Ms Valerie McAllorum Ryan:

Ultimately, the system did let me down because there were no consequences for either offender, but more particularly for the juvenile, which was the more serious of the two. I was actually okay with the suspended sentence. I was just floored then when it could not be enacted. I really believe in the rehabilitative process of the Children Act 2001. We have to go by children's cognitive ability and maturity at the time and everybody can make mistakes and children tend to make more mistakes. When you have been handed a golden egg, though, and then you smash down in front of somebody, that is really hard to take, because I was okay with the suspended sentence. I think there have to be consequences, especially in the case of the more serious crimes. Probation and the youth diversion programme should absolutely be used for more minor crimes, while a very heinous crime like murder deserves detention. There is a whole raft of crimes in between that are quite serious to very serious, where I feel restorative justice and the deferred sentence supervision orders would close the gap. It would close it significantly I think. It would still retain meaning for the victim and the offender. In my case, having no apology was really hard. I know people are directed by their legal teams not to apologise because that would incriminate them-----