Today's sentence also struck a nerve in the heart of the women's rights movement for whom Lorna Wade has literally become their poster girl. We today asked Director of the Women's Department, Carol Fonseca, if the five year sentence sends the wrong message to battered wives and abusive men.
Carol Fonseca, Director of Women's Department
"When it comes to domestic violence in our society we have certainly come very far in terms of how people view domestic violence and in terms of the sentences that people are receiving. Certainly today's case, a five year sentence, many people will see it as something that is doing disservice to the work that we have doing. Certainly we don't women to get discouraged because of a verdict like this and to ensure that that does not happen, one of the things that we will be doing tomorrow is to send a letter over to the DPP's office where'll ask them to appeal the case. Hopefully, we are hoping this will be taking to the Court of Appeals where perhaps this verdict will then be upgraded in terms of the number of years. Certainly for what Lorna Wade went through on June 4th of 2004 where she was brutally beaten with a 2x4 in front of her children and certainly the five year sentence just does not seem justifiable for such an attempted murder to have taken place."
Though the Women's Department plans to ask the DPP to appeal, Young cannot be retried for his attack on Lorna Wade.
