LONDON (Reuters) - A man who punched a 96-year-old war veteran, leaving him blind in one eye, during an unprovoked attack on a tram in south London, escaped jail on Monday.

Stephen Gordon, 44, a paranoid schizophrenic, was sentenced to a three-year supervision order at Croydon Crown Court after the judge ruled that treatment rather than jail would be "in the best interests of the public in the future".

The incident occurred after Gordon tried to push past the elderly man, who requires two walking sticks and was standing in the aisle of a busy tram travelling near Croydon on December 14 last year.

As he did so, Gordon's hat was brushed off his head. He retaliated by calling the elderly man a "bastard" and then punched him in the face.

He was arrested in January this year after the incident was captured on CCTV and found guilty at trial of causing grievous bodily harm.

"This was a particularly nasty attack on an elderly man who was obviously very frail and was physically not able to defend himself," said Detective Constable Darren Stenning of British Transport Police.

"The blow to the victim's head caused serious injury, which has resulted in the victim losing sight in one eye. And unfortunately since this assault, the victim's health has deteriorated and he now resides in a residential care home."


:loonyangry:

This three-year supervision order to me beyond belief - The laws of this land are just so out of date and need to be changed - how do you go about it - anyone know ? ..

If you and I - who are in our right minds were found guilty of GBH - away we would to jail go but if you have a mental health problem you stay free ...

The judge ruled that treatment rather than jail would be "in the best interests of the public in the future". ----- Is paranoid schizophrenic Curable ? .. The 3 year supervision order will not even begin to manage the condition ..

Rose, I agree with you. An utter disgrace.

If the man involved is mentally ill, than this sort of behaviour should dictate that be held in some sort of secure hospital until he is better.

However, if he is well enough to walk the streets, then he should have gone to prison.

This sort of rubbish from our courts has led to a situation where the law is not respected & the police & the courts are not feared by criminals.

THE number of violent crooks committing murders, rapes and other serious crimes while on jail early release soared 36 per cent last year, figures revealed.

All were supposed to be under supervision when they carried out the vicious attacks ...

Full article, the Sun, 23/10/07.

So the police catch them & we pay to prosecute them. Then a jury finds them guilty & the judge passes sentence ... only for them to be put back on our streets in order to save money by not building more prisons.

What we need for violent criminals is longer custodial sentences & then supervision afterwards, not this sort of rubbish policy.

As rose says, the law is an ass.

Here is a breifish summary of an ongoing local case.

A couple in their sixties are taking their evening meal when they hear a frantic knock on the door. On answering the door the man sees a breathless, panicked stranger who says he is being chased by a gang of youths and needs sanctuary. The youths however have followed their prey and come storming through the garden. The homeowner slams shut the door but the window is smashed and the youths are kicking in the door. The sixty year old bravely holds his ground and fends off the first couple of marauders until they give up.

The upshot? Yes, you guesed it, the sixty year old man has been charged with assaulting two of the youths (both teenagers.) He is currently awaiting trial. The law is an ass.

It's just appalling. This sort of thing cannot be allowed to go on happening.

common sense? where?

How about this from Saudi Arabia?

A 19 yr old women is gang-raped by seven men. They are sentenced to between 1-5 yrs while she is given 60 lashes for the "crime" of being in a car with a man who is not a relative...

The woman appeals the sentence and whilst her attackers get their sentences increased, she too suffers. Her 60 lashes are increased to 200 and she gets 6 months prison for "trying to exploit the media."

:loonyangry: :censored: :disblief:

Absolutely shocking. Yet our governments refuse to speak out.

Now to Australia. A 10 yr old girl is gang raped by nine youths/men and not a single one of them is given a prison term. The judge suggests that the girl "probably consented" :loonyangry:

It seems the demented (female, I think) judge is concerned that all involved are part of the Aboriginal community...the males being part of a "high ranking" tribe whilst the poor girl is of a "lower" status.

Printable words fail me.

it gets even worse from what sky news just said all the men plead guilty as well!
the premier has ordered an investigation into all the sex crime rulings because he thinks that there will be more cases of racism
(which is what this boils down to)

I sincerely hope that this investigation begins with the judge being sacked with no payoff, no pension etc.

I just do not know what to say :disblief:

What other humans have to go through at the hands of so call other humans, beggers delief - it really does .. :cry:

I agree. What an awful case.

There are a few more details here:

The Sun, 11/12/07.

even more details

skynews

Three convicted of Newlove murder

Three teenagers have been found guilty of the murder of father-of-three Garry Newlove.

Two of the juveniles can now be named as Stephen Paul Sorton, 17, of Honister Avenue, Warrington, and Jordan Cunlifffe, 16, formerly of Rowland Close, Warrington.

Also convicted of the murder of Mr Newlove was Adam Swellings, 19, of Meredith Street, Crewe.

