The public have the perception that the legal system is a farce, because quite frankly it is. Sure the serious crimes like the one in this thread go to court, and often sentencing is too low for the crime committed.
The less serious crimes however dont seem to get to court, I was in the police station this afternoon making a statement (No, I'm not in trouble) and the police officer agreed that the public in general are fed up of criminals not being persued or dealt with effectively if there is the odd chance they are.
His comment was quite ironic because the reason for my visit was an 8:30am phone call asking if they could have a statement, this was all to do with a crime committed back in April. They didn't appear to bothered to take a statement then, but it appears a few backsides have been kicked into action.
I expect the crime statistics have started to creep up again, so they need a little action to bring the figures down.
I also note in my local rag this week a known sex offender has been jailed for 18 months, they didn't manage to get a conviction for the alleged assault on 2 teenage girls, so they have put him in prison for not providing his new address for the sex offenders register.
He apparently received a five and a half year sentence for ten sex offences with children under the age of 16 in 1997, the offences that he was recently in Court for were claimed to be in 2004. Looking at the dates, it appears he came straight out of prison and moved to this area (from up north) failed to comply by registering his address and committed the alleged offences.
Edit:Corrected mistake