WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET LOCKED UP?

These thugs are all guilty of despicably violent crimes – but are free to walk the streets thanks to our spineless courts. Today the Mail asks . . .

THE ‘appalling’ soft justice meted out by courts is laid bare in a Daily Mail investigation today.

Violent thugs, prolific burglars and drug dealers are all escaping jail terms.

An audit of sentences imposed at 12 courts reveals how ‘habitual’ criminals are being allowed to remain at liberty to commit further offences.

One lout with 38 previous convictions – who broke an innocent man’s jaw in an unprovoked street attack – turned up at court with a holdall clearly expecting to receive a custodial term.

But a judge opted not to send him to jail, much to the disgust of the victim in the case. Shockingly, since the Mail’s

week-long survey, a string of new examples of light-touch sentences have emerged. Over the course of the last two weeks alone, judges have allowed serious offenders – including sex criminals and kidnappers – to walk free.

In some instances, judges have even expressed sympathy towards those facing punishment by claiming sending them to jail would be unfair.

The four men pictured on the front page – Mark Thomas, Thomas Younger, Glyn Leedell and Mark Greagsbey – were all convicted of serious offences, including serious violence, but were all allowed free. Today’s findings are likely to raise questions over whether the crisis in UK prisons – graphically illustrated this week by the scandal at Birmingham jail – is partly to blame for these ‘soft’ sentences. Assaults in jails are on the rise and reports have highlighted rampant drug use.

Earlier this year, Justice Secretary David Gauke urged courts to only use short sentences of under 12 months as a ‘last resort’. However, critics are likely to argue that soft justice is contributing to the violent current ‘Wild West Britain’ crime-wave. Many now believe the lack of a deterrent is emboldening lawbreakers. Violent crime surged by 21 per cent last year, with 1.3million offences recorded by police – the most since records began 15 years ago.

Victims’ rights campaigner Harry Fletcher called for an inquiry by the Commons Justice Select Committee into the Mail’s findings.

‘These are truly shocking cases involving very serious violence which should result in custodial sentences. It is astonishing they do not,’ he said. ‘Victims are being let down and communities are not being protected. It is appalling.’

The Mail commissioned reporters to cover punishments handed out by courts in Bristol, Cardiff, Southampton, Bournemouth, London, Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle across one week.

Among the cases were those of a serial menace to society who dodged jail despite holding a knife to a woman’s neck and telling her, ‘I am going to kill you’. A crack addict who committed burglary while on licence from a previous breakin was allowed to stay on the streets. In June, Justice Minister Rory Stewart said prison sentences of less than a year should be scrapped for all but the most serious offences. He argued that community penalties should be imposed – and even claimed victims of crime would be ‘ better off ’ with fewer criminals in jail.

Ministers have argued prisons are not working because they have become ‘ offender warehouses’. At the time, critics branded Mr Stewart’s call a ‘green light for criminals’.

But he was recently backed up by Mr Gauke who urged courts to only use short sentences of under 12 months in extreme circumstances.

He said prison should ‘change the lives’ of criminals instead of being used solely as a tool for ‘ punishment’ and ‘retribution’.

Crime victim Tony Rutherford, 36, whose jaw was broken by Younger in an attack, was shocked when the Mail – not the police – told him his attacker had been freed.

Mr Rutherford said: ‘ What message does that send if someone can leave someone in the condition he left me and walk away without a care? I’ve been through hell.’

David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention pressure group, said: ‘This fascinating investigation illustrates all too clearly what we have been saying – the criminal justice system as it stands is much too soft. For the sake of public safety, this has to end now.’

‘I’ve been through hell’

WHATEVER happened to the principles of punishment and deterrence in our criminal justice system?

For the past two days, we have been reporting on the crisis in our prisons, many of which are effectively run by the inmates.

Today we reveal that our courts have become so soft that even dangerous criminals are routinely being spared jail.

Our reporters spent a week at courts around the country. Their reports make profoundly disturbing reading.

One man with a long record of violence who held a knife to a woman’s throat and another with 38 previous convictions who shattered his victim’s jaw in an unprovoked attack were given suspended sentences.

Serial burglars, drug dealers and even a man who downloaded sickening images of children being abused received community service or other non-custodial terms.

Such soft justice is an affront to victims – and a very real threat to public safety.

Recent figures show crime shooting up and prosecutions falling. And even when criminals are unlucky enough to be convicted, their chances of being locked up are vanishingly small. No wonder knife crime and violent assault are rife on our streets.

The Tories are traditionally seen as the party of law and order. Isn’t it about time they started living up to that reputation?