Midland Arsonist given ten years.

[Donny Dave]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6575809.stm

 

[Mojo]

Blimey, that's a bit excessive given we're giving ten months for those who kill others by dangerous driving.

 

[yorkie]

Blimey, that's a bit excessive given we're giving ten months for those who kill others by dangerous driving.

Not really, considering this was an act he repeated many times and was very carefully pre-planned and he knew exactly what he was doing. The sentence is about right - for once.

As for something excessive, what about the solicitor jailed for 15 months for giving someone some cannabis? And yes, people who kill others or cause serious injury get far lower sentences than that. Compare that to the women who forced toddlers to fight each other who got away with it. That's crazy. Bizarre. In fact, it's just plain wrong.

Basically, the law is messed up. Seriously.

 

[Nick W]

Blimey, that's a bit excessive given we're giving ten months for those who kill others by dangerous driving.

There's a big difference between accidentally killing someone through being an idiot and deliberately causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

 

[Kris]

I think it's to give out the message that vandalising the infrastructure won't be tolerated.

Probably thinking in terms of the amount of incovenience it caused to thousands of passengers, loss of money to businesses and the overall cost of damage and repair.

 

[Max]

Compare that to the women who forced toddlers to fight each other who got away with it. That's crazy. Bizarre. In fact, it's just plain wrong.

I saw that in the paper today, its an absolute disgrace. To be frank, the British judicial system is completely useless and desperately needs an overhaul. I also note that on the same day a man was sent to prison for 6 months for staging pit-bull terrier fights. How can that be fair?

 

[Nick W]

At least we have proffessional judges and not people randomly selected from forums dealing with sentencing.

 

[Lewisham2221]

And now he's had his sentence reduced after an appeal:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6982040.stm

Railway vandal's sentence reduced
A former rail worker whose revenge attacks caused chaos on the railways and left the industry with a £4m bill has had his sentence cut.

Allan Nicol, of Birmingham, cut cables and set fire to equipment in 12 attacks over 17 months in the West Midlands.

He was also found guilty of putting lives at risk by setting fire to a trackside relay room in Staffordshire.

He was jailed for 10 years, but this has now been reduced at the Court of Appeal to seven-and-a-half years.

Lord Justice Toulson said Nicol, of Yardley, had positive prison reports, regretted his actions, and had no intention of repeating them.

He was sentenced in January after being found guilty of arson being reckless as to endanger life by setting fire to the relay room in Rugeley, Staffordshire, in November 2005.

His vandalism cost the railway industry millions of pounds, with nearly 7,000 train services cancelled or delayed.

The vandalism attacks took place in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Worcestershire during 2004 and 2005, and had a knock-on effect over a massive area of the rail network.

The trial heard Nicol, who set up a recruitment firm for rail workers, acted as he did when he felt Network Rail had stopped using his company to recruit staff.

Lord Justice Toulson said Nicol had felt a sense of responsibility for his men which collided with a sense of increasing impotence in relation to concerns about safety standards.

But the judge said: "This campaign of vandalism was never going to make life safer for his colleagues or anybody else.

"All it could do was make life a great deal more difficult for all concerned and to increase the annoyance and, ultimately, the cost, suffered by members of the public and shareholders of the company."

 

[me123]

I have to wonder why the hell soeone would do something liuke that. What does it achieve?

 

[Bonemaster]

Bearing in mind that post prisoners if they keep there nose clean are released in half the time, it seems pretty fair at 7 1/2 years, I was caught up in the mess that he caused several times, and my employer lost money several times as people could not get to work due to the chaos that he caused

It was deliberate, malicious damage, caused by someone who knew the dangers of what they were doing in relation to railway safety

 

[Redrock]

It sounds pretty fair to me, considering the amount of damage and the fact that safety was compromised. I think its about time the courts got tough with railway vandals.

 

[support-uk-rail]

I'd have given him a £30k fine, 12 years imprisonment, with earliest release after 6.6 years, with bail from 5.9 years, a ban from working in the rail industry, and banned from accessing trains in his area.

 

[Nick W]

He seems to know what he's doing though. Why not force him to lay fiber optic cables as community service in preparation for future resignalling schemes.

 

[support-uk-rail]

suppose so.

 

[me123]

Why not make him stand outside each station affected, wearing a sandwich board which reads "I'm the reason why your trains were cancelled". Then he'd look like an idiot, he'd probably get beaten up and then throw him in and let him rot! (Wow, I have some imagination!)