On the issue raised by one of the links you included at the end of this piece: please don't be so quick to condemn the reduction of a criminal sentence without checking the facts. The attack in question was both vicious and terrible. The victim was an off-duty police officer who'd spent the evening clubbing and decided to remonstrate with the two defendants, one of whom had spat at his car. The attack that followed was utterly unforgivable but the decision to reduce the original prison sentences was based on cogent reasons carefully set out by the appeal judge in question. No one, including the judiciary, is beyond fair criticism. But it does no one any credit to lambast the judiciary if they can't be bothered to check the facts or to take seriously the arguments put forward to justify a particular decision.