Lashley wants new sentencing guidelines

Minister of Legal Affairs and Criminal Justice Michael Lashley wants tougher sentencing guidelines for firearm and sexual offences, even as he maintained that judges must retain discretion when imposing penalties.

In Tuesday’s House of Assembly debate on the Penal System Reform (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to give judges greater flexibility to consider relevant previous convictions, Lashley said firearm offences, in particular, should attract custodial sentences in appropriate cases.

He said: “Although Section 35 of this legislation states that a custodial sentence is not warranted…a man who is found guilty of a firearm offence, possession of a firearm, and if the court has to take into account the seriousness of the offence, I always wondered why we arrived at a fine.