I don't think the judge was particularly at fault here. This is in line with other cases, and if he had given a longer sentence would probably have been cut at appeal.
The problem is the system.
Most offenders can apply for parole after 50% of their sentence. This is wrong.
The fact that 12 years as a base sentence for rape is above average is wrong.
There is a lot of righteous indignation about "foreign" criminals not being deported.
Yet the vast majority of crime in this country is committed by British people who have been previously been detected as having offended.
Why, precisely were these people ever going to be let out ?
At what age would you think them harmless ?
What is an "acceptable risk" that they re-offend in such a terrible manner ?
The bad guys in this are many. The Prison Officers Association come top. They want parole because it helps them manager inmates. Both large political parties when in government have increased parole to save money.
Guardian reading social worker types like the idea that everyone can be reformed, and don't seem to care about the victims of repeat crime because most live away from the worst affect areas.
Dail Mail readers have the ear of both parties and thus the pathetically underfunded efforts at rehabilitation do almost no good, since they want them "to pay for their crimes".
The single most common factor for being a violent criminal is not being an aylumn seeker or foreign, but being illiterate. Drugs rehabilitaton is at a pathtically low level as well.