Sir, - Your report of the hearing of an appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed on a person found guilty of snatching a handbag (The Irish Times, October 13th) raises some serious questions.
The appeal court judge is reported as saying that handbag snatching created infinite disruption and that victims would have to be protected. When a handbag was snatched, people lost their money, house keys, car keys and credit cards.
Whereas material items, as above, are distressing and disrupting to have stolen, surely the physical and emotional distress is far more serious. Usually these victims are the least able to defend themselves, like the elderly, and women tourists who have come to spend holidays in the land of a hundred thousand welcomes and certainly are not expecting to be mugged. Many of those who have experienced such an ordeal become virtual prisoners in their own homes, afraid even to venture out to Mass. These victims have no court of appeal. These victims have no sentence review date. These victims have no early release date. They live out their remaining years in fear and apprehension. - Yours, etc., Niamh Cooper,
Knocklyon Woods,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.