sentences such as this.
Incredibly, she did more jail time for a tantrum in court than she did for her latest violent assault.
How many chances should one criminal get? Here is a woman with a vicious past, a string of previous convictions and no doubt a raft of previous judges and magistrates prepared to give her ‘another chance’.
Why? What has she done to deserve such patience? Nothing. This is yet another affront to justice in the eyes of ordinary, law-abiding people.
The judge warned Randell that if there were any further offences, he would remember her if she came before his court.
All well and good, but by that time, it will be too late Your Honour.
Another victim will have paid the price for your incomprehensible leniency.
