Never Mind, Judge, It's Unlikely You'll Have To Put Up With Him In Your Neighbourhood, Eh?

A boy of 12 who carried out more than 20 criminal acts was today released without charge - because the courts have no legal way to deal with him.

A judge heard the child's behaviour has 'deteriorated beyond control' but his low IQ means that he cannot properly understand the court process.

The judge described the situation as the 'perfect storm' as there is no way that the court could accept a guilty plea from him, as he cannot understand the implications of his acts, and they could not follow doctor's recommendations, as the boy had not been convicted.

So the only thing they can do it...let him go!

Lian Webster-Martin, defending, said: 'I don't seek to say that an absolute discharge is in the boy's best interest, but we have looked at every possible avenue.'

I expect his foster home is as far away from you as it is from District Judge Callaway's house...

We can't , of course, know his name. That would be inhumane. Apparently.

But I suspect we'll be hearing about him again. And again, and again, and again...

Vive La France! Again!

OK, yes, it was suspended. But as we are always told at this time of year, it's the thought that counts...

A French psychiatrist has been convicted of manslaughter six years after one of her patients hacked an elderly man to death. Danielle Canarelli, 58, was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence for her 'grave error' in failing to recognise that her paranoid schizophrenic patient Joël Gaillard posed a public risk.

Refreshing, eh?

The doctor, who has over 30 years of experience and currently works at Marseille's Edouard-Toulouse hospital, was also ordered to pay 8,500 euros to the victim's children, in the groundbreaking case that could affect the way patients are treated.

Better and better...

'If a psychiatrist lives in fear of being sentenced, it will have very real consequences and probably lead to harsher treatment of patients,' said Canarelli's lawyer, Sylvain Pontier.

Yes, but if it saves one life, Sylvain! Isn't that the pious retort of those who'd restrict essential liberties in other circumstances?

Yes, I Do Believe The Children Are Our Future...

...and it's a future that scares me. Maybe there's a reason so many schools are so hung up on tolerating bullies. It's because they can't get any backing to do anything about them.

Not from the education tribunal:

The independent tribunal panel said the school "treated Max unfavourably because of something arising from his disability" in its decision last month.

The exclusion was ruled to be "disproportionate" and the use of the BIC "not appropriate to address or modify Max’s behaviour".

Details of his behaviour? It includes 'swearing, shouting out in class and refusing to obey teachers'.
Which the school dealt with by removing him from class. You know, to prevent any issues for the other children attending school. Does the tribunal give a tuppeny damn about them?

And the reason he was finally excluded? That was for

'refusing to visit the BIC as punishment for an unfounded physical assault allegation against a teacher.'

Yeah. Savour that one.

And certainly they get no backing from parents:

The five-year-old has bitten and punched other children and staff, thrown school equipment and stolen fruit.

On one occasion his entire class was evacuated to protect other pupils.

The last straw came when he kicked a teacher in the face as she bent over his chair.

But his parents claim he is well-behaved at home and say he has been ‘thrown on the scrapheap’ by the school.

‘They said they had to exclude him to ensure the safety of the staff and pupils but I don’t understand how a five-year-old can pose so much of a threat,’ said his father, Cameron, 27, a care home manager.

Volunteers to go round to Cameron's house to throw things, scream, bite, punch and kick him, anyone?

His mother, Laura, 22, a chef from Braintree, Essex, said: ‘Before Logan started school we didn’t know he had this side to him.

'It is like we are talking about two completely different boys. At home he does exactly what he is told and we have never seen him do any of the things the school say he did.

'He really is a clever boy and now that is being wasted.’

He's clever, all right. He knows not to shit on his own doorstep!

Mr and Mrs Steed believe their son should be at a mainstream school where he can socialise with other children.

And if he doesn't feel like 'socialising'? Well, I guess the other kids will just have to put up with it. He's not much of a threat, is he?

Set up a panel, by all means. Talk all you like. But action? Oooooh, no. We draw the line at that.

God, I Really Don't Want To Read His Origin Story!

A killer discovered with a murder kit in his car has been jailed without limit of time after a judge ruled he posed a lifelong risk to women and children.

Police officers discovered Shane Dobson, who suffers from a hero complex, with the murder kit in Hull's red light area, looking for prostitutes.

Wow! And I thought only last week that I'd obviously not been reading the right comics..!

That's some really odd definition of 'superhero'. Who'd he kill?

Ah.

