I love those moments when my eyes open in the morning and I can’t remember who I am or what’s going on in my life.
It’s as though the hours of darkness switched off a standby button in my whirring brain.
Everything is tranquil; not a care in the world.
All the joys and sorrows of everyday life flood back in.
That call to the bank, trying to find a new cooker or going to the dentist.
For others, it’s far more serious: a life sentence.
Those suffering grief from a bereavement, for instance, whose waking hours are filled with mental pain.
Or someone with a life-threatening disease.
I even forgot I had cancer during those confused waking moments; only for a few seconds mind.
Thugs in public places are similar to life-threatening diseases.
They blight north and north-east communities to varying degrees.
Take the family of Stagecoach bus driver Keith Rollinson, 58, from Elgin who was killed by a cowardly 15-year-old drunk whom he barred from getting on his bus – in what a judge called a “frenzied” attack.
February 3 is the first anniversary of his death.
His killer got off considerably more lightly with four years and four months; a life still ahead of him.
I feel compelled to write about this awful case again.
Due to the fact that on the eve of the killer’s appeal against his length of sentence three weeks ago I wrote that it be rejected emphatically.
Two senior Criminal Appeal Court judges felt the same way and quite rightly dismissed this pathetic appeal.
Having made such a song and dance about it I felt honour-bound to return to the subject.
The boy dodged a murder charge
The boy dodged an initial murder charge because it wasn’t premeditated and as Mr Rollinson – known and respected as a “true gentleman” – collapsed and died from a serious underlying heart condition after the merciless beating.
He admitted culpable homicide instead.
This case is important to all of us in virtually every community in terms of public nuisance and protection from threatening youths.
Along with bigger questions about justice being seen to be done and fair play for victims.
Police these days probably class teen troublemakers as minor miscreants hardly worth investigating.
Live and let live? Until someone is killed.
A relative of another Stagecoach driver told me: “Drivers putting their lives on the line just for an hourly pay rate isn’t worth the risk.”
My informant said a school bus contract in Aberdeen was cancelled due to persistent threats to drivers and vandalism.
I argued previously that two aggravating factors in this case shone like a beacon; eclipsing all other legal arguments.
First, a powerful deterrent was essential in the sentence.
Second, the killer had already been punished in court over a previous assault on another bus driver.
The trial judge showed mercy by reducing the potential sentence from six years – due to his age at the time and pleading guilty.
In my opinion it should have remained six years if there was a commensurate regard for the deterrent factor and his previous record of attacking another bus driver.
I don’t wish to prolong the suffering of Mr Rollinson’s grieving widow Susan, but certain things must be said in the public interest.
She revealed her disgust over the appeal, saying he deserved a heavier sentence.
One wonders how far wily appeals for watered-down sentences can go before bringing the process into disrepute.
Defence lawyers wanted more knocked off – not only due to his guilty plea, but that he did so at an early stage.
It beggar’s belief.
Keith Rollinson’s killer benefitting from Swinney’s soft government
Maybe if he’d done a hundred lines spelling “guilty” correctly they might have asked for even more.
Come to think of it, a few Jet2 discount vouchers to give him a free holiday wouldn’t go amiss. After all, Mrs Rollinson said that he’s been sent to a charity establishment more like a “five-star hotel”.
All courtesy of Swinney’s soft Scottish Government; some “punishment”, eh?
There comes a point when he must serve proper punishment, but at least the poor soul has early release to look forward to – the driver’s family don’t.
It would be wonderful if he was rehabilitated but don’t hold your breath.
In rejecting the appeal Lord Matthews said “vulnerable” public servants like Mr Rollinson must be protected by courts, which suggested a requisite deterrent.
He added: “It is of significance that this is not the first time the appellant had assaulted a bus driver.”
My points exactly from my column the day before the appeal was heard.
Pure coincidence, of course.
I’m nothing special, but like you I try to be an advocate in the court of commonsense.
So on that basis, I felt the appeal ruling was correct.
However, I don’t believe justice was truly done by the initial sentence.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal
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