Editorial: Killers including killer drivers need to be given longer prison sentences

It is 10 years since Enda Dolan was killed by a thuggish driver who was drink and drug impaired.

Enda, 19, was struck by the culprit, who mounted a pavement in Belfast, and then carried hundreds of metres down the road. The driver so ended the life of a university student, and caused lifelong heart-break to his loved ones, in an act of outrageous driving yet was given a trifling 3.5 years in prison. This was lifted to seven years on appeal. Peter Dolan has campaigned in the memory of his son for tougher terms ever since.

The News Letter backed tougher sentencing for such car crime before Enda's killing and has continued to do so ever since. A key part of the problem is the generally slack prison sentencing policy that applies across the UK. Prisoners typically serve half the term that they are given. In life sentences (which apply to offences such as murder) they are given a tariff, all of which they serve but which is often ridiculously low, such as 15 years. In other words, even a murderer might only actually serve 15 years, so how likely is that a reckless driver will serve anything like that time?

Over the longer term several things need to happen.

Life sentence prisoners should always have tariffs far in excess of 20 years. And then for lesser offences, a new system of remission should apply so that no-one gets out until they have served at least two thirds of their sentence.

Then if, for example, the minimum current sentence of 14 years for death by dangerous driving is raised to 20 years, as mooted, no-one who gets such a sentence will serve less than 13.

Last week, disgracefully, Gavin Hume, 30, was jailed for only a year for killing Edward Montgomery, 63, and grievous injuries to his son, after driving at up to 108mph on a 60mph road near Coleraine. He had driven at such speeds before, and should now be facing many years behind bars.