Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

Sentencing!

Today convicted News of the World phone hackers, Neville Thirlbeck and Greg Miskiw have been released from prison. They have served 37 days of a 6 month sentence and have been released on Home Detention Curfew.This has raised the hackles... Read more →

Anders Behring Breivik- he's sane, but many think his sentence isn't!

This morning my twitter feed is full of comments, many from the USA simply incredulous that Anders Behring Breivik, a sane person, can recieve a sentence of 21 years for killing 77 and wounding 240 of his fellow citizens. Ignore... Read more →

Raoul Moat- the use of taser-did the police follow ACPO guidelines?

'The Police have commenced the operational deployment of the taser. This equipment has been made available to specially trained firearms officers to provide them with a less lethal option in incidents where they are confronted with an armed individual, and... Read more →

New powers given to the Attorney by the Guardian

I often despair at the inaccuracy contained in some newspapers! The Attorney General has no power to increase sentences. She has the power to refer the case to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the sentence was 'unduly... Read more →

No wonder McKinnon is considering suicide!

No wonder Gary McKinnon feels suicidal I just hope his lawyers aren't! Perhaps at the awful 2 a.m. moment Gary thinks about the time in 2002 when he was offered a plea bargain by the US Department of Justice. It's... Read more →

Trafigura-Carter-Rucked

Last night at about 8:30, the Guardian's website published this article by one of its star investigative reporters, David Leigh. Leigh's piece contained this. Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this... Read more →

Why the Pardoning of Michael Shields sets a Dangerous Precedent

The pardoning of Michael Shields by the Justice secretary, Jack Straw creates an extremely dangerous precedent. Shields was convicted in Bulgaria of the attempted murder of a barman and sentenced to 10 years in custody. He exhausted his legal remedies... Read more →

Archbishop Nichols and Facebook- the leader of a church that systematically covers up child abuse

I read this morning that the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, leader of the millions of Roman Catholics in England, seemed to be concerned that young people were in danger using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. He warned... Read more →

News of the World and Phone Hacking - Why are we surprised?

The allegations of illegal mobile phone hacking by the News of the World should have shocked no one. In July last year, I commented Max Mosley's privacy action against the News of the World. In a little publicised section of... Read more →

Obama-You must not let Bush/Cheney off the Hook!

Last November, I blogged here about dragging Bush and his cronies into the dock to face punishment for the crimes they certainly committed during the time they all had their hands on the levers of power. I found this part... Read more →