Drug crime ‘ranked higher than manslaughter’

THE group representing the families of murder victims have said the criminal justice system ranks drug crime as more serious than manslaughter and has questioned the value placed on human life.

AdVIC said the Government now needed to introduce murder graded by degree, instead of manslaughter, in cases of death by violence.

The call comes after a man was sentenced last week to less than seven years for manslaughter while another man received more than double that sentence for drug-trafficking.

Michael Byrne, of Old Tower, Clondalkin, was sentenced to 18 years for transporting €6.2 million worth of heroin in his van, while Clive Butcher, originally from Britain but living in Ranelagh, received a six-and-a-half year jail term for stabbing Rebecca Hoban six times in the back in December 2008.

The judge in the Byrne case had said the length of the sentence was designed to send a message, but Joan Deane, joint secretary of AdVIC, said: “The difference between the sentences given to Byrne and Butcher raises serious questions about the value that the criminal justice system puts on human life.

“It seems that when it comes to gangland crime, the value of harsh sentencing is recognised by the system, yet there is inconsistency in other cases when a human life has been taken in violence.”

Claiming that the “scales of justice seem to be tipping unevenly”, Ms Deane said: “There is a specific issue with the crime of manslaughter where sentences of around six to eight years are consistently given by the judiciary.

“In most of these cases a charge of murder will have originally been applied to the crime. However, by the time the case comes to court very often a conviction of manslaughter is handed down.”

AdVIC said serious consideration now needed to be given to an American-style system of murder by degree, with sentencing guidelines established for judges.

That would open the way for judges to hand down minimum sentences in cases of first, second, third and fourth degree murder.

The group also recommended a mandatory life sentence of a minimum of 25 years for those convicted of first degree murder.