It is sometimes easy to react in a knee-jerk manner and call for stronger prison sentences without truly considering the full story.
However, in the case of Anwar Rosser, the petition launched to ensure he stays in jail for the rest of his life is completely understandable.
Rosser took the life of four-year-old Riley Turner in a savage manner, and his whole-life jail term for the murder makes him one of just 54 prisoners in the UK on such a tariff.
His legal team has been granted a full hearing to try and overturn this sentence on appeal.
But in sentencing him, Justice Coulson was completely unequivocal. He described Rosser as an exceptionally dangerous man who could kill another child, and who must go to prison for life.
So it is difficult to see what grounds such an appeal could have to challenge the sentence handed to him. And this hearing can only cause further anguish for his family who have already been left shattered by his loss.
This man would be a danger to the public, and according to Judge Coulson, to children, so what possible reason could there be for letting him out of prison again?
Yes, it is an extreme sentence, but this was an extremely shocking and horrifying crime. MP Kris Hopkins describes it with no exaggeration as one of the most sickening crimes of modern times.
His family do not deserve this further anguish this hearing will bring, and they certainly do not deserve any possibility that the sentence will be reduced.
Let us hope that the Court of Appeal rejects this monster’s plea for clemency and treats it with the contempt it deserves.
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