No hope as long as our justice system favours the criminals

LAST MONTH, a man convicted of possession of cocaine valued at €750,000 received a five-year jail sentence with the last two years suspended. Effectively, he will serve less than two years.

Prior to his arrest he had received a seven-year sentence in England for a similar crime. A culture of death, driven largely by drink and drugs, has Irish society by the throat.

Donna Cleary - and so many other innocent victims - may have been killed by brutal, uncaring thugs, but her killers were aided and abetted by a Department of so-called Justice that daily releases serious criminals back into society with only a fraction of their sentences served; by a Government that sheds crocodile tears while failing to reform a failed system; and by a judiciary that refuses to respect the demands of society for mandatory sentencing.