MY OPINION of the justice system has always been a little bit on the low side, with far too many verdicts leaving me shaking my head in despair.
You hear the details of crimes, you get judges' comments about how appalling the perpetrator's actions were - and then along comes the sentence.
And, unlike those handed down by the Lord High executioner in The Mikado, the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime.
Take for example the recent High Court decision reducing the sentence of a man who bashed 23 seal pups to death in Kaikoura.
That lowlife, known as Jason Godsiff, was originally sentenced to two years' jail for his disgraceful, wanton act of brutality against harmless animals.
He took a steel bar and went among the creatures bashing their brains out. He didn't kill them all instantly, either, many died in pain some days later.
How anyone could do that is utterly beyond my comprehension and they should forfeit their rights as a resident of this society.
But, Godsiff's defence lawyer appealed his conviction and what to my mind was a light sentence was turned into a little more than a slap on the wrist. The High Court reduced the two years' jail to eight months of home detention. Doesn't that make you angry?
The court agreed with Godsiff's lawyer that the punishment was "excessive".
Although how that was worked out boggles my mind.
It had something to do with the trial judge not taking into account Godsiff's age, character, remorse and co-operation with police. He was 19, certainly old enough to know better. He's shown the sort of character he has - he loves killing cute animals for fun. He was sorry he was caught. And while he co-operated, that shouldn't soften any sentence for such a heinous act.
The SPCA agrees with me with its chief Robyn Kippenberger saying the decision was "appallingly wrong".
"What message does that send to people about the importance, firstly of animal suffering, and secondly the importance of this sort of crime."
The SPCA wants tougher penalties for those who are violent to animals and I agree they should face serious jail time.
RECENTLY I made mention of my shop being the victim of a light-fingered little so-and-so and how I doubted anything meaningful would be done to the beast. Well, I got a letter from the local rozzers last week telling me that the teenager had been dealt with by the courts.
He didn't get the stocks, which would have been a great humiliation, but did write a note of apology to me and my staff - in neat handwriting. According to the coppers he was given a 20-hour sentence of community service. Initially I thought that was a bit light - but compared with the 100 hours a bloke got instead of paying his $10,000 in fines - maybe it wasn't so bad after all.
In fact, having to be around some of society's do-badders for 20 hours may just give the stupid fellow more than a little short, sharp shock and stop him from going further down the road of criminality.
MAYBE the aforementioned thief needed to have a dad who was a former All Black. Like the one who had his name suppressed after being charged with child assault.
Yup, yet again an AB gets his reputation protected in the courts. Ah well, I have a question for all you rugby buffs out there. How many former All Blacks are in their 40s?
TWO THINGS I have learned in sport - never ignore the challenge of an All Black haka and never write off an Australian sporting team.
The Black Caps discovered the latter over the weekend when they played a very weakened Aussie cricket lineup in the first transtasman test.
NZ television was abuzz with how it was the best chance in decades for the Caps to show how good they were - after all the Aussies had lots of injuries and three debutant players.
Only the Australians didn't read the script and fired up, defeating the Caps in fewer than four days by nine wickets.
In non-cricketing terms - a walkover.
richard@richardmoore.com