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JUDGE ORDERS THUG TO CASHPOINT TO GET MONEY FOR VICTIM

Judge Downes: Halved sentence

Wednesday March 12,2008

By Martyn Brown

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A JUDGE halved the jail sentence of a thug who broke an elderly woman’s hip after he agreed to go to the bank for cash to compensate her.

Judge Paul Downes bailed Gary Hickton, 42, so he could leave the dock to get £750 for the woman, who needed a hip replacement after he pushed her over.

Hickton returned with the cash an hour later and was jailed for nine months after he admitted injuring Shirley Smith, 72.

The judge told him he would have been jailed for twice as long if he had not paid up.

The move meant Mrs Smith got her compensation in one lump sum instead of waiting for a series of staggered payments.

Mrs Smith was pushed to the ground in the street by Hickton as she tried to walk past him while he was walking a dog with his partner and mother.

This was brutish behaviour on your part against an elderly and frail woman

Judge Downes

One of Hickton’s group asked Mrs Smith why she could not walk around them like everyone else, Jonathan Dunne, defending, told Norwich Crown Court.

Hickton lashed out because he believed Mrs Smith had held on to his partner’s arm and deliberately not walked around them in the market place of Swaffham, Norfolk. He admitted he “lost his temper” and pushed her.

Hickton, who has two previous convictions for threatening behaviour in 1984 and 1989, expressed remorse when he appeared for sentencing.

Judge Downes ordered him to pay up after hearing Hickton had recently been made redundant and got a £5,400 payoff. “I don’t want anybody to think I am bargaining with you, but if you can come up with compensation your sentence will be substantially reduced.” he said. “I am thinking of £750.”

When Hickton of Dereham, Norfolk, returned with the cash to be sentenced, the judge said: “I am going to halve what you would have got. You would have got a sentence of 18 months if you had not paid compensation.

“This was brutish behaviour on your part against an elderly and frail woman.”

The judge ordered that the money should be passed on to Mrs Smith, from Swaffham.

“This is not a valuation of her injury – the courts do not think like that – but I think she ought to be allowed some compensation,” Judge Downes added.

Mrs Smith was forced to cancel a planned cruise as a result of her injury, said prosecutor Christopher Youell. She was not in court and was not available for comment yesterday.

Last night retired judge Keith Matthewman QC called the decision “disgraceful”. “It gives criminals the message that they can pay to reduce their punishment,” he said.

Victim Support welcomed the move. Giving Mrs Smith her compensation in one lump sum spared her the ordeal of waiting for instalments which would act as a reminder of the crime, a spokesman said. But he added: “However, compensation is not necessarily a bargaining tool although the judge has recognised this in his comments.”

The Judicial Communications Office said judges “have discretion to provide practical sentences that fit the circumstances of the crime and support the victims of that crime”.

I WONDER HOW MUCH THE JUDGE WOULD HAVE WANTED IF IT HAD HAPPENED TO HIM?

13.03.08, 9:05pm

Don't think the amount would be anywhere near £750 then, do you?

• Posted by: Jac16 • Report Comment

BEGGARS BELIEF!

13.03.08, 5:35pm

This 'Judge' should have given the lady all of the crims cash, not just £750!

He should have paid for her cruise, and the Judge should have given him a far longer sentence.

Giving the toerag bail to go and withdraw money from the cashpoint??

Which planet is the Judge living on??

So it is okay for a man to knock over an old lady, then pay her peanuts, and then half the sentence?

These Judges want carting away tot he funny farm, none of them have any sense at all.

• Posted by: SandieL • Report Comment