Hang 'Em High Hopkins

I attended a talk the other day by judge Stephen Hopkins. Fascinating. For some odd reason I had never really thought about the fact that a judge's job is rather harrowing. I guess it is a mark of the sheltered life that I lead that I hadn't realised that court cases involve an intricate study of the details of crimes. So much so that Judge Stephen Hopkins told us that he was delighted when he got through a court case without hearing the word 'vagina'.

Just recently, Judge Hopkins has had to deal with a case in which some little girls were raped by their father, uncle and brother. In addition, he has had to view all of the horrific images off a paedophile's computer to judge how harsh his sentence should be. Finally, he has had to watch a man walk free who confessed to being a paedophile but convinced the jury that he was into little girls so had had nothing to do with the little boys in question in that particular case.

I cannot blame a man who sees that much human depravity on a daily basis for being tough in his sentencing. I can understand why Hopkins would want to Hang 'em High.