Magistrate Burns - listen to your own

I think the sentence will probably have more to do with precedent than the Magistrate changing his opinion of the offender…

And look on the bright side – 7 months (when the maximum penalty is 12 months) is a pretty damn good result for ACT Courts! It passes the magical 50% barrier…

I regard the guy who was hit in this accident – his name was in the CT this week for those who were interested – as a good friend and workmate. He’s not been back to work since the accident and most likely won’t ever be coming back. He’s a sad loss to his workplace and we miss his company.

The guy that did this to him deserves nothing short of a very long term custodial sentence.

It seems to neatly sum up what’s wrong with the judicial system in this town but the Pollies seem determined to wave the flag of judicial independence and do nothing. Strange when Government gets its hooks into every other facet of our lives…

Magistrate Burns is technically correct that the driver should have been charged under Section 29 of the Crimes Act (which actually imposes a maximum penalty of 5 years) as opposed to Section 6 of the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 199, which carries a maximum sentence of one year.

However, as Magistrate Burns was faced with a charge under a lesser offence, he should have considered using the maximum penalties applicable