Now for justice
JUST how “diminished” was Valdo Calocane’s responsibility for the savage triple killing he carried out?
It is clear to us, to his victims’ families and to Attorney General Victoria Prentis that his soft sentence cannot stand.
Valdo Calocane’s sentence will be reviewed
She is right to send it to the High Court hoping to get it hardened up.
It is the first victory for the families and their admirable campaign for proper justice.
Calocane dodged murder charges once diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was allowed to admit manslaughter through diminished responsibility.
That led to a supposedly indefinite stretch in the comfort of a secure hospital which in theory could last just three years.
Yet there is plenty of evidence this was no madman out of control.
That the killings — and later attempted murders — were premeditated and his gathering of weapons coldly calculated.
The CPS was so eager to accept his lesser plea they presented it to the stunned families as a done deal after months of assuring them he would be tried for murder. Did the lawyers roll over too fast? If so, why?
Why, too, did police fail to carry out crucial tests on Calocane’s blood, urine and hair which might have revealed drugs in his system, potentially upending his chances of a lesser sentence?
The appeal judges must review his true culpability — and whether he deserves not a cushy hospital stay but real punishment in prison, where indeed the Yorkshire Ripper ended up after decades in Broadmoor.
But the Ca
Perverts’ ruse
PERVERTS often change their name to conceal a shameful past.
Some are cunning. Some genuinely seek a new start. But public safety must always come first.
So it is right to ban name changes if police still judge convicted sex offenders a threat, as Home Secretary James Cleverly intends.
What faith does he have, though, that forces will rigorously police it — and that this won’t just provide a new lawfare opportunity for the human rights mob?
Inaction man
TRUE to form, Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey risks being too late lowering interest rates just as he was in raising them when inflation surged.
He admits the economy is already bouncing back fast and that inflation will soon be down to just two per cent.
So cut rates NOW. Ease the mortgage pain now. Get the economy growing now.
As ex-Bank chief economist Andy Haldane warns: “It’s one thing to miss inflation on the way up . . . quite another to crush the economy on the way down.”
Take note, Mr Bailey.
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