There’s very little about the drink/drive/perjury case of Macclesfield policeman Myles Hughes and barman Paul Doyle that makes sense to me.
The tale they told of Mr Doyle spiking PC Hughes’s drinks was pure fabrication and Judge Elgan Edwards, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, jailed Hughes and Doyle for 12 months and four months respectively.
Of course, no one is above the law (bankers and politicians excepted) and the public would certainly not tolerate a whitewash but violent offenders frequently get community service and judges routinely claim sending fist offenders to jail is counter-productive.
The ‘prisons are full’ excuse is regularly trotted out to save violent offenders from incarceration so quite why the judge found it necessary to hand out such significant sentences in this case I know not.
I do understand perjury is a serious offence but so is punching an innocent bystander in the face or conning the elderly.
Both Messrs Hughes and Doyle have made a grave mistake and should face the consequence, but it appears the rules have been ramped up a notch for these first offenders and that’s not justice.
