Five members of a gang of twenty or so youths who set upon a 67 year old man bowling in park with his 17 year old son and stoned the older man to death in an unprovoked and extraordinarily vicious attack were sentenced to two years in England’s version of Juvenile detention. From the BBC:

five boys have been sentenced to two years’ detention for killing a father who collapsed with a heart attack after being pelted with stones and rocks.

Ernest Norton, 67, was playing cricket with his son at a leisure centre in Erith, south-east London, when he was targeted in February 2006.

The pair came under a hail of missiles and two stones hit Mr Norton’s head.

The boys, now aged between 12 and 14, were convicted of manslaughter and violent disorder in August.

Passing the sentence at the Old Bailey, Judge Warwick McKinnon said: “The conduct of all of you as a group was utterly disgraceful and criminally irresponsible.”

Yes the judges outrage was clear when he sentenced these future murders to such an imposing sentence. Hopefully with tongue firmly planted in cheek one of the officers involved n the case blurted out this seemingly satirical statement:

Following the sentence, Det Insp Clive Hayes said he hoped the “tough sentence” will “act as a deterrent” to other youths tempted to get involved in anti-social behavior.

He added that Mr Norton’s family was “satisfied” and felt “justice has been done”.

I’ll suspect something has been lost in the translation between family of dead victim and the authorities who imposed what is in essence a slap on the wrist to these burgeoning Mansons.

The question is this: What kind of people raised these kids to think stoning people to death seems acceptable weekend activity?

h/t Theo Spark