Here are three scenarios. Let's imagine that the victim in each case is the same fifteen year old girl.
First scenario.
Victim walking home is attacked, dragged into an alley and raped. Perpetrator makes off after ten minutes.
Second scenario.
Victim is attacked, has a knife put to her throat and is forced into a shed in a nearby allotment when he ties her up, has a few beers then rapes her. Perpetrator leaves after an hour.
Third scenario.
Same as 2, but after the rape the perpetrator starts calling his friends. They turn up at intervals and the girl is subjected to further rapes. This continues until early morning when the last rapists leave.
If you consider these three scenarios I think some observations SHOULD be self-evident:
1. Case 3 is a more heinous crime than case 1.
2. The terror suffered by the victim is greater in case 3 than in case 1.
3. The effects on the health of the victim, both mental and physical, both in the short and long term, are likely to be worse in case 3 than in case 1.
4. A judge who awarded the same punishment in each case would be defective not only in his sense of natural justice, but in his grasp of common humanity.
Which brings me "neatly back" to some recent stupid remarks.
Here's one:
"and their only conclusion seems to be that if the Muslim groomers are more guilty, then Johnson must be less guilty, and that is the point I simply cannot stomach."
Toothache AND stomach ache, eh? Oh dear. Anyway, the argument, Mr. Hughes, is not about degrees of guilt, it's about the severity of the crime and punishment accordingly. Is that SO very difficult to understand?
Here's a second:
"Ask any one of the grooming victims in either case if the fact that there were more or less people involved in her situation, does that make her feel any better, any less abused? ...
I would suggest that it does not."
I think this remark is far worse than merely stupid. It suggests at the very least limited powers of imagination. What do you think about it, Pixie?