Blind Spot

Ranting Stan points to the double standards exposed by the case of schoolboy Henry Webster, and the potential for this to exacerbate racial divisions:

”The British people aren't stupid. They'll see the ease with which any number of Asian or black victims have succeeded in getting a crime against them committed by a white person labelled as "racial" and how hard it is for a white person to do the same and they'll draw the conclusion that there are indeed double standards applied when it comes to racially motivated crime.”

Luckily, his mother has never ceased pressing for an accounting, and has finally got her wish:

A white schoolboy left for dead by a hammer-wielding gang of Asians has insisted the attack was racially motivated.

Who could really doubt it? But it took her two years to force the authorities to act:

The attackers were sentenced to between eight months and eight years last year, but they would likely have got longer if the attack had been proven to be racist.

But only after two years of sustained pressure from Henry's mother, Liz, have the authorities announced a serious case review.

There’s a definite air of ‘wishing it would all go away’ emanating from the reports around the time of the initial attack and the sentencing.

Mrs Webster, 44, also believes the assault - by a gang calling themselves the Asian Invaders - was racist and the result of simmering tensions at the school.

She said: 'I have fought hard to find out all the facts. It has been an excruciating wait. The fact is that the attack on my son was a racial one.

'There have been numerous similar attacks before but nothing was ever done. I feel my son was badly failed by a school that believes racism is only something that is carried out by white pupils.'

It’s the default government belief, Mrs Webster…

The review will also examine why there were no staff present at the scene of the attack at Ridgeway School in Wroughton, Swindon.

The serious case review will not seek to apportion blame but will investigate what happened and evaluate the lessons that can be learned. It will last four months.

Ah, ‘lessons to be learned’…

I wonder if anyone will focus some attention on the wholly inadequate justice system response to the case, as well?

A man convicted of conspiring to assault hammer attack victim Henry Webster has been given one last chance after he failed to turn up for his community service.

He failed to turn up three times. So I can’t see the point in giving him a ‘second chance’, frankly…

Kamran Khan, 20, was given a one-year jail term, suspended for two years, on May 9 after he was convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

During the first year of the suspended sentence he was told he had to complete 150 hours of unpaid work for the community.

But he failed to turn up for his first appointment with probation less than a week after being sentenced.

I think he had the justice system figured out a lot better than the authorities…

And the attitude wasn’t just confined to him, it was mirrored in his familiy’s attitude too:

Marcus Davey, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court that on the second date he was due to do community service, May 22, a probation officer called his address and was told that Khan was asleep and that no one would wake him.

In which case, why were the police not summoned to haul the little waste of skin off to prison?

Deciding not to invoke the jail term, Judge William Hart said Khan was "laughing in the face of the authorities as far as this order is concerned".

"I will give him one further chance," he said.

He added 20 hours to the total Khan must complete.

Well, thanks for ensuring that offenders don’t have the opportunity to laugh in the face of the authorities, Judge Hart…