Bill Carmichael: Let down again by justice system

In Bradford, a 19-year-old on police bail for a burglary, and awaiting sentence for another burglary, kidnaps and rapes an 86-year-old bed-bound dementia sufferer. She died two months after the attack.

In Leeds, a serial offender ignores an Asbo barring him from a railway station and sets fire to four cars in the car park after breaking into them to steal satellite navigation systems. At his trial, he asked for 23 other offences of burglary, damage and theft to be taken into consideration.

These incidents – and there are dozens more examples – are gleaned from a week in the criminal courts of modern Britain.

There's nothing unusual here – most weeks will yield up a similar crop of distressing cases of violence, yobbery and theft. But although seemingly unconnected, there is one important fact that links these three cases and many others – the perpetrators had all been in court on numerous occasions and been given "last" chance after "last" chance by a judiciary determined to keep them out of jail.

Take, for example, James Moore, 17, the killer of Army cadet Joseph Lappin outside a youth club in Liverpool. From the age of 13, Moore had been causing so much trouble, and making his neighbours lives a misery, that police received 41 complaints about him in the two years before an Asbo was imposed in 2007.

Moore simply repeatedly ignored the order – but each time when he was dragged back to court, he was given yet another "last" chance. Eventually, he was routinely breaching the Asbo on a monthly basis as well as racking up a series of fresh offences including aggravated vehicle taking and criminal damage.

Police officers must have wondered what was the point of arresting him time after time only to watch him walk grinning from court and straight back into reoffending.

The message Moore took from the courts, not unreasonably given his experiences, was that he was untouchable – nothing he could do would ever result in a punishment that couldn't be laughed off.

So Moore had no fear of the courts, the police or the terrified members of his community when he went out with his gang armed with a knife looking for a defenceless youngster to murder.

Meanwhile, judges and magistrates pat themselves on the back for their liberal instincts and civilised approach to rehabilitation. In their lexicon, punishment and retribution have no part to play in the administration of our criminal courts.

They clearly believe that the human rights of offenders to be treated with compassion must always take priority over the appeals of innocent people for protection from random acts of violence.

But, make no mistake, there is a heavy cost to be paid for such an approach.

It isn't paid by judges and government ministers – but by vulnerable people such as elderly ladies who think themselves safe in their care home beds, young lads visiting youth clubs and commuters parking their cars at suburban railway stations.

Presidential puzzle

Frustrated by the inability of the European Union to get its act together, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was once reported as saying: "If I want to call Europe, who do I call?"

The Lisbon Treaty was supposed to change all that and make the EU a powerhouse on the world stage. But, in a major snub, Barack Obama has turned down an invitation to a joint EU-US summit in Madrid in May.

Apparently, the Americans were irritated at having to deal with no fewer than three unelected European Presidents – Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and Jose Luis Zapatero, Europe's "rotating" President (doesn't he get dizzy?).

No wonder the Americans are puzzled – we're confused and we live here!