Not for the first time, the erratic and inconsistent sentencing policy of the courts has provoked public dismay this week. On Tuesday, a 20-year-old heroin addict, jailed for nine years in June for stealing a tourist's handbag containing £10,000 cash and jewellery, had her sentence reduced to six years by the Court of Criminal Appeal. Mr Justice O'Flaherty said that handbag snatching was like a cancer in society and had to be stamped out. The court, he said, was sending the word out "loud and clear" that people involved in handbag snatches would get exemplary sentences from now on. Sabrina Walsh of Ballymun, Dublin had appealed to the court against the severity of her original sentence. No doubt Judge O'Flaherty, who heard details of the case which were not reported, regarded this as the appropriate punishment for the crime. But others will contrast the harsh treatment of Sabrina Walsh with the leniency traditionally shown in this State towards much more serious crimes perpetrated - often on the hapless taxpayer - by big business. It is now abundantly clear that the laws of this State were flouted in the AIB/Revenue affair; but there appears to be little confidence in the public mind that any person will be brought to book - let alone accorded the kind of custodial sentence imposed on Sabrina Walsh.
What must concern the general public about the law is the random and inconsistent nature in which it is applied. A garda who knocked down and killed a 28-year-old pedestrian in Co Laois last year had a six-month prison sentence rescinded this week. As our security correspondent writes in today's editions, cases involving death as a result of drunk driving, tend to attract lenient sentences. In July, a Dundalk man received a suspended sentence and a driving ban after he killed a baby in a head-on collision while driving while drunk. The courts often seem slow to respond to public concern about the often haphazard nature of sentencing policy. As the chairman of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts, Mr Jim Mitchell, pointed out this week, the independence of the courts system often makes it slow to appreciate the importance of accountability to the public it serves. In this regard, the courts were not dissimilar from the Revenue Commissioners, he added. Policy-makers can help assuage some public concerns by adopting the kind of non-statutory guidelines for the judiciary recommended by the Law Reform Commission in its report on sentencing policy. In general terms, these seek to ensure that the sentence is proportionate to the crime and they list a number of aggravating factors and mitigating factors that might be taken into account. The intention is to provide sensible and pragmatic guidelines for the courts in their sentencing policy. There is no other way; a coherent and just sentencing policy is an essential component of any criminal justice system. Without it, public confidence in the courts will be diminished.