Somehow I think the judge would have liked to have put his black cap on:
"Hamed's defence strategy was to frankly admit culpability and offer a heartfelt apology to the victims of his recklessness. Mr Sharpe suggested several alternatives to a custodial sentence: a lengthy unpaid work order; a lengthy curfew; the ability to give the Burgins considerable compensation; and a lengthy driving ban.
42 letters of positive character reference were submitted, including one from Dr Adrian Whiteson of the British Boxing Board of Control which said Hamed was “a very accomplished boxer who reached the pinnacle of his career…I do hope you deal with this case sympathetically”.
A character witness was called. Sterling Brown spoke emotionally and warmly of how Hamed had befriended his late son who had suffered from leukaemia.
The judge, Recorder of Sheffield Alan Goldsack, QC, felt a custodial sentence was inevitable and seemed to argue that he would have given Hamed more than 15 months if he was allowed to do so.
Within his judgement, Mr Goldsack said: “Speeding is clearly not something you got out of your system as a young man: it was a major cause of this incident. Your fame does not mean you fall to be dealt with in any different way (more or less harshly) than any other person: you, like everyone else, have an obligation to obey the law when behind the wheel of a motor car."
"You could easily have killed Mr Burgin. If you had done so, the maximum sentence available would have been 14 years imprisonment, having been increased regularly by Parliament. There was a proposal to increase the maximum sentence for dangerous driving generally but that did not survive the legislative process. Many probably regret that and Judges, at this and no doubt other courts, have regularly observed that the available maximum where death does not result is insufficient to do justice in many cases where the driving was in a particularly aggravated form and/or serious injury was caused to one or more victims. Yours, in my judgement, is such a case."
) thought it the most noble of all sports.
