Saturday 23 May 2009

The judiciary

Another foreign killer driver evades justice. She killed a cyclist, did her best to evade justice, and was finally allowed by the judiciary to do just that.

Woolwich Crown Court finds a Russian millionairess guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice. After an unprecedented trial in her absence, Natale Galogre was handed a 10-year jail sentence. Galogre had been at a party at the House of Commons with the high and mighty hours before she mowed down a cyclist. She was granted bail at an earlier court hearing and subsequently fled to Russia.

Which judge, judges or magistrates granted this woman bail, bearing in mind the extraordinary lengths she went to to evade prosecution in the first place? As there was a good chance of her being found guilty of serious offences meriting a lengthy jail sentence, and in view of her attempts to elude justice, and the fact that the accused was a foreigner from a country with no extradition treaty, I simply do not understand why she was given bail.

And no journalist has bothered to ask any of the kinds of interesting questions this case raises. Who was this woman being entertained by at the House of Commons before she drove off drunk in her 4X4 and mowed down a cyclist? Was the indulgent treatment of this well-connected criminal in any way related to the fact that Natale Galogre is famous in London for glamorous parties, that she and her brother Igor Galogre, Georgian businessman, often give in their London apartment. No one has enquired. And as far as I can tell, not a single national newspaper covered this case.