WHEN he handed out his preposterous four-year sentence on Lewis Gill, whose single punch killed Bournemouth man, Andrew Young, Judge Keith Cutler told him: “You will have to bear in mind for the rest of your life the fact that you’ve been responsible for the death of another human being. It is a very heavy responsibility and one you will have to manage to cope with.”

And if we were talking about some decent, clean-living, citizen who actually gave a damn then yes, these words would have had great resonance indeed.

But Judge Cutler wasn’t addressing a person like that.

He was addressing a thug who was already serving a suspended sentence for handling stolen goods and who saw nothing wrong with punching a man, just because he remonstrated with another man about cycling on the pavement.

I’m surprised His Honour didn’t offer to hold Gill’s hand as he was taken into the cells; he is, after all, the judge who thought fit to start the inquest into the police shooting of gangster Mark Duggan with a minute’s silence to acknowledge the ‘regrettable loss of a young life’.

Delivering his sentence, Judge Cutler said he accepted there was ‘no premeditated element’ to Gill’s attack on Young, who had Aspergers.

But that’s not the point, is it? It doesn’t matter a flying wotsit to Andrew or his grieving mum, Pamela, whether the punch was premeditated or not. It still killed him. He’s still dead. And, given the way things are in Britain, Gill will probably waltz free after a mere two years.

Yes, the whole thing is being looked at by the Attorney General. But that shouldn’t have to happen, should it?

Time was when judges would sentence people like Gill in a draconian manner. Now, they hand out sentences that encourage criminals. And in so doing break the hearts of the victims’ families all over again.