Editorial: Two years not enough for bashing

Today I'm with the Sensible Sentencing Trust. In fact I'm ahead of them.

Lance Christopher Pirini has escaped with a sentence that does not fit his crime.

How can it be that Pirini's partner in the attack on Clive Community Constable Alan Daly last year, Joy Moana Leaf, was sentenced to six years and seven months in prison while he received just over two years in the Napier High Court yesterday.

Did not Pirini throw the first punch, without warning, at a policeman serving his community, before continuing to struggle with him on the ground allowing Leaf to unleash a brutal attack with her feet? Is that not the same as holding Mr Daly's arms behind his back while another bashes him?

Did Pirini not continue to grapple with the policeman, until a brave member of the public intervened?

Is there not evidence to suggest that Mr Daly could have died as a result of this attack and has suffered exceptional loss with regard to quality of life?

The Judge has complained that the charge of aggravated assault which carried a maximum penalty of three years hampered him, yet he has offered a discount for no previous violent offending. This is an attack on the police we are talking about, in mid-afternoon, on a suburban Hawke's Bay street. What sort of message does that send?

While I appreciate Justice Forrest Miller's voiced frustration at the charge, the sentence remains at odds with his statement: "It's inescapable that he knew she had kicked him in the head."

Questions have to be asked of the Crown as to why a more severe charge was not laid - and if they were hampered, then the question has to be put to the law makers.

Could Leaf have damaged Mr Daly as she did without Pirini? It's unlikely. Any reasonable assessment would be that between them they smashed Mr Daly's face, no matter who landed the devastating blow or blows. Pirini and Leaf must surely be considered equally culpable.

These thieves didn't acknowledge the "fair cop".

Leaf's sentence was applauded, Pirini's should not be.

Our police deserve better protection in the form of deterrents for violent offenders than yesterday's court session offered.