Two juveniles, aged 17 and 15, were cleared of murder and manslaughter.

It can also be reported that Swellings had been released from custody on bail on August 10 last year. Hours later, he was part of the gang which kicked Mr Newlove to death.

One of the bail conditions, it has emerged, was that Swellings was to have kept out of Warrington.

Mr Newlove, 47, suffered massive head injuries after he left his home in Warrington, Cheshire, to confront a gang of teenagers about vandalism to cars parked outside.

He was punched to the ground and kicked "as if he were a football". Mr Newlove, who was married to Helen, 44, died at Warrington Hospital two days later.

He was attacked on August 10 last year on Station Road North, Fearnhead, Warrington, just days before he was due to go on holiday with his wife Helen and his three daughters.

The jury deliberated for 55 hours and 25 minutes in total. As the verdicts were read out, there were gasps from the public gallery.

Ananova, 16/01/08.

Please note the bit in bold. Why is bail given out so easily? And why is bail given out when there are not the resourses to police it probably?

The law, once again, is an ass. And another innocent man has lost his life because of it.

It was talked about in general yesterday on the radio - people are let out - bail or early from prison as we just DO NOT have the places for all the people that should be in prison ...

:disblief:

I just do not understand what has happened to this country.
Far from being a saint I have had some "punch-ups" in my time and probably (certainly) lost a few of them...but the idea back then was once a guy was down and out it ended. Now it seems once a guy is down you take the opportunity to kick him to death :frantic:
I despair.

IN a picture that shames Britain, 76-year-old former soldier Richard Fitzmaurice is led away in handcuffs for non-payment of council tax.

Shocked, he asked: “Is that really necessary? You don’t need those for me.”

But yet again, in a triumph of robotic bureaucracy over common sense, he was told “procedures had to be followed” ...

... “I am here on a matter of principle . . . pensioners in this country are the worst-treated in Europe. It is not fair and it is not right. I have no other way of protesting.” ...

Picture of Richard in handcuffs & full article here, the Sun, 20/02/08.

What a disgrace.

We treat our pensioners far worse than we treat criminals. Pensioners are being forced into poverty because the government has not looked after them. They paid, all their lives, into the national insurance system on the promise of a decent pension.

:angry:

It is very shameful ..

Best of luck to Mr Fitzmaurice .

I agree that pensioners have been treated shabbily by this and indeed previous govts. The priorities are simply all wrong. The article itself is wrong though by saying UK in the headline as the law in Scotland regarding debt is very different to that in England and Wales. (I don't know about NI.)

Crime suspects let off because CPS lawyers 'too slow'

More than 2,000 crime suspects had their cases dropped last year because Crown Prosecution Service lawyers were not ready for court, it has emerged.

CPS chief inspector Stephen Wooler said the number of potential thieves, violent offenders and drug dealers escaping trial "continued to be too high".

The service said its "throw-out rate" - 2.5 per cent of all Crown cases - had improved, but needed working on.

Mirror, 12/03/08.

The police catch them & charge them because they believe they have enough evidence to convict them.

But the courts dismiss cases because the CPS can't get it's act together to prepare for the trial.

Absurd.

TWO hoodies who killed a brilliant graduate in a row over a Lion bar were yesterday locked up for just four years.

Yob Patrick Rowe, 17, tossed the half-eaten chocolate through the window of a car carrying passenger Evren Anil, 23.

He got out to confront him and pal Dejon Thompson – and had a knife held to his throat before he was punched to the ground. He died eight days later. One witness told the Old Bailey that Rowe acted like a “gunfighter from a Western” ...

Full article, the Sun, 05/04/08.

This is an absolute disgrace. I am fuming. :angry:

This is not manslaughter. THIS IS MURDER. They should have got 25 years each.

:disblief:

"Getting away with murder" used to be just a metaphor...now it is literally true. :disblief:

How about this one? Three men, all aged 21 yrs. think a certain 16 yr. old has stolen a bicycle...so they decide to take 'justice' into their own hands. They march him to a flooded clay pit and force him to go for a "punishment swim." After a few minutes the lad tires and attempts to swim ashore but two of the men drive him back by throwing sticks, stones or basically anything to hand at him.
The poor kid retreats but is exhausted and disappears below the water.
No attempt is made to save the drowning youth and he dies.
Two of the men admit manslaughter and get 5 1/2 years which means they will serve ony 2 (give or take.) The third is found guilty of assault but because of "time already served in custody" is immediately released. :censored:

The Law is an Ass all over the world it seems :D


Donkey Sent To Prison For Attack

A donkey has been sent to prison in southern Mexico for a brutal case of ass-ault and battery.

The animal was locked up at a local jail that normally holds people for public drunkenness and other disturbances after it bit and kicked two men near a ranch in the state of Chiapas.

