JUDGE ROBERTS IS FED UP...............

Gun killer jailed for 30 years by 'thoroughly fed up' judge

DAILY MAIL online.

05 March 2007

 

Jason Campbell (left) and Daniel Springer: Jailed for killing Matthew Smith

A judge said the public was "thoroughly fed up" with armed gang members as he jailed a gunman for a minimum of 30 years for murder.
Judge Jeremy Roberts said the message must go out "loud and clear" that such criminals will spend most of their lives in jail.
His comments come in the wake of a string of shootings in south London that left three teenagers dead in less than a fortnight.
Jason Campbell, 23, of Grove Way, Stockwell, was given a life sentence at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of murder.
He was also convicted of three robberies and pleaded guilty to firearms offences.
Daniel Springer, 21, a former Marks and Spencer worker, of Glennie Road, Streatham, was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter and three counts of robbery.
The pair killed Matthew Smith, 21, whose girlfriend was pregnant with his child, when he became caught up in a row over drugs in Streatham in January last year.
The judge said Mr Smith was a "thoroughly decent and hard-working young man who had done absolutely nothing to deserve what had happened to him".
He added: "The public, and in particular the vast majority of people in south London, who are decent and law abiding, are thoroughly fed up of gangs of young men who go round carrying firearms and are prepared to use them, with complete disregard for human life.
"A message needs to go out loud and clear that anyone who goes round as a member of an armed gang can expect to spend most of their lives in prison."
Turning to what happened on the day of the murder, he told Campbell: "That kind of escalation of violence is something that happens only too often and is clearly likely to happen when people go round carrying guns in the way that you and your friends did."
The judge also told the gunman, who has a string of previous convictions for robbery: "You have shown no remorse. You tried to lie your way out of trouble."
He and those he was with had shown the "height of callousness" when - after Mr Smith was shot - they stole his friends' mobile phones as he lay dying on the ground, which could have been used to call an ambulance.
Springer, whose previous convictions date back to a street robbery committed when he was 15, gave evidence against Campbell at their trial.
The judge said he bore some responsibility for the death because of the "thoroughly dangerous" way he went along as part of an armed gang on the day.