It is refreshing to see that Nanny's police and justice system are focusing their attention precisely on the issues that matter, namely sausage throwing.Nanny has brought a 12 year old boy to trial for assault.
Fair enough, I hear you say.
Except that the weapon he used to "assault" his victim with was a cocktail sausage, which he threw at an elderly neighbour and which hit him on the shoulder.
When the boy appeared at a youth court in Manchester, the judge said he could not believe the case had been brought before him.
The boy pleaded not guilty.
District judge Tim Devas said:
"I was brought up in the era of Just William.
You may not remember it, but this incident sounds similar.
If he has done what was suggested, it is very bad behaviour.
But is it in the public interest to prosecute
a 12-year-old boy who threw a sausage?"
The alleged incident is said to have taken place on Aug 11 in Wythenshawe, Manchester, when the victim was walking home after visiting a pub. He claims that the boy threw the sausage after a disagreement.
Officers from the Greater Manchester police visited the boy's home, where he was arrested, photographed and fingerprinted.
Dianne Oliver, prosecuting, said that the Crown Prosecution Service would review the charge.
Quite!
Whilst the boy should be dealt with by his parents for being disrespectful, and for being a bloody nuisance (he has 3 reprimands apparently, therefore he is no angel); the state has no business bringing him to trial for this (cost so far £2K), when there are herds of scum bags allowed to create merry hell in neighbourhoods without so much as a sniff of a policeman coning into view.
this is precisely why we should bring back the stocks. The boy, if guilty, could then be dealt with to everyone's satisfaction without the need for this absurd overreaction.
It seems crazy to prosecute a boy for assault with a cocktail sausage and all the cost involved.
ReplyDeletePerhaps nanny should legislate to put a "Throwing of this product may result in prosecution and a criminal record" warning on cocktail sausage packs. I am suprised he wasn't prosecuted under 'elf & safety laws instead of the offences against the persons act. Imagine the carnage had the victim of the cocktail sausage attack had been using a ladder at the time.....I shudder to think!!
Perhaps a parental slap would be the best course of action....old fashioned I know...but effective!
Maybe I am getting old but I remember the days when if any of us had done such a thing and the police were involved, justice would have been meted out with a swift clip round the ear by the local bobby and the phrase "Your father will hear of this!". Far more effective both as a deterrent to future misbehaviour and cost wise.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness there is something desperately wrong with our justice system when there are 11-year old boys being shot at random on the street in one city and 12-year old boys being arrested and charged with nonsense incidents. I think our entire justice system is in dire need of an overview.
ReplyDeleteThe report I read suggested that the lad might have some behavioural problem history and that, based on a quoted comment from the lad, the elderly gentleman, a neighbour, was having a go at him 'as usual' (or some phrase of similar meaning) before this sausage was launched.
ReplyDeleteSo long term problems and antagonism may be involved. No one comes out of this well do they, except maybe the judge?
Perhaps plod were somply seeing a ready target for some positive stats given the previous. But I would have thought a fixed penalty for littering would have done as much good.
Grant
So, despite the boy having been reprimanded by the police on three previous occasions, you still feel that this next step was unwarranted?
ReplyDeleteThe judge is deluded and out of touch to compare the incident to Just William. 'William' wasn't a vindictive little shit, whereas I suspect that this boy is. Such kids can be intimidating to other people going about their business.
Whilst I despair at the culture of waste that is endemic across our state infrastructure, criminal justice is one of the few areas where I don't wish to see it become a factor in every decision to prosecute or sentence.
Yes, it might be disproportionately costly to exercise the system in an instance of sausage-throwing, but then we lose out if we give up and only deal with 'expensive' crimes, like murder and rape (and, of course, speeding and insulting people).
I'm not saying that officers shouldn't exercise discretion- they absolutely should, and would probably do so more often if they were of a less officious bent and didn't have to please target-chasers, but discretion was exercised with the boy prior to them taking this course of action.
Machiavelli's Understudy may well be right and I would guess that the lad probably does need some sort of sorting out.
ReplyDeleteHowever I can't imagine how taking a kid to court for assault with a cocktail sausage helps anyone.
If he has had 3 previous warnings how come there was not some natural followup event for the 4th instance of a problem? After all I thought the whole point of an ASBO (and presumably similar instruments) is to create a criminal offence that can be used when people who cause a nuisance with otherwise legal actions are deemed to need more severe punishment.
Breaking the terms of an ASBO, though it be a very backdoor law, might have more resonance with the public than assault with a cocktail sausage.
Better still, if he really is a little monster, take him into care and give everyone, including his parents, a break.
Out Of Touch? Are you mental? The only person who comes out of this will is the judge. He made a very valid point and stood up perfectly for his beliefs in a system that rarely allows that! He made exactly the right decision and "Machiavelli's Understudy", maybe you ought to think about how you would have reacted if you were the judge. A lot differently I'm sure!
ReplyDelete