NON ACTIVATION OF A SUSPENDED SENTENCE ORDER IN NORTHERN IRELAND

A suspended sentence is supposed to act as a deterrent against future offending within the period of suspension.  The protocol is that upon conviction of a further offence the sentence should be activated in whole or part failing which the court must state its reasons for not so doing. I commented on this topic in some detail exactly one year ago.  What has interested me was a report  from Northern Ireland where a District Judge presumably operating on devolved legislation decided not to activate a very recently imposed suspended sentence order because the current offence was of a different kind from the previous.  This reasoning has never previously crossed my horizon.  Perhaps somebody can explain the law behind the DJ`s decision?  After all walking the plank was not much of a deterrent without the ocean below.