HUW Edwards dodging prison is “beyond unacceptable” and another example of “two-tier” justice, the Reform chairman has blasted.
Zia Yusuf railed against weak sentences where sickos like the BBC presenter “never serve a day in jail”.
Reform chairman Zia Yusuf blasted Edwards’ sentence as ‘beyond unacceptable’
Edwards walking free from jail on Monday
He told Never Mind The Ballots: “It’s the opposite of right. It’s wrong. It’s unacceptable. “We’ve seen compounding evidence now for some time of a two-tier justice system. You used the word depraved, that is precisely the right word.
“These are the most horrific images imaginable. And the fact that he will not serve a day in prison is, frankly, beyond unacceptable.”
Edwards walked free from Westminster Magistrates’ on Monday after receiving a six-month custodial sentence suspended for two years for making indecent images of children.
It sparked a leniency backlash from campaigners – with The Sun launching a Keep Our Kids Safe demand to jail ALL paedophiles caught with Category A child abuse images.
Mr Yusuf – a rising star in the right-wing insurgency party who is viewed as the heir to Nigel Farage – added his weight to the mounting anger.
He said: “There are so many people who essentially get away with serious, serious crimes that warrant meaningful jail time, who never serve a day in jail.
And he added: “When we talk about two-tier, there are people who are going to jail for writing, albeit nasty and awful things on social media, and they’re going to jail.
“So the fact that that’s happening while somebody’s doing these appalling things, committing these depraved crimes, is not going to jail again is symptomatic of two-tier justice.”
Mr Yusuf hit out at the “catastrophic failure” of the Tories for leaving Britain’s prisons in a sorry state where they are fit to burst – and for the “population explosion” for compounding the problem.
But he said “room can absolutely be made for Huw Edwards”.
His intervention comes after Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch lamented Edwards avoiding prison time.
Despite widespread public outrage, the sentence cannot be upgraded for being “unduly lenient” as it came from a magistrate.
Dame Vera Baird, a former solicitor general and ex-victims’ commissioner, was among those calling for change.
She said: “It seems odd that there is a workable scheme for unduly lenient sentences in the crown court which the public can ask the Attorney General to consider.
“Yet there is nothing that could help a member of the public who was a victim of what could be a very serious assault or sexual abuse to make a formal application on a sentence in the magistrates’ court.”
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Harry Cole and Mr Yusuf on Never Mind The Ballots