I was a court reporter in the 1990s and remember the day a violent thug was due to be sentenced.
He had been found guilty of GBH after a knife attack paralysed a young woman.
But, as the victim wheeled herself into court for the hearing, his counsel informed the judge that Mr X declined to appear. I can’t remember His Honour’s exact response but I know it almost blew the barrister’s wig off.
So he rushed away for a hasty conference with his client in the cells below.
Later that day the man appeared, handcuffed between two burly prison officers, his feet barely touching the ground. But throughout the sentencing he ranted, swore and abused his victim, who sat just yards away.
It felt like he was attacking her again and I couldn’t understand why she had to endure the disgusting spectacle.
But as the thug was led off to start a lengthy sentence, she told me she had expected his reaction but needed to see him face justice. “It gave me some power back,” she said.
“He showed his true colours and I showed him that despite what he’s done to me, I still have control. He has nothing.”
I thought about her this week as cowardly Thomas Cashman skulked in his cell and refused to face justice for murdering a nine-year-old girl.
Because Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mother, Cheryl never got to look him in the eye and show him what he had done to her.
Cashman should have been compelled to listen to her heart-rending impact statement – telling how she now has to drive to the cemetery to be close to her little daughter.
And the furious reaction to the case shows Justice Secretary Dominic Raab really needs to get his finger out and change the law to prevent this happening again. Why the delay?
Surely it just requires an amendment to the Contempt of Court Act 1981? Make refusal to attend sentencing a contempt of court offence and set a hefty maximum sentence to be served on top of the one they are given.
But forget the idea of using physical force to haul unwilling defendants into the dock, however satisfying the thought might be.
It’ll never wash in 2023. Prison officers no longer escort defendants to court and private security firms won’t make their guards take the risk.
There will be endless adjournments as defendants claim assault, injury or breach of their human rights.
And families like the courageous Pratt-Korbels will face longer delays before seeing justice done.
Thomas Cashman’s contemptuous actions should have earned him extra time behind bars.
But he didn’t win. He showed the world his true colours.
And he is nothing.
