George Tyndale : why was the life of Kevin Tripp worth so little?

By George Tyndale on Apr 3, 09 02:25 PM

Forget about the money for a moment.

Take a break from trying to work out whether that G20 carnival in London will actually make one ounce of difference to your job, your mortgage or your future.

And try to wipe from your memory that inane grin (like the rictus on the lips of a shot dog) hurriedly plastered on the face of Prime Minister Brown whenever he stepped into the company of a camera and a world leader.

Because if we want to make a real judgement about the state of our nation we should look not at the lavish reception in Buckingham Palace, the Jamie Oliver dinner in Downing Street or the fudge-fest at the Excel Centre.

We should turn instead to what was taking place at exactly the same time in another part of London.

Because in Southwark Crown Court a thug and a drug addict were supposed to be facing the consequences for their part in the death of a totally innocent citizen.

Kevin Tripp was a painfully frail 57 year-old who, in June last year, was quietly doing the family shopping in his local Sainsburys.

Unbeknown to him heroin addict Antonette Richardson was getting into an argument with another man about her place in the check-out.

When the man swore at her she called her boyfriend Tony Virasami on her mobile. The 38 year-old hoodlum arrived in the store and Richardson pointed to the man who had sworn at her.

Virasami mistakenly thought his girlfriend had pointed at former polio victim Kevin Tripp.

He hit Mr Tripp so hard that the father of one died in hospital from head injuries.

In court Virasami, who has a string of convictions for theft, drugs and assault, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to just four years.

Richardson pleaded not guilty to the same charge was given just 18 months.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life.

Mr. Tripp's family were, understandably, left distraught by the leniency of these laughable sentences.

They were stunned by the fact that in 1987 Virasami had been given five years for a robbery.

Yet for taking a man's life he was given 12 months less - and under the current lunatic parole regulations he will, in any case, only have to serve two years.

Richardson could be out in just six months because of the time she has already spent inside on remand.

How can the life of a vulnerable citizen of this country be worth so little?

How can our understanding of punishment and justice have become so warped?

How can the drug-addled and the mindlessly vicious be allowed to abuse our way of life with so minute a consequence?

In announcing his shamefully inappropriate sentence Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said the term must not only reflect the revulsion and concern of Mr. Tripp's family but the shock and concern of the public "that an entirely innocent man should die in these circumstances".

Does this man truly believe that a few months inside even begins to be commensurate with the obscenity of this crime?

Of course he doesn't.

Which is why what happened at Southwark Crown Court gives us just as much of an urgent message about the state of this country than the final communiqué from the G20.

It tells us that, morally, Britain is already on the verge of total bankruptcy.