A sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence

The judiciary do not operate in a vacuum. Any judge whose habitual conduct shocks the public will have a detrimental effect on justice, writes Dan Buckley

I DON’T know whether Circuit Court Judge Martin Nolan is a Gilbert and& Sullivan fan or not, but if he is he should be familiar with the mantra “let the punishment fit the crime”, part of the chorus from The Mikado.

Democratic nations regard this as a fundamental principle when it comes to sentencing offenders. Less tunefully put, it means that a sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender. Most neutral observers would be forgiven for thinking that this means that an adult violent sex attacker would see the inside of a prison cell, particularly if he has previous convictions for assault.