#victim-impact

#victim-impact

A French court has found a former senator guilty of drugging a female lawmaker with ecstasy with intent to sexually assault her. Joel Guerriau, 68, was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday, of which 18 months must be behind bars. The high-profile trial of the former senator comes months after France was stunned by a case that saw Frenchman Dominique Pelicot jailed for 20 years for repeatedly drugging his then-wife so he and dozens of strangers could rape her.

Child killer Jon Venables is set to have his latest bid for freedom heard by the Parole Board. The 43-year-old, who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, will have his case heard by parole chiefs at an oral hearing more than two years after his last appeal. In 2023, the Parole Board rejected the bid and found he still posed a danger to children and could go on to offend again.

destroyed every way I could become a functioning adult

It's a classic legal drama trope: Someone sets aside their notes in court and speaks from the heart. Few expect it to happen in real life, especially not in the unglamorous courtrooms of San Francisco's decaying Hall of Justice. But on Aug. 27, it did. Nicky Garcia, the driver responsible for a deadly hit-and-run nine years ago, dropped the statement he'd prepared to read, stood, and turned to face the loved ones of the woman he'd killed.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson, delivering the first of a number of victim impact statements in the Victoria State Supreme Court sentencing trial of 50-year-old Erin Patterson, said Monday of the 2023 loss of his wife through poisoning, "I only feel half alive without her." Speaking of his wife Heather's absence, Wilkinson said, "The silence in our home is a daily reminder. I continue to carry a heavy burden of grief over her untimely death."

"That wasn't real. He's not remorseful. He's crying because he knows that he's getting bitten on the ass and he's gotta go away now."