The horror of the cops' mistakes aside, the sentencing stuff is interesting to me as a non-lawyer. I can see how a 25 year minimum might have been appropriate in this case and also how a 21 minimum might be appropriate too. But the direction of travel seems to be for the public to want much longer sentences for this type of murder. And yet there are many one-on-one confrontations (albeit that the victim was entirely innocent of any aggression, it seems) that end in knife murder each year and most don't end up with such long sentences. And of course there are much worse cases involving sadism, terrorism, prolonged victim abuse, planned killings for gain and so forth. I am not a Reform fan, but it is certainly true that very long sentences do work (contrary to 'nothing works') insofar as they protect the public for as long as the person is locked up. I wonder if we are heading towards more very long sentences and perhaps even a lot more Whole Life tariffs? Perhaps with a compromise to pay for it with less people being jailed for relatively minor offences?
Deleted my previous post. I literally am physically sick after having watched the bodycam footage. I hope there is a full investigation here to understand how we have reached a point in this country where an innocent man can be arrested & handcuffed while bleeding to death because the police policy is believe the lies of a false accuser.
This has to be some sort of line in the sand for "victim" ideology
Perhaps the police should have lessons in telepathy too. Clearly things went badly wrong but surely the greatest responsibility lies with the murderer and his family who misled the police as to the real situation. Nonetheless within 3 minutes of their arrival they were administering CPR and summoning medical attention. And we know from the evidence of the pathologist given at the trial that nothing the police could have done would have saved Henry.
The IOPC (or whatever they are presently called, I’ve seen several versions) will report. Surely the best thing we can do now is to respect the wishes of the family not to cause further division let alone violence.
They never even tried to get Henry Nowak's side of the story, they told him he was under arrest for racial assault as soon as they arrived. He had been stabbed and was bleeding to death, he tells them repeatedly he has been stabbed to which we can hear in the video "I doubt it mate" as they cuff him. They arrested an innocent man who had been stabbed to death by a false accuser before they even tried to get both sides of the story. I have not even heard any mention of charges for perverting the course of justice for liar / murderer Digwa or his family? What about the arrest and handcuffing of an innocent man who is bleeding to death personifies "without fear or favour" to you? or how about "all equal before the law"?? The police arrived on the scene and they had already decided who was "victim" and who was perpetrator without ever asking for Henry's side of the story.
The learned judge took every opportunity of trying to reduce the seriousness of the offence and the extent of the catastrophic misjudgments by the police officers concerned. The starting point was 25 years, as I believe the prosecution barrister said. Aggravating factors would have included lying to the police, a clear attempt to pervert the course of justice. The minimum term of 21 years was manifestly too lenient. A minimum term term nearer 30 years would have been more appropriate
To add to Joshua’s argument you can also add that the knife used to murder Henry was a significantly longer knife than the normal ceremonial knife Sikhs are permitted to carry for religious reasons.
The horror of the cops' mistakes aside, the sentencing stuff is interesting to me as a non-lawyer. I can see how a 25 year minimum might have been appropriate in this case and also how a 21 minimum might be appropriate too. But the direction of travel seems to be for the public to want much longer sentences for this type of murder. And yet there are many one-on-one confrontations (albeit that the victim was entirely innocent of any aggression, it seems) that end in knife murder each year and most don't end up with such long sentences. And of course there are much worse cases involving sadism, terrorism, prolonged victim abuse, planned killings for gain and so forth. I am not a Reform fan, but it is certainly true that very long sentences do work (contrary to 'nothing works') insofar as they protect the public for as long as the person is locked up. I wonder if we are heading towards more very long sentences and perhaps even a lot more Whole Life tariffs? Perhaps with a compromise to pay for it with less people being jailed for relatively minor offences?
Deleted my previous post. I literally am physically sick after having watched the bodycam footage. I hope there is a full investigation here to understand how we have reached a point in this country where an innocent man can be arrested & handcuffed while bleeding to death because the police policy is believe the lies of a false accuser.
This has to be some sort of line in the sand for "victim" ideology
Perhaps the police should have lessons in telepathy too. Clearly things went badly wrong but surely the greatest responsibility lies with the murderer and his family who misled the police as to the real situation. Nonetheless within 3 minutes of their arrival they were administering CPR and summoning medical attention. And we know from the evidence of the pathologist given at the trial that nothing the police could have done would have saved Henry.
The IOPC (or whatever they are presently called, I’ve seen several versions) will report. Surely the best thing we can do now is to respect the wishes of the family not to cause further division let alone violence.
They never even tried to get Henry Nowak's side of the story, they told him he was under arrest for racial assault as soon as they arrived. He had been stabbed and was bleeding to death, he tells them repeatedly he has been stabbed to which we can hear in the video "I doubt it mate" as they cuff him. They arrested an innocent man who had been stabbed to death by a false accuser before they even tried to get both sides of the story. I have not even heard any mention of charges for perverting the course of justice for liar / murderer Digwa or his family? What about the arrest and handcuffing of an innocent man who is bleeding to death personifies "without fear or favour" to you? or how about "all equal before the law"?? The police arrived on the scene and they had already decided who was "victim" and who was perpetrator without ever asking for Henry's side of the story.
The learned judge took every opportunity of trying to reduce the seriousness of the offence and the extent of the catastrophic misjudgments by the police officers concerned. The starting point was 25 years, as I believe the prosecution barrister said. Aggravating factors would have included lying to the police, a clear attempt to pervert the course of justice. The minimum term of 21 years was manifestly too lenient. A minimum term term nearer 30 years would have been more appropriate
To add to Joshua’s argument you can also add that the knife used to murder Henry was a significantly longer knife than the normal ceremonial knife Sikhs are permitted to carry for religious reasons.