Court sentences for Luke Davidson and Luke Barnard highlight inconsistencies with justice system, writes Kris Johnston

I sometimes feel as though I become a little fixated on certain issues - but surely I can’t be the only one continually left baffled by some of the court decisions we’ve seen recently?

Last week, for instance, we saw two men jailed for different driving offences that resulted in people dying in our area.

Luke Davidson, a 20-year-old disqualified driver from Cambridgeshire, was sent to custody after pulling out from a petrol station into the path of Outwell motorcyclist Ian Parnell, who died at the scene.

Davidson did, in the heat of the moment, run from the scene - but he contacted police himself an hour later and handed himself in.

He was jailed for four years and seven months after pleading guilty to causing death by driving while disqualified, unlicensed and uninsured.

Also now behind bars is Fakenham man Luke Barnard, who crashed his car while drink-driving home from a Christmas party in December 2021. In the process, his 41-year-old passenger Claire Williamson was killed.

He was originally arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and drink-driving, but was eventually sentenced for causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink.

He will spend three years in prison, and has been disqualified from driving for just four years.

Forgive me if I am missing something glaringly obvious, but I fail to see why Barnard should be both out of prison and back on the roads before Davidson - who has been banned for eight years.

By the looks of the footage Cambridgeshire Police released of Davidson’s actions, he made an idiotic and horrendous mistake. He allowed numerous cars to pass before pulling out in front of a motorbike - he ruined God knows how many lives in the process, and will have to live with that for as long as he lives.

I can’t imagine he would be the only 20-year-old to run away either, but at the very least he saw sense and handed himself in.

Barnard, in my opinion, committed a much more heinous act. I do not believe there are many worse things an ordinary human being can do than drink or drug-drive.

His passenger was killed because of his madness, and it could have been worse. What if a family of three had been unlucky enough to be driving towards him when, blinded by his drunkness, he had ploughed into them?

We need only look back a few months to the case of Lynn man Aurelijus Cielevicius to find the answer.

Maybe it’s just me, but something seems a little bit off with our justice system.