Good work, judge! Setting posh Lavinia free was real justice At 16, Kaia needs homework, not the catwalk...

EVERYONE seems crystal clear that the judge who decided not to jail Lavinia Woodward – a clever, posh, blonde Oxford student who attacked her boyfriend with a bread knife – has let the side down. Badly. Let’s consider the bristling charge sheet against the accused.

Judge Ian Pringle was seduced and bamboozled by the face-ofan- angel’s pure appearance and dazzled by her obvious brilliance (she was top of her class and has had work already published in learned medical journals ). He admired her ambition to become a top NHS heart surgeon and contribute to society.

Therefore, last week’s verdict when it came – that what Miss Woodward did was a ‘one-off’ and not de serving of a custodial sentence – was outrageous and would deter other male victims of domestic violence from reporting assaults.

Just as Victoria Beckham was too posh to push, so Lavinia Woodward was simply too clever (and pretty) for prison, the judge’s many critics concluded. I wish all these armchair experts would consider the impossible – that this judge’s considered verdict to hand Miss Woodward at en-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, was fair and correct.

I wish they would actually study the facts of the case as set out at Oxford Crown Court last Monday. I’m not here to defend Lavinia Woodward for what she did (stab a man in the leg and chuck things at him during a drunken and possibly psychotic episode). The boyfriend attended a medical centre where he required two stitches.

What she did – ‘unlawful woundi ng’, but not ‘ grievous bodily harm’ – was uncalled-for and certainly most unpleasant and needed to be punished.

But I am lustily going to defend Judge Pringle, especially after he was investigated by a judicial watchdog following a complaint about his ‘personal conduct’ in the case (from a quick look at the blogs, it’s clear that hell hath no fury like angry men who think that the legal system is skewed in women’s favour). Anyway, someone objected, it appears, to him stating the obvious ( he said Miss Woodward was ‘ an extraordinarily able young lady’) and telling the truth: that a prison sentence would damage her aspirations to a high-flying career in medicine. This is an unusual case of crime and punishment. It’s woman attacks man, as opposed to the other way round (assaults by people on the opposite

THERE is only one possible response to the news that we Brits spend ten entire months of our lives – or two hours a week – whining about the weather. Is that really all? sex are overwhelmingly male upon female). Yet it is in danger of escalating into a crisis of confidence in the equality of the justice system, with so many people chuntering that had the well-spoken and stunning Lavinia Woodward been a bloke he’d have gone to chokey – ditto if she’d been a tattooed Essex girl from a council estate. This is simply not correct. If there is anything damaging to confidence in the legal system, it’s t his knee- j erk questioning of Judge Pringle’s verdict.

The only person in the country who heard all the arguments, who weighed up the aggravating and the mitigating circumstances, and most importantly, read the background private psychological reports on Lavinia Woodward, and had to come to a decision, was Judge Pringle.

JUDGES do not always get it r i ght . In t hi s case, for my money Mr Pringle did, despite the cl ass, gender, abilit y and attractiveness of the defendant. As her lawyer explained in court, Miss Woodward had a personality disorder, an eating disorder, she suffered from drug and alcohol dependency, she’d once been in an abusive relationship, and had been given time in order to prove that she could make a success of her rehabilitation.

She was troubled and unstable but keen and determined to stay on the rails.

How could any judge look her in the eye (no criminal past, a promising future ahead) and send her straight to jail, where two-thirds of women prisoners have serious mental health issues?

The quality of mercy is not strained, while prisons are already overcrowded to bursting.

This isn’t a case of toff justice trumping tough love.

Jail should be a last resort – not just for women, but for men, too.