Wednesday 17 December 2008

Stick and Stones May Break My Bones...

...but call me names and I’ll kill you.

And get off scot free:
Anthony Corsi, 24, was on a night out when a group of men began chanting "Rooney, Rooney" at him.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Corsi swung a punch at trainee accountant Christopher Jones, 21, who died a week later from a head injury.
It sounds like a manslaughter case, rather than murder, but it certainly doesn’t seem like the case you can just walk away from, either.

Guess again:
Corsi admitted he "overreacted" when he was teased about his likeness to the soccer star as he got into a taxi in Cardiff city centre.

The court heard he told police: "I was upset about what they called me and I stopped the car and got out.

"I was angry, nervous, upset and drunk. Maybe it was the way he approached, I just remember him coming towards me and I hit him.

"I suppose I felt threatened and overreacted."
So, he stopped the car and got out in reaction to a bit of drunken name-calling? Doesn’t sound like he wanted to avoid trouble, does it?
The court heard Mr Jones, of Marshfield, near Cardiff, was hit by an upper cut and suffered bleeding to the brain.

He was expected to make a full recovery - but collapsed and in hospital a week later of a ruptured artery.
So Corsi was arrested. And has now been acquitted – not by a jury. By the judge.
John Charles Rees QC, defending, said: "I don't want to insult Wayne Rooney but his looks have become a bit of a figure of fun."
Corsi, of Heath, Cardiff, denied manslaughter and was cleared after judge Wyn Williams directed the jury to find him not guilty.
Sadly, I can’t find a picture of ‘Justice’ Williams to find out who he resembles. Perhaps I should try Black’s Medical Dictionary.

Under ‘a’....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mutual combat?

Anonymous said...

Looks pretty much like it, and I don't doubt he didn't intend for the chap to die. It seems he did instigate/participate in the trouble.

Whether that was sufficient to charge him with the death, I can't really say.

But I'd rather a jury decided that, not an unelected judge...