Laws must change so punishment can reflect the severity of the crime

IS a three-year-old bundle of fun more important than a bag of mail?

It's a bit more than just a rhetorical question because obviously you wouldn't need to be a child psychologist to decide that a child is more important than getting something through your letterbox.

Under the law at the moment, though, a child psychologist would be on the wrong side of the argument, to judge from the outcome of two different cases in Cork District Court this week.