Verdict sends out wrong message

IF District Justice Michael Patwell wished to focus public attention on the Tim Allen child pornography case he could not have done so more successfully.

Public outrage at the perceived leniency of the penalty handed down by the court was evident yesterday as 93% of more than 800 listeners who voted in a poll on yesterday’s Marian Finucane show believed the celebrity TV chef should have been put behind bars.

Putting this highly contentious verdict into perspective, readers of the Irish Examiner were given an illuminating insight into the skewed nature of Ireland’s legal system by the report of a case from another District Court involving a 22-year-old man with a petty crime record who received a year in prison for stealing a motor bike which, in the event, was returned to the owner.