Now, Dobson, who killed his baby daughter by forcing her to swallow a balloon in 1996 to pretend she was ill, has been given an indefinite life sentence.

Yeah. That's a bit too gritty for Marvel or DC to touch!

Who’s The Victim Here Again..?

A knifeman who injured three security guards in a terrifying attack at York Hospital has been jailed for four years.

So he’ll serve…two?

The attack happened at about 11.30pm on July 22, near a science department at the Wigginton Road site, after Meason had “made a nuisance of himself” for more than an hour, Helen Wheatley, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

It was the third time Meason had been caught with a knife in public, said Ms Wheatley. On an earlier occasion, he had attacked shop security staff who caught him shoplifting.

Time to throw the book at him, then!

Judge Roger Ibbotson told him: “It is time you learnt how dangerous producing a knife and waving it around can be. You have shown little or no remorse. You still think of yourself as the victim in this.”

Eh? He thinks he’s the victim?

While he was sentenced, Meason called out: “He was strangling me when I bit him.”

Yes, well, he was trying to stop you stabbing someone!

His barrister, Emma Bennett, said Meason had himself been injured in the struggle and felt he had been attacked by the three guards.

He had been passing through York on his way home to Mansfield and had “taken refuge” in the hospital grounds after an “incident” in the city centre, she said, but she did not say what the incident was.

He had not intended to harm the three guards and his actions had been reckless, not premeditated, she said.

Carrying a knife around isn't premeditation enough?

Ah, The ‘Margaret Moran Defence’! Unsuccessful, This Time…

A former Oxford University lecturer has been jailed for five years at the Old Bailey for destroying a design consultancy after being hired as maternity cover. Maria Di Natale, 45, squandered the proceeds of a £436,000 fraud on designer clothes, holidays and hiring a private jet.

Now, the company certainly bears a lot of responsibility for the laxness of their checks. But she was quite determined and went to extreme lengths to carry out this fraud, and cover it up.

When she realised the police were on her tail, Di Natale tried to have two incriminating computers stolen from the company offices.

But the scheme eventually caught up with her and she pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and attempting to pervert the course of justice on the first day of her trial.

However, once caught, it was a quick diagnosis of ‘too ill to be punished!’, but an effort that was for naught:

John Carl Townsend, defending, claimed Di Natale, previously a lecturer at Oxford University with a degree from the London School of Economics, was suffering from bipolar disorder.

She should have got two five year sentences then!

The Local Paper Isn’t The Best Forum, Sometimes…

Angry David Oultram has been left without gas for more than a week – after engineers claimed they could not work in his cluttered home.

I'm not entirely sure ‘cluttered’ is the word. ‘Cluttered’ implies he has too much stuff, too many books, nick-nacks, etc. Something I'm surely guilty of...

This isn't ‘cluttered’; this is the first stage of hording:

Maybe there’s a previous gas engineer under all that…

The unemployed 56-year-old believes Moorlands Housing has put his life at risk by denying him heating and hot water as temperatures dip.

I can’t see how – those layers upon layers of accumulated stuff must insulate the house pretty well!

… furious Mr Oultram, who suffers from arthritis and sciatica, believes the engineers could have worked around the clutter and should not have turned off his gas.

Mr Oultram, who lives in Wardle Crescent, said: "My mother and sister both died a couple of years ago, and they left me their belongings, and I have a lot of things in boxes and bags that have built up over the years.

"But there was enough room for them to do their work. I used to work as a painter and decorator and I sometimes had to work in a cupboard where you couldn't swing a cat.

"I think these gas engineers were just being awkward."

Well, no. No they aren't. You cannot expect anyone to work in those conditions.

And did you really expect that, having seen the pictures of your house, any reasonable person would agree with you, rather than with the gas company?

Actually, I Think It’s Unsuitable For Anyone’s Hearing…

The magistrates sent Truscott to the crown court on March 23, saying the case was unsuitable for summary hearing.

His crime? Well…

A man found naked in a field amongst cow dung and mud had been sexually pleasuring himself, a court has heard. It was the same farm he had returned to over a period of seven years.

Yes, and that’s not all he does…

The Roth family had suffered because of his behaviour, she went on, as it had affected their quality of life and their children who had been part of what was going on.

“The family have to regularly check their livestock, outbuildings and equipment, as he has masturbated in a muck spreader and set fire to outbuildings, killing livestock in frustration when they cleaned out their farm equipment in an attempt to stop him from this lewd and obscene habit.”

It appears not just any farm will do. He has a ‘thing’ for this particular farm.

His previous convictions included arson, burglary and harassment, and he had a caution for possession of extreme pornographic images in relation to animals.

He had breached the restraining order before, quite soon after it was made, and for which he was sent to prison.

If he cannot be sectioned and held in a mental institution, perhaps the Roth family might like to patrol with shotguns in future?

They’d be doing the county a favour if they mistook him for a burglar.

“Look, It’s OK When We Do It!” (Part 459)

Mark Brown on Ed Milliband’s declaration of war on the belittling of mental health issues:

Perhaps unwittingly, Miliband has managed to get to the heart of a gnarly problem when he mentioned privilege – the perceived right enjoyed by people without mental health difficulties to speak with authority about those who do.

The ‘perceived right’? It’s no such thing.

I have an absolute right to speak as I please.

People can disagree, even point to my lack of experience on that particular issue to scorn my words, but there’s no doubt I have that right, no matter how people like Brown wishes it weren't so…

But he’s singing from a very, very familiar hymn sheet here:

I'm sure some of the comments on this article will say: "Why are you pesky people with mental health difficulties always looking to get offended? A joke's a joke!" But gags about people with mental health difficulties are different, because of where the power lies; they too often come from people who are reconfirming the status quo, defending attitudes and structures that prevent people with mental health difficulties achieving our potential. In other words, they are jokes and ideas that help "keep us in our place", out of sight and unheard.

On the other hand, jokes by people with mental health difficulties about mental health are often about the gap between outmoded ideas and lived experience, or about reclaiming common experiences from prejudiced interpretation. Sometimes, the comedy itself is directly confrontational: the live comedy nights May Contain Nuts and US comedian Rob Delaney being brilliant ambassadors of the genre.

Ahhh, yes. We've seen this argument before, haven’t we?

This is a good beginning; I now hope that Labour will continue to pay such attention to who is speaking about mental health and where their privilege lies as their policy development continues.

It seems to me that a lot of the ‘privilege’ now lies with the offence-takers.

So…can we start to ignore them?

Ingratitude…

The family of a missing woman have hit out at police…

For not bothering to find her? Well, no. Not exactly.

For bothering.

… after they were door-knocked as part of the inquiry.

I…

I just…

*speechless*

Police have been carrying out inquiries in Sneinton and have put up posters – but Leanne feels let down after a police community support officer (PCSO) knocked on her door to ask if she had heard anything about the missing woman.

"I was disgusted – they should have known this is her address," she said. "If you can't trust the police who can you trust?"

Oh, get over yourselves!

It was an error – the PCSO is actually doing the job they are paid for, for once, rather than standing guard over a plastic egg in some school playground!

That they knocked on your door too just means – as usually happens – a bit of poor communication. It’s not a ghastly plot to rub your noses in it.

Inspector Mark Stanley said: "The inquiry was made in good faith and the PCSOs were unaware that the property was linked to Sandra.

"This does not detract from the upset it has caused her daughter and I have personally apologised to her."

I've no doubt he felt he had to say something, but really…

Sandra's mum Kathleen, Gollin, 86, said: "We just want to see something being done to find Sandra and bring her home."

You just have seen something being done – so stop whinging about it to the local newspaper!

No Wonder Our Mental Health Service Is In A Mess…

A mental health worker who twice went drink-driving when acting as a designated driver for her friends has been banned from the roads for almost two years.

I rather think she’s confused as to what the term ‘designated driver’ actually means…

And yes, you read that right. Twice!

She was on bail at the time having been arrested for drink-driving two months earlier and was awaiting the result of a blood alcohol test.

Penalty? Well, nothing at all, really:

In addition to a 22-month driving ban, she was given a 12-month community order with 40 hours’ unpaid work. She was also told to pay £170 prosecution costs.

You will have to hope the authority for which she works takes a good, hard look at her powers of judgement.

Her solicitor, Mark Thompson, said Fairclough was on her way home from the funeral of a friend who had died unexpectedly when she was stopped in Haxby Road. The death had caused Fairclough anxiety and she was on anti-depressants.

The court was told she had not thought about the effects of the amount of alcohol she had drunk at the funeral.

Or, presumably, about whether they should be mixed with alcohol!

Fairclough told a probation officer the bar she had been at that day had been offering two drinks for the price of one, so she had taken up the offer.

/facepalm She clearly learned a few techniques for court from her work:

Mr Thompson said Fairclough was remorseful for her actions.

Well, of course she was!