In much the same way that criminals are unleashing terror on the country today, so it was in the 1990s and early 2000s. The murders were just as gruesome, and at one point we got the impression that the gunmen were competing to determine who among them could be more cruel.

So horrific were the crimes that a senior government official at the time tried to get us to stop publicising them. We respectfully advised him that, while we abhorred the actions of the criminals, burying our heads in the sand was not the solution.

Reflecting on that period we came across the case of Kevin “Richie Poo” Tyndale, who led the feared Papine-based Gideon Warriors gang, and his accomplice Brenton Fletcher. Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Home Circuit Court in February 2006 after being found guilty of the August 2003 murder of Mr Jervis Lobban in Mudd Town, Kingston.

Before they were sentenced their attorneys put in lengthy plea mitigations on their behalf, asking Justice Horace Marsh to be lenient.

At the time Tyndale was already serving a long sentence for the 2003 robbery and shooting of a St Andrew businessman. His lawyer pleaded with the judge to impose a prison term that did not exceed the one that Tyndale was already serving.

The lawyer also asked the judge to consider Tyndale’s five children of “tender ages” when passing his sentence as well as the impact that the lack of a father figure could have on them.

The lawyer representing Fletcher argued that his client was a product of the Mudd Town environment in which he lived and as such had to either toe the line or be executed.

“If it weren’t for those circumstances Mr Fletcher would never have found himself within those circumstances which he is in today,” the attorney told the court.

He also said that Fletcher’s role in the death of Mr Lobban — fetching and disposing of the gun which Tyndale used to commit the murder — was an act of “self-preservation”.

Additionally, he asked the judge to consider Fletcher’s nine children as well as the fact that he played a role in the recovery of the prosecution witness who was with Mr Lobban at the time of the attack. That witness, who received several gunshots, gave evidence in court implicating both Tyndale and Fletcher in the murder.

The lawyer also pointed out that Fletcher enquired about the witness after he had been shot, visited him while he was in hospital, assisted him in getting medication on one occasion, and apologised to the witness for his injuries during the course of the trial.

Thankfully, Justice Marsh did not give in to the pleas from the lawyers.

“I would be living in an ivory tower if I failed to take into account the things that happened. The deceased was killed with the impunity with which one would kill a fly or a mosquito,” he said to Tyndale before handing down the life sentence.

For Fletcher, Justice Marsh asserted that in spite of his circumstances, the role he played in Mr Lobban’s death was far too significant to be overlooked.

While we accept that those lawyers were duty-bound to represent their clients in the best way possible, we cannot ignore the fact that there are still too many people in this country, among them so-called civil society advocates, the parents, spouses, and sponsors of scum like these men, as well as people who benefit from criminal largesse, who rush to their defence instead of supporting law and order.

Those criminal advocates should consider the impact of those murders on the families of the victims and the nation at large.