What the blazes is wrong with our courts?
Former Tory campaign manager Mark Lerigo was convicted of possessing more than 1,500 indecent images of children.
This was really depraved stuff including images of bestiality – sex with animals – and torture.
But he walked free from Warwick Crown Court, with nothing but a suspended jail term and an order to do just 150 hours’ community work.
That’s even though the judge made it perfectly clear that “any consumer of this dreadful material causes others to make it”.
So Lerigo was as responsible for the torture of the children in the images as the people who made them… but he didn’t deserve jail. That does not make any sense at all.
He had been judged not to pose a high risk to children. But if, by consuming this material, he caused others to make it, then that is not true.
Not only do the children involved suffer during the creation of the images, but they go on to suffer for the rest of their lives. The effects – both psychological and physical – last forever. Was that not taken into account?
Let me get this right. A former Tory Party campaign manager has walked free from court, even though he possessed more than 1,500 indecent images of children, making and distributing indecent images and discussing abusing children with other offenders, and hardly anyone noticed?
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) August 24, 2020
I am left to wonder why this former Conservative campaigner got off so lightly – and to suggest that the courts review their advice on sentencing these cases, which is clearly contradictory.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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