Soft justice UK

All guilty as charged, but these thugs, thieves and perverts are free to walk the streets

DAMNING evidence of how soft justice is handed out at courts can be revealed after a Daily Mail investigation into sentencing hearings at 12 courts across the country. Brutal thugs, serial burglars and drug dealers escaped prison despite reaching the threshold for custodial terms. STEPHEN WRIGHT reports on a week-long survey of lenient sentences which included the following cases:

A DRUNKEN electrician who punched his work supervisor so hard it damaged the man’s voice box avoided jail – after a court heard he was about to get married.

Mark Thomas, 31, threatened and later attacked Lee Street, 33, at a wedding reception after finding marshmallows in his beer. He left his victim with life-changing injuries.

After drinking up to ten pints at the event, Thomas, pictured right, directed his anger at Mr Street, with whom he worked at Scottish and Southern Energy, even though the victim had not been responsible for the prank.

The yob struck him twice on the back of the head and then punched him in the face and neck. Mr Street was left with a damaged voice box after the attack in July last year and is still unable to speak normally, Southampton Crown Court heard.

Thomas, of Totton, near Southampton, admitted causing grievous bodily harm. Mitigating, Jodie Mittell said: ‘He walks into court today with uncertainty on whether he will be given an immediate custodial sentence. His wedding is arranged for August 13.’

He could have faced up to three years in jail but was given a 12month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £2,000 in compensation to Mr Street. It is just one of numerous lenient sentences handed down by judges.

In another case, a young drug dealer who expected to be jailed and even entered court with an overnight bag also avoided a custodial sentence.

Jake Faulkner, 24, was caught with nearly £10,000 in cash when police raided his one-bed flat in Chorlton, Manchester.

Faulkner also had four Nokia mobile phones, an iPhone, digital scales and bags for the sale of drugs. He was also found to have a ball bearing gun and two knives. The guidelines for his offences had a starting point of one year in prison with a range of 26 weeks to a maximum of three years’ immediate custody.

Judge David Hernandez told him: ‘I noticed you entered court with a bag no doubt anticipating custody.’ But the judge then imposed an eight-month suspended sentence with 120 hours of unpaid work and a 40- day rehabilitation order.

And a career burglar with 24 previous convictions for 77 offences was spared jail for a spree of hotel burglaries which a judge called ‘a way of life’.

John Warren broke into a number of London hotel rooms including one at Raddison Blu in Marylebone, where he kicked down the door on a terrified unaccompanied female guest.

Prosecutor Christopher Prior said Warren had stolen a pair of 18 carat earnings, headphones and Apple products from one hotel, valued at around £4,040, in order to feed his drug addiction.

He added Warren had been given a five year sentence at the same court back in 2013 for similar theft related crimes.

Warren, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary other than a dwelling with intent to steal and one count of burglary other than a dwelling. The maximum sentence for burglary other than a dwelling is ten years.

The judge, Recorder Clive Jones, agreed with Mr Prior that the crimes were ‘a way of life’.

But the 53-year-old was handed a two year sentence suspended for 24 months by the judge who decided the serial burglar was intent on rehabilitation. ’

Drunk punched wedding guest in throat giving him life-changing injury