No deterrent to crime in this country, declares judge

THERE is no deterrent to crime in this country, a judge has warned.

Judge Seamus Hughes at Mullingar District Court said it is becoming “glaringly obvious” to him that “a horse and cart” is being driven through sentencing by “unaccountable” people in the prison service.

These people are “fully supported by mandarins in the Department of Justice” because there is no proper penal system in place, he added, as he heard a man he jailed for six months in September was granted temporary release just two weeks into his sentence.