Has Justice been Served?

I wrote last week about a case that was being processed through the courts. That case has now been concluded and a verdict and sentence have been delivered. The question is whether a reasonable man would consider that the result is satisfactory.

Summary:
A man and his female partner were driving when they suddenly came upon an accident scene where a cycle had collided with a car and the rider was down. Unfortunately, unavoidably, the newly arrived driver came into contact with the rider, actually driving the front wheels over the young man. At that point the car was stopped for a few seconds, and then the driver recommenced his forward motion. A part of the young man’s clothing became interlocked with the car, but nevertheless the defendant driver drove at speed dragging the young man for two kilometres. All throughout this ordeal the victim was alive.

When the driver reached the turn into his urbanisation he stopped the car, then he moved backwards and forwards until disengaging the victim. When the attachment broke he drove over the young man and continued on home leaving the young man to his own fate. It was shortly after this that the seventeen year-old drew his last breath.

Horrified eye- witnesses and cctv cameras recorded the chain of events, but the driver and his passenger denied that they had been involved in any way.

The court deemed that the actions of the driver were as cold bloodied as can be, and his passenger was found guilty of failing to take any discernible action to stop the driver and for doing nothing to assist the victim and the law.

The driver was fined 300,000 euros and sentenced to serve 13 years in jail. His partner was sentenced to serve eighteen months behind bars.

The test of whether justice has been fully served is to put yourself into the shoes of the boy’s mother and father. It may be that youthful incaution got him into trouble in the first place, as is the case with so many young men who consider that they are indestructible at that age. Even the unavoidable act of driving over him with the front wheels might be forgiven, as that was apparently completely an accident. However, to deliberately drive off meant to pass the rear wheels over the young man. In my opinion that is the act of a monster.

I am a person who avoids doing violence to other humans, so to be able to do something like this is outside my ability to comprehend. Most people are like that, especially because that was such an inhumane act.

To further continue driving when he knew without a doubt that he was dragging a human being at speed down the motorway beggars disbelief. I consider that to be nazi-like thinking. I won’t even entertain the suggestion that he must have been mad. What must the parents make of such disrespect to their son?

He has deliberately extinguished the life of another person with very malicious intent and with complete disregard to his victim’s right to life. The Court has considered that for his actions he should spend the next 13 years of his own life behind bars. After that, he can do as he wishes, but his victim will still be dead. My feeling is that anyone who commits the sort of crime as he has been found guilty of should expect to forfeit his own quality of life until he dies. The only encouraging thing in this case is that he is 57 years old, so he might indeed die in prison. Otherwise he should be 70 upon leaving prison. At that point his British license will expire and I doubt whether anyone will reissue him, so he will never drive again. However, that is just by luck as there was no mention of the loss of his driving permit.

In my opinion Justice has not been fully served, although the courts think differently. How that can be justified I just don’t know. Additionally his partner was only sentenced to serve 18 months because she failed in her civil obligation. It doesn’t even appear that she made any attempt to stop what was happening, and she lied to authorities, so that seems to me to make her a full accessory to the fact. She should have been given the same sentence as he.

It makes you wonder what the hell's wrong with these people!

Finally, both accused are British guests in this country, and as such they have thoroughly embarrassed all reasonable thinking other British people. It’s true that we cannot be held responsible for their actions, but nonetheless, it’s hard to hold our heads high when faced by our Spanish hosts.


Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael