KEY POINTS:
I hope judges around the country have taken note of the High Court's thrashing of Judge Andree Wiltens. Judge Wiltens, you'll recall, was the judge who chose not to send Lesley Caudwell to jail, even though she'd killed a woman while driving drunk.
The police prosecutor in the case wanted Caudwell sent to jail for four years; the judge decided otherwise. He said Caudwell's bipolar condition and agoraphobia would make being confined to a cell difficult for her and any term of imprisonment would be disproportionately severe.
He took into account her early guilty plea and her remorse and decided that, given she was caring for her sick mother, home detention was the only option.
Thank God the High Court thought otherwise. Judge Wiltens is obviously a humane and compassionate man, but he needs to remember that the victims are the ones deserving of compassion, not the killers.
After police appealed against the soft sentence, the High Court reviewed the case and this week announced that Caudwell would be off to jail for two years and three months. Justice John Hansen ruled that the home detention sentence was manifestly inadequate, and that there was no evidence that the effects of Caudwell's agoraphobia would be excessive if she was jailed.
Justice Hansen also pointed out that Judge Wiltens had failed to find out whether Caudwell's condition could be monitored or treated in prison.
And in another swipe, Justice Hansen decided that the judge had been too generous in granting a 50 per cent sentence reduction for Caudwell's early guilty plea.
Damn right he had been.
Justice Hansen summed it up when he said, "It is hard to envisage a more protracted example of atrocious driving. Given the alcohol level [nearly three times the legal limit], the standard of driving and the extended period of it, she may be fortunate she did not face a more serious charge."
That's telling it like it is.
I'm sure agoraphobia is a most-unpleasant condition. Having mental health issues would undoubtedly make prison an uncomfortable place to be. But prison isn't supposed to be comfortable, and life's not terribly pleasant for Tara Groenestein's family right now.
Tara was the woman Caudwell killed. Tara was a gifted horsewoman - in fact, a memorial trophy for equestrians has been established in her name. She was adored by her family and was taken out by an unemployed drunk who drove through an intersection and ploughed into her. She didn't have a chance.
And when, at the original sentencing, her family were told her killer was to get home detention, it was rubbing salt into a wound.
Jailing Caudwell was obviously never going to put things to rights, but surely imprisonment - the most severe punishment our society metes out to its citizens - was the only response to an act of such gratuitous self indulgence and stupidity. For the Groenestein family to be told that their daughter's life wasn't as important as her killer's mental wellbeing must have been dreadfully tough to take.
I hope they can get some small satisfaction from the fact Tara's killer is now behind bars where she belongs, and that Judge Wiltens has received the ticking off he deserved.
* www.kerrewoodham.com
