Stormont is guilty of a shameful failure to toughen prison sentences for serious terrorist convictions

The sentences given to seven Continuity IRA terrorists last month for offences of the utmost gravity were not merely lenient, but shamefully so.

The guilty all admitted charges such as weapons training and preparing acts of terror.

They were involved in plots such as targeting a prison governor out walking in the countryside.

Yet not one of these violent, scheming, life threatening thugs got more than five years in prison. Prosecutors say there is no legal basis to refer these sentences to the Court of Appeal.

While the sentences were shocking and of no deterrent at all to other dissidents who are plotting terror, and while the apparent inability to appeal such insulting sentences was all the more shocking, politicians are to blame for this softness.

They have not made tougher terms a priority.

Yesterday this newspaper reported on concerns that planned hate crime legislation for Northern Ireland will be so sweeping it will impair free speech (as in Scotland, where a planned Hate Crime Bill has been amended).

Stormont is also debating a domestic violence bill that will make “emotionally harmful behaviour” an offence. The PSNI have asked people to file police reports for reasons such as giving someone the ‘silent treatment’.

How has Northern Ireland reached a situation where sweeping, aggressive measures can be planned in an areas such as hate speech, and the most hateful thing of all — violent plots against another human being — gets a rap on the knuckles?

You would expect republicans, who don’t think the Provisional IRA campaign was terrorism, to resist any attempt to toughen sentences for current terror. But you would also expect unionist parties and Alliance to demand that sentences are increased for terrorist offences as grave as the ones for which the Continuity IRA seven were convicted.

Yet in all the crisis talks and the long political wish-list to restore Stormont in January, politicians failed to include the cast iron, rapid route to longer terms that is urgently needed.

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor