We are glad that Luke Rawson has been locked up for only six months rather than for years.
The reason for that is not because we think particularly highly of this 20-year-old – quite the opposite, in fact.
Anyone who is stupid enough to shine a laser pen out of a window, forcing a police helicopter pilot to take avoiding action, is not the sort of person to gain our respect.
But the fact that he is not facing many years in jail means that there were no tragic consequences resulting from his actions.
That, though, was down to luck, for it could well have had ended differently.
Judge Jonathan Rose told Rawson: “I don’t believe that you intended to put the lives of these men in danger, but I am absolutely certain that is exactly what you did.”
And the judge suggested that shining laser pens at pilots was seen as something of a game to some young people.
It is chilling to think that there are individuals who lack the common sense to realise that messing around with laser pens is potentially dangerous or who know that, but don’t care.
It is almost as if they view life like some video game, where their actions have no real consequences.
Hopefully, cases like this, and the comments of the judge, together with the custodial sentence, will go some way to changing such views.
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