Drug-dealing milkman spared jail

Benny Hill was a milkman once. He sang about Ernie. And Ernie gave a widow woman a bit more than gold tops on his regular round! Milkmen have long helped out their customers - in more ways than one.

Robert Holding is a milkman aged 72, which is a something to report in its own right. He received a suspended prison sentence at Burnley Crown Court yesterday for the supply and possession of cannabis. What? Yes, he's a drug trafficker! Heaven forfend. He must have been confused over the government's classification coding. Anyway, he's been supplying elderly customers, or so he says, with the drug to "ease their aches and pains". So he's now technically a criminal.

The judge said she was giving him the sentence as "an act of mercy" in light of his wife's illness. I suppose if she wasn't in a care home with Alzheimer's, the judge would have jailed him.

If you read this report in the Independent, you get the impression that the authorities took a very heavy hand. There is a large amount of pontification all round - the judge, the police and the CPS. It's a pity they don't take all that puffed up rage to the Ministry of Defence and ask what is being done to stop the real criminals in the Afghan drugs trade. It's no good spending a century in the hills shooting at the Taliban if the poppies flourish in the fields with impunity!

It's all a sense of priorities and proportion.

Frenzied attack in Somerfield store

If you ever wondered what the security guards are capable of in your local supermarket then take comfort from the brave guy at the Somerfield store in Anchor Springs, Littlehampton. A 20-year-old woman customer was seriously injured when a man went beserk and just stabbed her. The security guard restrained the attacker until the police arrived at the scene. Well done, that man!

The victim, who had multiple wounds, was transferred to Southampton for specialist treatment overnight after receiving emergency surgery at Worthing Hospital. What a disturbing account! Anyone who does this must be mentally unstable. Therein lies the problem. As a society we do not do enough to treat such people. This innocent young woman is the victim of such a malaise.

Recently it was reported that mentally ill people can often find themselves in a police cell rather than a hospital bed. It's cart before the horse stuff, with the horse getting to push a three-wheeled cart!

I wonder if, after enquiries are made, that the attacker has been through "the system". It's this system that let's us down, time and again.