New labour: tough on feeble old men

[Shytalkz]

Quite what does Jack Straw hope to achieve by refusing Ronny Biggs' parole application?

The bloke can hardly talk, can't walk, gets fed through a tube, is currently residing in our local hospital with a broken hip and, all in all, can't have too much longer to go before shuffling off this mortal coil. I can't see him inciting/inspiring others to conduct a similar (unarmed) robbery.

With his intial time inside and the past 8 years, he's done about a third of - the ridiculously long - sentence he was handed down.

With the laughable sentencing that gets handed down for far more heinous crimes, this can only be the Establishment having its pound of flesh for his having eluded them for so many years.

I hope he wins his appeal.

 

[Nige F]

Driver.......Cosh......

 

[Shytalkz]

He got knocked over the head and didn't die as a result of it: it was 1970 when he shuffled off.

Hardly armed robbery standards is it?

 

[Richard C]

In a drunken rage Ben Cowles, 21, and his brother Tom, 22, punched and floored 45 year old Frank McGarahan in Norwich in September 2008 after he went to the aid of another man being attacked by a group of men. Ben Cowles has been given a seven-and-a-half-year term and Tom Cowles seven years after copping a plea to manslaughter. I don’t know but, presumably, they could be eligible for parole after serving just ½ of their sentence. I’m sure (& hope) that most of us presented with similar circumstances, would go to the aid of someone being kicked to a pulp in the street; this could have been any one of us!

How on earth does that equate to the ridiculous sentences handed out to Biggsy & his mates all those years ago, no wonder he did a runner. I don’t like the guy but Jack Straw’s attitude can only be down to sheer & bloody minded vindictiveness.

 

[Space cat]

With the laughable sentencing that gets handed down for far more heinous crimes, ---

That says more about today's sentencing than anything else - and it's true. "You get thirty years for robbing a train; you get ten for murder now that's insane." (Labi Siffre) Those lines were, I think, written in the late sixties (maybe early seventies). In 1963, murder would get you a suspended sentence - suspended from a rope! By the late seventies, the penalty could be as little as nine months.

Ronnie Biggs did the crime but, unlike the others, he avoided doing the time for most of his life. Let him die in prison. If you want a really good example of our government being tough on old men, look up the case of the OAP who was jailed for not paying his poll tax!

 

[JohnD]

if he didn't want to go to prison, he shouldn't have been a gangster.

Simple.

 

[kirkgas]

if he didn't want to go to prison, he shouldn't have been a gangster.

Simple.

no if he didnt want to go to prison he should have stayed in Brazil, Oh i wonder if they have nop notch cancer care in brazil,

 

[Bahco]

Humanity is very much missing here and a gesture of mercy should be shown IMHO.

We are not animals after all.

 

[jefoss]

for whatever reason the large sentence was given, it was given, if he had served his time instead of breaking out of prison and running to brazil he would have been out now and not in the news, let him rot in uncomfortable conditions i say.

 

[kirkgas]

for whatever reason the large sentence was given, it was given, if he had served his time instead of breaking out of prison and running to brazil he would have been out now and not in the news, let him rot in uncomfortable conditions i say.

but he wont get uncomfortable conditions here thats why he left brazil not because he wanted to do the right thing he was just being selfish, again!!

 

[Deleted member 105431]

let him fu*king rot and refuse him nhs treatment I say, he has robbed the taxpayer enough already ffs.

 

[JohnD]

Humanity is very much missing here and a gesture of mercy should be shown IMHO.

We are not animals after all.

If you want to be merciful and let all prisoners out before they've finished their sentence, then you are entitled to your opinion.

It is all of them you mean, isn't it? Not just one old bloke who's been in the papers a lot and is asking for special treatment?

 

[WDIK]

he escaped carseration and sat laughing at the likes of Jack Slipper and scotland yard for decades, becoming a celebrity by default.

he only returned waving his hands in surrender, when he realised he couldnt get treatment for his cancer in brazil.

why should anyone have respect for this human turd

 

[tim west]

He flagrantly advertised his freedom whilst abroad shoving two fingers up at the establishment, all attempts to bring him back to serve the sentence given were foiled, he even had the gall to record a record with the sex pistols probably as the cash was starting to run out then and the reason given for his final return to face the music(not the sex pistols record )

Given that he thought he was untouchable all those years and didnt have the responsibility to return and serve his sentence rather than living as a playboy out there publically allowing himself to be filmed with his various brazilian girlfriends in one arm whilst holding drinks in the other over several occassions and as said showing no remorse, finally he has had to come home to now serve that time, it's his own fault that he is now so old and frail in jail.

What signal would it give to others if he was let off?

Sorry but having lived through those years and seeing those news broadcasts over the years I have no sympathy for his "predicament" now
He is and always was a criminal, or do we now go soft on criminals?

Well there are many deserving people out there that deserve peoples sympathy but not him.