The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
CLARE’S Fine Gael TD has insisted that more must be done to shorten the delay in sentencing people convicted of criminal offences. Deputy Joe Carey said the practice that has arisen in recent years can lead to the “distancing between the horrific nature of a violent crime and the sentence received”. The Clarecastle-based TD made his comments during a second stage debate on Thursday last, on the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. The Bill proposes to change the current ten-year maximum sentence for the crime of conspiracy to murder, to a possible life sentence. It also makes provision for a doubling of the maximum sentence for serious assaults and the introduction of new criminal offences of stalking and non-fatal strangulation. On the practice of delaying the sentencing of convicted persons, Deputy Carey said he understood the argument “for the need for victim impact statements and assessment of the perpetrator’s past history”. He added that the sentencing gap “allows for a …
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