Reply To: Boys sentenced for trashing Stamford model railway show

[onlyonepinman 18075xp 5]

To be honest I am not sure what an appropriate punishment really is. Would fining their parents more make any kind of difference?  That’s the parents who are punished not the boys, it doesn’t teach the boys anything.  In the parents defense they haven’t defended their kids, they have stated that they are ashamed of them.  How then, do you punish the boys, Can you fine them? Given that they have no income no, not really. Would forcing them to pay damages help? Not so much, even if they Could somehow pay £30k, highly unlikely, whilst it can pay for replacement items but how do you compensate people for all those years of effort?  You simply can’t. What they did doesn’t warrant a custodial sentence and I am not sure whether you can sentence a minor to community service. In a world where the punishment fits the crime I would make the little fuckers give up every weekend until they had rebuilt at least some of what they smashed.  And being students they can give up their summer holidays as well.  But in a realistic world, there’s nothing much else that the judge could do.