Questioning the justice system

Dear Editor, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read on the Advertiser’s website that disgraced former Airdrie councillor David Fagan had avoided a jail sentence after telling an undercover detective he wanted to rape a child.

Not only is this pervert not now behind bars, but all he got was 120 hours of unpaid work and three years’ supervision – talk about the punishment not fitting the crime.

After reading what Fagan had done, I just assumed he would be spending time at Her Majesty’s pleasure and that it was just a matter of how long he’d be going away for.

This is, after all, a man who shared his warped fantasies about child rape and incest and was categorised by police as being a “high risk”.

If this is how we deal with “high risk” offenders then it really makes you question the state of our justice system.

It was also very concerning to read that the sheriff who sentenced Fagan said the jury that acquitted him of conspiring to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex while another 12-year-old girl was present “accepted” that he did not intend to carry out the vile acts he sent in messages .

In actual fact the jury found that

charge against Fagan “not proven” as opposed to “not guilty”, which I was under the impression meant there was insufficient evidence provided to find him guilty.

That doesn’t sound like acceptance to me.

This whole horrible episode has left a bad taste in the mouth of many decent people in Airdrie, which has only been compounded by the non-custodial punishment handed down to Fagan.

Name and address supplied

Spared jail David Fagan