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John Cooper QC told Newsnight's Kirsty Wark: "This sentence in my view is over the top"
On Tuesday two men were jailed for four years for using
Facebook to incite riots and another was given 18 months for having a
stolen TV in his car.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said sentences "should be about restorative justice" not retribution.
But Conservative MP Gavin Barwell said tougher sentences sent a clear message that disorder would not be tolerated.
More than 2,770 people have been arrested in connection with last week's riots in a number of English cities.
By Tuesday afternoon, 1,277 suspects had appeared in court
and 64% had been remanded in custody. In 2010 the remand rate at
magistrates for serious offences was 10%.
The courts and tribunals service says legal advisers in court
have been advising magistrates to "consider whether their powers of
punishment are sufficient in dealing with some cases arising from the
recent disorder". Magistrates are able to refer cases to crown courts
which have tougher sentencing powers.
'Lack of proportionality'
Mr Brake told the BBC's
Newsnight that some of those convicted had received sentences which
would have been different if they had committed the same crime the day
before the riots.
"This should be about restorative justice - in other words
making people acknowledge the offences they have committed - and
preferably, if the victims want it, [to] actually sit down face to face
with the victims so that they can hear from the victims the impact they
have had. But it should not be about retribution," he said.
The Howard League for Penal Reform's Andrew Neilson told the
Times that it was "fair enough" to see public disturbances as an
aggravating factor when sentencing but added there seemed to be "a
complete lack of proportionality to some of the sentences".
Croydon MP Gavin Barwell said his constituents wanted to see the courts get tough on rioters
Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon also told the
newspaper: "There is a real risk that in a justice system operating
under exceptional pressure that due process, proportionality and
fairness could be sacrificed in a rush to deterrent sentencing."
Meanwhile, in the Guardian, Justice policy director Sally
Ireland also expressed the view that some sentences were out of all
proportion with the crimes committed.
She said there would be a flurry of appeals "although by the
time they have been heard, those sentences may already have been
served".
However, Mr Barwell, whose constituency in Croydon, London,
saw some of the worst rioting last Monday night, said the type of
sentences being handed down would be welcomed by many.
'Restore confidence'
He said there was "a virtual unanimity" among his constituents
that people wanted to see the courts get tough with the people that
"caused the terrible criminality" in Croydon.
Tougher sentences would help restore confidence in the
justice system and send out "a very clear message to people that this
kind of disorder is not going to be tolerated", he said.
Cheshire men Jordan Blackshaw, 21, of Marston, and Perry
Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Warrington, were jailed for four years each
after admitting using Facebook to incite disorder, although none
actually resulted.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan and Jordan Blackshaw were jailed at Chester Crown Court
The Recorder of Chester, Judge Elgan Edwards, said he hoped the sentences would act as a deterrent to others.
Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Police Phil Thompson
said: "If we cast our minds back just a few days to last week and recall
the way in which technology was used to spread incitement and bring
people together to commit acts of criminality, it is easy to understand
the four-year sentences that were handed down in court today."
The Crown Prosecution Service said the offences committed
carried maximum sentences of 10 years, but the four-year sentences were
the lengthiest related to rioting so far.
Conservative MP for Stourbridge Margot James said she thought the sentence was reasonable.
"I think the young men involved were inciting a riot, trying
to organise the sort of mayhem that we saw on the streets eight nights
ago in Salford, which would have put lives at risk and at the very least
they distracted the police from trying to deal with that crisis and put
a lot of fear into people."
Rule book
Leading criminal barrister John Cooper QC said he believed the
sentences were "over the top" and were likely to be overturned by the
Court of Appeal.
"What we need to remember here is that there's a protocol for
sentencing, and there are rules and procedures in sentencing which make
them effective and make them fair. What we can't do, in my view, in
situations like this, is suddenly throw the rule book away simply
because there's a groundswell of opinion."
In another case, three men were jailed for up to two years in
relation to the disorder in Manchester and Salford on 9 August. David
Beswick, 31, Stephen Carter, 26, both from Salford, and Michael
Gillespie-Doyle, 18, from Tameside, all pleaded guilty at earlier
hearings.
Sitting at Manchester Crown Court, sentencing Judge Andrew
Gilbart QC said: "I have no doubt at all that the principal purpose is
that the courts should show that outbursts of criminal behaviour like
this will be and must be met with sentences longer than they would be if
the offences had been committed in isolation.
"For those reasons I consider that the sentencing guidelines
for specific offences are of much less weight in the context of the
current case, and can properly be departed from."
Beswick was 18 months in prison for handling stolen goods.
His friend Tony Whitaker said the punishment was disproportionate, given
that he had pleaded guilty straight away.
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