Judge was right to lock up disrespectful teenager

ATEENAGE girl, who admitted at Warwick Crown Court shoving over a 70-year-old woman during a row in the street, made the mistake of deliberately turning her back on Judge Anthony Potter while she was in the dock.

Xena Randell already has a string of some 50 offences to her name so she had probably become used to the softly, softly approach which is the usual way with young offenders.

But this time her luck had run out and the judge, understandably furious about her lack of respect and manners, sent her into custody to consider what she had done. He said: “She has to understand that whatever acts the juvenile court have taken she’s in the crown court now and the crown court will not be bullied.”

Until that moment it seems he had been considering a non-custodial sentence because she could have gone to live with her mother and therefore possibly deserved another chance.

When this unpleasant young woman has had a chance to cool her heels it may well be that she does receive a noncustodial sentence – no more than a rap on the knuckles. But good for Judge Potter in reminding her of the respect due to a court of law.

In the past the respect and fear engendered by a brush with the law were often enough to deter young tearaways who mended their ways as a result. But authority is on the run now, handicapped by political correctness and the strange reversal whereby the rights of the victims of crimes seem to be deemed lesser than the rights of the perpetrators.

Judge Potter’s intervention was most likely the result of sheer exasperation at this girl’s behaviour. But good for him.