David Knight: The Keith Rollinson case exposes a Scottish Government unwilling to stand up to violent youth crime |
It’s hard to comprehend what it must be like to awake every morning with a sense of impending doom over what the day will bring.
A distinct possibility that your life will be ripped apart by events out of your control.
It’s a burden the Rollinson family have endured for some time now.
After their husband and father, bus driver Keith, was killed by a drunken 15-year-old whom he barred from boarding his vehicle in Elgin.
Everything seems stacked against them.
Incredibly, the cowardly thug who carried out the relentless and frenzied beating was given a relatively soft sentence – despite his savagery and a serious aggravating feature that he had attacked a different bus driver previously.
Just four years and four months.
But the family dread that any day now he’s poised to be freed under the Scottish Government’s early-release policy, having served less than half that, in what has been described as a “holiday camp” care centre for young offenders.
On this evidence, the government seems to go out of its way to protect young thugs while throwing victims and their loved ones to the wolves.
Just to rub salt into the wounds, First Minister John Swinney and his bus minister Jim Fairlie refused in the last few weeks to guarantee that the killer would be banned from receiving a free bus pass on his release.
Keith Rollinson’s killer will walk free soon
It seemed a reasonable request from the Rollinsons and supporters in Holyrood.
After all, a moron who injured an Aberdeen player by throwing a seat at a football match was banned from games for 10 years, so why not a bus pass?
Admittedly, we are in a state of flux at the moment with these matters.
The killer, whose state protection includes a cloak of anonymity due to his “tender” years, will be among us soon if the parole board has anything to do with it.
And the Swinney government is still working out the fine details of what is perceived as a shambolic attempt to ban free bus passes for public transport offenders through new legislation.
So we can suspect why they don’t want to be too premature.
Notwithstanding that, this dreadful case transcends even Swinney’s body swerves.
He might not be the most powerful leader in the western world, but surely his influence must stretch from Holyrood to somewhere near the western peripheral route around Aberdeen at least.
He has without a shred of doubt the clout – to order an immediate and permanent ban on this monster’s bus pass, given the exceptional circumstances of the case.
It’s what a bold leader does.
Nobody in their right mind – apart from those suffering extreme wokeism – would bat an eyelid; they would applaud his judgment and common sense.
But as always these days, politics comes before the people.
One MSP suggested bus-pass bans were pointless because they would not stop bad behaviour on buses or elsewhere.
Maybe not – even someone like the banned football fan I mentioned could conceivably do it again somewhere else.
It’s the symbolism of the action which matters.
Losing a bus pass doesn’t mean much financially to an MSP picking up a fat salary and travel expenses out of our taxes, but it might matter to a skint young thug.
In Holyrood, Swinney agreed under pressure from Tory leader Russell Findlay that the crime was an “unspeakable” act.
This seemed a strong response initially.
SNP pledges fairness but doesn’t deliverSN
It soon petered out as he was less comfortable speaking about why the killer was allowed such soft treatment by the Scottish justice system in the first place, and the bus-pass plea.
Keith Rollinson devoted much of his working life to public service.
Now he is a victim of a toxic public-service situation.
A combination of soft-sentencing rules and a pervading odour of political expediency surrounding current government practice of freeing convicts as fast as possible while the penal system buckles.
Scottish Government early-release measures are being accelerated soon so that some offenders only serve 30% of their sentences.
Swinney procrastinated in Holyrood about not being responsible directly for this.
It’s poppy-cock, of course.
A brief glance at Scottish Sentencing Council principles and guidelines shows the whole process is geared toward protecting young offenders: I only saw half a paragraph devoted to victims in a long introductory dialogue.
This organisation has to produce business plans for government ministers, and consult with them.
Even bus minister Fairlie would not give a straight answer about the bus pass.
He claimed bus-pass bans hinged on bad behaviour actually taking place on a bus, not in the vicinity (Mr Rollinson was attacked in Elgin bus station after his killer was barred from boarding his bus).
A preposterous viewpoint.
The Keith Rollinson case should stand as an everlasting indictment of a government which has pledged fairness to victims but doesn’t deliver.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal