Sensible Sentencing congratulates Shane Jones
20th March 2018

The Sensible Sentencing Trust wishes to congratulate cabinet minister Shane Jones for his refreshingly blunt and candid comments about two Northland offenders who allegedly torched a ute thereby cruelly killing two dogs which they knew were trapped inside. The alleged offenders were brought to police by their disgusted family members. Shane Jones has, quite rightly, referred to the alleged offenders as “mongrels” who should be named and shamed.

“We are pleased to see Mr Jones taking a no nonsense approach and calling out these cowardly offenders for what they are” said Sensible Sentencing founder Garth McVicar. “Mr Jones clearly sees that the mongrels were the creatures outside the burning ute, and not the pig dogs inside.”

“Mr Jones notes correctly that cruelty to animals – in this case the grossest kind of cruelty resulting in an agonising death – is a common precursor to serious violent offending against humans.

Animal cruelty is one of the well-recognised signs of psychopathy, a personality disorder which is largely untreatable. Some of our worst killers – such as RSA killer William Bell – have been diagnosed as psychopaths” McVicar said.

“Mr Jones clear understanding of the nature of such offending is doubly refreshing given the alarming naivete of the Justice Minister in the coalition government of which he is a part. Andrew Little seems to buy into the nonsense that our jails are full of offenders who have had one or two unfortunate lapses, or who have been caught smoking cannabis, whereas the reality is that the average prison inmate has forty six convictions to his name, and has appeared before the courts eleven times before finally being sent to jail by some exasperated Judge, after all options have been tried” said McVicar.

“We wonder what Mr Little thinks is an appropriate description of two men who burn animals alive while trapped in a burning car, and what he thinks would be appropriate treatment of such offenders?”

“If the alleged offenders are eventually found guilty by the courts, we sincerely hope that they will encounter a sentencing Judge with the same breadth of knowledge of human behaviour, who sentences them to a lengthy term in prison. Assuming these two are adults, reform is not going to happen. As Mr Jones seems to clearly understand, if they cannot behave as civilized human beings, then prison is the appropriate place for them. The government needs more members of the cabinet with Mr Jones insight and life experience” said McVicar.

ENDS

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