To think our justice system let this girl down.

[FlossyMoo]

Sorry it is a DM link

I am disgusted they have got away with this.

Vile horrible women. I just hope the child can recover from her ordeal and suffers no affects later in her life.

How have they got away with it. A non-custodial sentence is not the same as getting away with it?

As far as I am concerned they have as a custodial sentence, even if it was short say the same length of time they bullied and abused this child would be better than not at all.

A sustained campaign of physical and mental cruelty from an adult in a position of power against a child? Yeah I do actually think that a non-custodial sentence is close enough to 'getting away with it' to make no difference.

She should be jailed.

And the SLT in the school where the abuse took place have hopefully all been fired as well.

YANBU but tbh children are worth very little in our judicial system if sentancing guidelines are anything to go by.

If she'd hurt a puppy there'd be a national outcry.

Poor little girl

None of us know the details of the case. The Judge expressed concern about the delay and that has affected the sentencing decision. The woman will end up with a criminal record, she will never work with children again.

What else is there to know. They were found guilty of child cruelty and should have received a custodial sentence.

Agreed Flossy what other details could there be to excuse them? When is it right to tape a 7 year old girl to a chair?
If she had been naughty in class, why not bring her mum in or keep her in at break as disclipline.
Horrible, disgusting creatures. That poor girl.

The cause of the delay that has left her on bail for over a year, the sentencing guidelines for this type of offence, the content of pre-sentence reports, the actual evidence that was presented in court rather than reported by the Daily Mail...

What happened to this young girl was awful and someone has been found guilty but unless we know all the circumstances and legislation its difficult for any of us to form an assessment of the right sentence.

Nope sorry Chaz she was on bail while there were delays so she was free to live her life and be with her family. I don't care what the delays were she should receive a custodial sentence. Her job was to take care and nurture/educate children NOT to subject them to a 5 month long campaign of bullying.
She was found GUILTY of child cruelty by the court not the DM surely that is enough to impose a proper and fitting sentence.

I don't know what the conditions of her bail were - do you? As you can probably tell I am a lawyer and I am very wary of second guessing judicial decisions without the facts. If you think the sentence tariffs are wrong then that is more a matter for MOH than the Judiciary. The Judiciary don't choose sentencing criteria.

It maybe that a custodial sentence should have been imposed, if the criteria were met, but we are not in a position to assess that.

MOJ not MOH

As far as I can tell, the judge decided not to impose a custodial sentence because as far as he was concerned the CPS had failed in their duty towards the defendant by dragging their heels in bringing the case to court. It seems like something went wrong with the investigation (probably incompetence) and so in the interests of justice to both parties the judge will impose a sentence but won't make it custodial as, even though she was guilty, the defendant had a right to have her case heard as swiftly as possible and she was denied that right.

Sounds like a massive fuck up all round.

I couldn't careless if you were the Queen Chaz let alone that you are a lawyer.

The women was found guilty of child cruelty in court. That judgement alone is enough for a custodial sentence. There is not an excuse/reason/lawyer type twaddle that will have me believing otherwise.

Flossy
I can understand why you feel angry, the way that girl was treated was shameful. However, as cailindana says there were problems with the way this case was handed which means that justice for both parties has to be considered and a different sentence be given.

That women does not deserve justice. Sorry as i said I am unchanged on my view.

Whois put it perfectly.
Disgusting.

Sorry, I need to add that this is close to me, and I do know some of the details. I know someone personally close to the case. I'm sure their job was made a lot harder by some of the circumstances, but nothing here can mitigate their behaviour.

Flossy, you weren't in court, you haven't seen the reports or heard the evidence, and you know nothing whatsoever about this person's circumstances. She has already been punished to an extent by having this hanging over her for so long, she will have lost her job and will never get any sort of employment with children again, she is likely to be flagged up on Social Services records, she has a criminal record which will make it difficult for her to get any other employment and to travel, and she will have to serve whatever sentence the court imposes. None of that is "getting away with it".

As for the notion that she "does not deserve justice" - sorry, that's the start of a very slippery slope. The day we decide that being found guilty of certain offences means that the individual concerned abandons any right to justice is the day we begin descending into a totalitarian state.

calindana your summation is probably correct but I guess what some of us feel is that i) sentancing guidelines for crimes against children should be harsher in the first place and ii) the victims right to justice should outweigh the perpetrators.

Those things aren't problems exclusively in this case though.

Wonderful points made and thank you but I will not change my stance on this

Nobody is asking you to change your stance are they? you are entitled to your opinion after all..

It is a horrible story. I just wonder why other staff at the School did not intervene during these incidents.