The two victims accuse it of biting one of them in the chest and then kicking the other as he came to the rescue, fracturing his ankle.

Police said it took half a dozen men to control the enraged beast.

Police officer Sinar Gomez said the donkey would remain behind bars until its owner agreed to pay the men's medical bills.

"Around here, if someone commits a crime they are jailed," he said. "No matter who they are."

The owner said he would try to come to an arrangement to pay the men's bills, estimated at around £200.

Chiapas police have thrown animals in the clink before, including a bull that ate corn crops and destroyed two wooden market stalls in March.

In 2006, a dog was locked up for 12 days for biting someone.

Clearly prison isn't the right place to keep a prison unless there really isn't another choice.

The way I see it is that holding the donkey is punishment for it's owner for not keeping control of him & for having not yet paid the victims' mediacl bills.

Mexican donkey released from prison

A Mexican donkey has been freed from jail.

Blacky was held in the prison for three days for biting and kicking two men near a ranch outside Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas state.

He was freed after his owner, Mauro Gutierrez, paid a fine and hospital bill for the two men injured, reports ITN.

Mauro said: "This issue has been already paid for and fixed, so I'm no longer involved in this."

Mauro must also pay £244 to each man to compensate for loss of wages.

Ananova, 22/05/08.

Mum of starved tot gets 12yrs

A JUDGE blasted a callous mother yesterday for worrying about her dog’s weight while her daughter starved to death upstairs ...

... The judge said he was surprised a murder charge had been dropped ...

Full article, Mirror, 28/06/08.

For the judge to comment on the charge, it means that he strongly believes that the evidence existed for a murder charge.

I am appalled. Twelve years is nothing at all. It means that she will be out ion about 8 for the murder of her own child. What sort of message does that send out.

The law is indeed an ass.

There was another story about a young mum who left her child locked in the kitchen for a whole weekend while she "went out socialising"

I think this caring, bastion of the community got 18 months for neglect.

I wonder why she bothered to have the child in the first place. And I can't help feeling it's quite likely to have something to do with the fact that state benefits are far more generous if you have a child.

29,000 criminals released early

Nearly 29,000 criminals have been freed from prison early in the first 11 months of an emergency scheme to beat jail overcrowding, it was announced.

Figures released by Justice Secretary Jack Straw showed there were 2,532 offenders freed up to 18 days early in May, bringing the total to 28,879.

The scheme has already exceeded the government's original estimate of how many inmates would be freed in the first year.

Officials had predicted 25,500 criminals would be freed in 12 months but that total was breached in April's figures, just 10 months into operation.

Last week it was revealed that one of the freed inmates is alleged to have raped someone.

The alleged attacker would have still been behind bars at the time if the early release scheme had not been in force.

Mr Straw has also been forced to make emergency changes to the rules of the scheme after it emerged that two terrorists had been freed early.

Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said: "After a year of this appalling scheme the figures just get worse - more criminals released early, more violent offenders and more unnecessary victims of crime.

"The Government promised that this policy which is so undermining confidence in our criminal justice system would only be temporary - but if it will only be reviewed in September 2009, almost 70,000 prisoners will have been released early. It should be scrapped immediately before any more harm is done."

Currently, 89 offenders recalled to prison after being freed under the scheme are on the run.

Ananova, 30/06/08.

:rolleyes:

Just ridiculous. Totally ridiculous.

Police record 22,000 knife crimes

Police recorded 22,151 offences involving knives last year in England and Wales, including grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, woundings and robbery.

And the menace of knife crime is not confined to cities, the official figures show.

A detailed picture of the true extent of violence involving blades - revealed for the first time - showed that rural police forces also have to deal with hundreds of cases.

The grim picture was revealed in annual crime figures released today which included a new set of data on knife attacks in every force in England and Wales.

Serious violent crimes involving a blade have previously been bundled with other attacks, but since April last year officers have recorded them separately in light of growing public concern.

The statistics include a force-by-force breakdown of knife crime, with the highest number of offences - 7,409 - recorded in London.

The second highest figure was recorded in the West Midlands with 2,303 incidents. Third was Greater Manchester with 2,294.

But many rural forces also recorded hundreds of knife crimes. Devon and Cornwall recorded 288 offences, Northumbria recorded 351 and Thames Valley 329.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has promised that more people will see a return of beat bobbies to their streets under new police reforms.

The Prime Minister said the new policing Green Paper would "clear the decks" and cut down on bureaucracy so officers could spend more time tackling crime instead of filling out forms. He also repeated a warning that young people carrying knives would be prosecuted.

Ananova, 17/07/08.

Appalling figures & still no effective action. Just more hot air from the government.

:(

Today the government is announcing that violent crime is down. Utter rubbish. They must think that we are complete idiots unable to see through their propaganda.

For starters, the government figures do not contain all crime reported to the police that they refuse to document or are unable to deal with because they are busy.