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Saturday July 31, 2010

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Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 3 February, 2010 - 4:04 PM
justice

What have I been saying? A suspended sentence is no sentence at all. All it means is that a person, given a suspended jail sentence, has to behave like any other normal law-abiding citizen for one or two years.

Where's the punishment in that? And, to make it worse, when people breach the conditions of a suspended sentence, they are rarely forced to serve the time they should have served in the first place.

A classic example is on the front page of the Herald Sun today. And the courts are incredibly lucky that a little boy isn’t dead because of their largesse.

A young mother got her son so drunk on home brew that he had to be taken to hospital by ambulance with a blood alcohol reading of .09. He was five. He was so drunk he could barely speak or stand up.

His mother, Kylie Eastwood, told Police she 'just wanted to have a drink with her son because he likes alcohol'. So she gave him four or five shots of a drink that was 44% ethanol. As I said ... he is five years old.

So where do suspended sentences come in? Well, Eastwood had breached two previous suspended sentences and yet Magistrate Clive Alsop gave her another one. This one for five months jail – wholly suspended for two years.

No punishment at all.

Eastwood has three children including a five-months-old daughter. Magistrate Alsop said he had to take into account the impact on her children if she were jailed.

I thought he should have taken into account the impact on her children if she were NOT jailed. That little boy could have died.

And look at Eastwood's background: In 2005 she received a suspended sentence for refusing a breath test and driving while disqualified.

This woman was an accident waiting to happen.

And when she was plying a little kid with alcohol in 2008 she was already on another suspended sentence for leaving her three young children home alone while she went out drinking with a friend. And probably drink-driving again.

In LaTrobe Valley Magistrates' Court yesterday Prosecutor Dale Henry urged Alsop to impose a jail term of  12  to 18 months with a minimum of six months.

The Magistrate ignored that and then took a swipe at politicians for considering changes to the law including wiping out suspended sentences.

Magistrate Alsop said that would be a 'gross invasion of judicial independence'.

Mr Alsop, that wouldn't be necessary if you did your job properly. How many suspended sentences does this  train wreck of a mother deserve?


Blog comments Your Say

  • Any time a judge disregards right and wrong like this, I always wonder why. Makes you wonder what sort of person that "judge" really is in their private life.

    Alison Dennehy Friday 5 February, 2010 - 2:14 AM

  • I know precisely why they hand out suspended sentences like lollies, its
    all to do with MONEY yes MONEY to keep a moron like this Mother costs
    yes I'll say it again MONEY and the judges and magistrates are not
    allowed to bust the budget, its a total disgrace the a moron like that can
    nearly kill a child and not go to jail!

    Just another thought, I wonder what would have been the sentence if it
    had have been a guy????????

    I wonder!

    Bert

    Bert Wednesday 3 February, 2010 - 4:27 PM

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