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A Kent mother who was jailed for tying up her daughter to stop her buying heroin has lost an appeal against her prison sentence.

Julia Saker, 50, from Dover, was jailed for 12 months at Canterbury Crown Court in January after pleading guilty to false imprisonment.

She taped her daughter's legs together to stop her leaving the house.

Her legal fight for a non-custodial sentence went to the Appeal Court, but judges dismissed the case.

'End of tether'

After Mrs Saker was jailed, her daughter Tabitha said she would swap places with her mother if she could.

Julia Saker's husband Tim said his wife, an administrator for Kent County Council, had tried to stop Tabitha, 19, leaving the house in October last year by taping her legs together round her jeans.

Patrick Lawrence QC, representing Mrs Saker, argued she had only acted as any loving mother would have done.

He said: "The mother was at the end of her tether. She had no intention of her daughter being harmed at all."

Mr Lawrence said: "The acts of false imprisonment were undeniably done out of concern for the protection of her daughter.

That is why the public would be unable to say in this case that this lady belonged in prison."

'Supporting violence'

But Mr Justice Cooke, sitting with two other judges, said: "We understand that she was doing her best on a tremendously difficult situation."

But he added: "She was also there supporting violence to bully or scare her child into not using drugs."

He said: "No parent could fail to understand the quandary in which the parents of this girl were put.

"However she could have sought the help of the authorities, instead of imprisoning her in this extremely misguided manner."

Mr Justice Cook said many judges would have thought long and hard over the sentence and may have reached a different conclusion.

But he added: "We cannot however say that the judge was wrong in concluding that only a sentence of immediate imprisonment was justified."

After the hearing, Charlie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover and Deal, said the sentencing judge had been technically within the guidelines.

Mr Elphicke, who has written to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and the Lord Chief Justice, has called for greater accountability of the judiciary in relation to sentencing.

Adding that the case had led to concern from an enormous number of constituents, he said: "They are very clear that Julia should not have gone to jail. Look, what would any parent do in this situation?

"And the idea that the authorities would step in, in this kind of case, most people locally think is a laughable idea.

"I think when it comes to sentencing one needs to have a special regard and special leniency where a parent is motivated by protecting a child."

 

How bloody ridiculous!

 

What I want to know is...how did it come to the attention of the police and who thought it worth pursuing!

 

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by Moonbeams (JJB52):

12 months??? ffs.

and 'the child' was 19 an adult.

I wonder if the junkie 'child' had been shop lifting, to pay for her habit, and caught would she have a custodial sentence??


The "child" was maybe taking the drug for a while, and at 19 the mother may have had enough. Not all drug addicts steal, and not all drug addicts should be called "junkies". x

FM

An estimate of the cost of running jails in the UK shows that the average cost to keep a prisoner in jail varies between State run jails and privately run jails. The average cost per prisoner in a State run jail is about 25,718, whereas the average cost per prisoner in a privately run jail is considerably higher. The cost per prisoner in a privately run jail is estimated to reach about 31,502 an year.

(I doubt Eton would be as expensive.)

FM
Originally Posted by Skylark24:

I know, but the insinuation, these days of a "junkie" is a bad person. It is an addiction.
I know alcoholics who have lovely houses and would never dream of being called "alchy scum" Only because they drink the best wine, if they lived in a council scheme drinking shit cider....

 

You adding the word "scum" totally invalidates your own post.

FM
Originally Posted by Croctacus:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...p;utm_medium=twitter

 

could have sought the help of the authorities, instead of imprisoning her in this extremely misguided manner."


 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............if only it were that easy! There really should be more help available - IMO the poor mother must have been absolutely desperate. In her position i may well have done the same,

 

12 months in prison is way OTT IMO.

Soozy Woo
Originally Posted by Croctacus:
He said: "No parent could fail to understand the quandary in which the parents of this girl were put.

"However she could have sought the help of the authorities, instead of imprisoning her in this extremely misguided manner."

Hmmm so the dilemma. A)Stop your 19 year old offspring going out of the house by excessive means to stop them scoring heroin which could result in either a fatal overdose, buying gear that's been tampered with and is likely to be just as dangerous, shooting it up their veins with an infected needle, or, B)call the emergency doctor and wait for them to come round (if they're not busy) chuck a bit of methadone down the hatch and then go through various appointments to get offspring the right help. (And that's presuming that offspring is willing to go for rehabilitation, of course, and will accept the help).

 

Hopefully I will never find myself in such a situation but as a mother I know what option I would choose. To most, tying her legs together may seem like a ridiculous extreme to go to, but put in that situation as a parent, who knows what anyone would do?

 

No. She shouldn't have been jailed. Considering she was trying to stop her daughter leaving the house to score class A drugs and (I can only imagine) what she had to deal with before she came to that extreme decision, it's absolutely ridiculous.

Karma_

I can't think of one that wouldn't require the daughter to make a complaint as even if they found out about it, if she refused to confirm it happened they wouldn't have been able to do anything particularly if she denied it happened..

 

I sorry but if she had wanted to the daughter could have prevented this pretty easily most likely scenario is the daughter made the complaint

neil3842

She was desperate. What she did may have been extreme but unless one has been there how can we judge?

She is not a criminal - people are let off for far more serious crimes than being a protective parent.

The justice in this country seems cock-eyed to me.

The only glimmer of anything good coming out of this is that the daughter may seek help to stop her habit 

FM

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