Television News reports before and after the verdicts passed on Marc Riley and David Carr Burstow following the events surrounding the murder of Antonietta Guarino in Trowbridge, Wiltshire on January the 8th 2009.
Punishment or should I say criminal punishment.
What is criminal punishment in a civilised society? Plenty of academics, criminologists, and theologians have written about this. Plenty of politicians, newspaper editors and radio talk shows have commented on it. We talk about it a lot but how often are we satisfied that the punishment fits the crime? Is it that the media only publicises and complains over the few poor sentences, do we only selectively hear the weak sentences passed because they outrage us? Is it that the system on the whole passes satisfactory sentences? Up until now I was never sure if the general dissatisfaction I felt and believed existing amongst people was simply misinformation, unbalanced media reporting, or just pub talk and canteen conversations. I am not in a position to answer these questions they are questions for others to answer; I can only express my opinion based on my experience.
I now believe that weak punishment is a true stereotype, one based on the outcome of hundreds of inadequate sentences passed up and down the county, and now I have my own to add.
My view is that criminal punishment is about four things:
Retribution. It is imperative that the state passes sentences of pure imprisonment and punishment that satisfies both the victim and society or the state loses its legitimacy to act on our behalf. In so-called uncivilised societies retribution comes in the form of vendettas, blood feuds, street justice and vigilantism. If unjust retribution is the norm then we cannot be surprised when people take justice into there own hands.
Criminal should spend a proportionate time in prison simply as punishment for their crime.
Deterrence. Sentences should act as an adequate deterrent to both the sentenced criminal re-offending and to others, it should be clear to would be criminals that strong punishment for their acts will be passed, this may deter some and some is better than none. Surly it is true that the deterrent of imprisonment acts along side morality for most of us against committing some crimes?
Weak sentencing equals weak deterrence and only serves to demonstrate that ‘even if you are caught and convicted you won’t suffer’ and ‘it’s worth the risk’.
Protection. Sentences should protect the public from individuals who harm us by removing them from circulation and not allowing them to commit further acts by denying them their freedom. This element is only of use if the last point is completed.
Rehabilitation. Given that with the exception of the ‘Whole life tariff’ (rarely passed and only for the most serious crimes) all convicted criminals will eventually be paroled and released. It is surely imperative that the prison system (state) rehabilitates the criminals that go through it. If this does not happen then re-offending rates will surly be high. However rehabilitation can only happen if a decent period of imprisonment is served satisfying both victims and society and during which the prisoner can understand the impact of their crime and that they reject that behaviour which risks imprisonment and a loss to their freedom again.
Inadequate sentencing leaves no time for the prison service to finalise possibly the most important part of their job, stopping re-offending. It lets down society putting us all at further risk of re-offending because the criminal has not understood the damage he has done. Furthermore the criminal with a previous record who has committed crimes time and time again particularly insults us all.
Again I don’t know if what I write is academically correct or if on the whole our systems works. What I do want is to speak to anybody who believes that the sentence passed on David Carr Burstow on the 1st of October 2009 in court room number 2 of Bristol Crown Court in any way addresses the above points let alone satisfies my desire for justice and is proportionate to the crimes he has committed. I don’t believe now that I will every meet that person, maybe I will meet a legal professional who explains that his sentence is similar to others in the past, well so what that’s just another legal technicality.
Surely not only justice be done; it must also be seen to be done?
Letter to Wiltshire Police
This is a copy of the letter that I sent to Wiltshire Police the night before the verdict, I wrote this before the verdict as I wanted to reflect my feeling regardless of the out come. Over a week has passed and I still feel the same respect and gratitude for Wiltshire Constabulary. Below the letter is Mr Brian Moore's response and true to his word we will be meeting some time in the next two weeks. I have many questions to ask but central to my conversation will be accountability of the Crown Prosecution Service and the CPS's relationship with the Police.
Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police
Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police
Mr Brian Moore
Wiltshire Police Headquarters
London Road
Devizes
Wiltshire
SN10 1DN
Dear Mr Moore,
I am writing in order to express the gratitude of all my family for the manner in which Wiltshire Police investigated the murder of my mother Antonietta Guarino.
From our first tragic contact with you, you have shown a level of humanity and understanding for the terrible circumstance that we have had to endure beyond simple professionalism and for this I am forever thankful. You should all be proud of the excellent and invaluable work that you do.
The appalling circumstance of mum’s murder has truly shaken my faith in our society, but your unrelenting hard work has helped start to rebalance my world.
Many of you worked on operation Mews and I do not know you all but I would like to express my deepest thanks to every one of you. Thank you to Ciara McVeigh and Gemma Bloomfield the Community Support Officers who attended mum’s home on Sunday the 25th of January 2009 and had the foresight to pursue their suspicions and call for help. Thank you to Annette Batch, Sally Saunders and Sammy Bettles the Family Liaison Officers whose comfort and understanding at the early stages helped us enormously, they made your service human. Thank you Rebecca Mayfield and Claire Stangoe and all of the forensic science team who worked tirelessly to uncover the picture of what happened in mum’s home.
My mum’s body was dumped in to the River Avon and because of this dive teams from both Avon & Somerset and Sussex Police had to endure freezing cold temperatures searching by fingertip in water up to 5 meters deep with almost no visibility. Please pass on my thanks to both teams. I clearly remember thinking about these guys constantly and praying for their success and safety during the dark days of last winter while mum body was missing.
Finally to Steve Fulcher, Nick Shorten, Matt Davey and everybody at the Major Investigation Team of Wiltshire Police, I never once felt that you where not profoundly affected but this brutal crime and always felt that you would work until you built the strongest possible case against her murders. I know that in the intense period following their arrest some of you had precious little sleep and your actions at this time would come under close scrutiny later in court. Time has proved that you and your investigative work was invaluable and because of this work these two low life’s and some of their associates are now incarcerated. The people of Wiltshire should be proud of this specialist team as I am sure you are, they are privileged in having such professional dedication to deal with tragedies such as mum’s murder.
Their imprisonment offers me small comfort because my mum’s life was ended so needlessly and with such violence; but at least through everybody at Wiltshire Police’s dedicated work I have not had to suffer the added indignity of her killers escaping justice and for this I will be grateful to you all always.
Thank you.
Tom Sebastiano and all our families
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