Wednesday 3 August 2011

A New Definition Of ‘Person Of Good Character’…

Sally Metcalfe Gibson, chairman of the bench, told Langham: ‘These are very serious offences.
‘You are a person of good character
Really? So, what was she up before the bench for, then?

Ah:
Kelly Langham, 26, abandoned her children – aged just two, five and eight – to go to a shop to exchange some DVDs for cash.
One witness said the youngest child was strapped into a car seat and was ‘screaming, crying and red in the face’ while the others were upset.

The children became so distressed they began honking the car’s horn to raise the alarm and were finally rescued after a passer-by rang police.

Today Langham was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and a 12-month community order for drug and gambling problems.

The mother of three, who had also taken amphetamine before abandoning the youngsters
Yup, a drug-taking scummy mummy who left her kids in a locked car during a heat wave.

Some ‘good character’…

12 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

Some ‘good character’…

Well not anymore, since all 'good character' means in a court is as a nod to the judge/jury that the person has no previous convictions.

If you don't hear 'good character' mentioned it means the accused has previous

Although i did once see a brief get slapped down for trying "since my clients conviction in 19XX he has been of Good Character" i.e not been nicked again.

SBC said...

"a person of good character…"

Oh that's like saying 'a local, well loved, character' when you really mean 'the town drunk'.

The Brits, the *only* race who can damn with politeness.

Heresiarch said...

PC has it right. "Good character" is a legal term meaning "has no previous convictions". It has no moral connotations whatever and is not intended to. Like "my learned friend", which just means "legally qualified" and does not imply actual friendship (or even actual learning, for that matter).

Pavlov's Cat said...

@The Heresiarch

I'm always reminded of the Monty Python skit

"May it please the court, Your Honour, I would like to point out that M'Learned friend, is neither Learned nor M'friend. I will henceforth refer to him as 'My Ignorant enemy'

Captain Haddock said...

"Yup, a drug-taking scummy mummy who left her kids in a locked car during a heat wave" ...

I'd be interested to know why she wasn't also prosecuted for endangering the lives of the kids (and other road users) by driving after taking amphetamine ?

" ..to go to a shop to exchange some DVDs for cash" ..

If she's that skint, one also has to wonder whether the car was taxed & insured too ..

She should have been disqualified at the very least ..

Budvar said...

Perhaps it's just me, but when I was a kid, this (being left alone in the car for short periods) was a regular occurrence.

The eldest kid was what 8? From the info available, she just nipped into the shop for a few minutes, FFS when the little darlings go to bed, do they need constant supervision with live streaming cctv footage?

Then we came from a generation that had to behave ourselves, and if we'd have carried on tooting the horn etc, I suspect I'd still be hearing bells from the resulting belt round the ear.

Does this now mean that every time anyone fills up at the local Esso, you have to trail the kids inside whilst you pay?

Yet more bollox from self righteous do-gooders.

SBC said...

Budvar has a point.

Captain Haddock said...

@ SBC ..

"Budvar has a point" ...

Indeed he does, I recall that years ago, when my kids were tots (they're now both in their 30's .. with 6 years between them) and, if they'd fallen asleep in the child seat .. We'd leave them to wake up naturally (we would check on them, in the drive on a regular basis) .. because if they were woken early, they were both as grumpy as buggery (funnily enough, they're both still just the same) ..

In fact, the Ex Missus & I used to say .. "Let sleeping babes lie" ..

English Viking said...

Captain Haddock.

Child seat? Luxury!

I remember sitting on the drop-down arm-rest of the front bench seat of my dad's old banger. No seat belt. Left in the car for 20 mins or so while he picked up his cash from the Wages Office of the company he worked for. The instruction I got was 'Don't touch anything' which worked a charm as I knew a big bag of sweets was on its way if I complied.

I'm pretty sure he was never whacked out on Speed though.

Budvar said...

Vik, you don't know one way or the other if she was whacked on speed or not, and regardless of whether she was or not, the "Self righteous do gooders" had absolutely no way of knowing.

Baring in mind the eldest kid was 8, at 7, I walked about 1.5 miles to and from school alone, and at dinner time too.

A few years ago I was fitting some drop curbs outside a local primary school gates. We coned off the area we were working, letters sent to parents etc.

We're digging out the old curbs, and stupid fucking mothers are parking, letting out the little darlings to clamber over where we're working. It was like 9' either side of said school gates from where they could let them out of the car safely, but no right in the middle of where we were lifting curb stones (they're not what you call light).

You say to them "Oi what you doing?" and all you got was "Oh I've got to make sure they get into school". It wasn't one or two either it was dozens of them.

These people are nothing short of complete fucking morons, it's not like kids are abducted every day of the week or anything. If they were so paranoid about it, park up and walk them the 9' FFS.

The fact that kids today are screaming, hollering and leaning on the car horn the moment they lose sight of mummy says more about the state of not just these kids but kids in general than anything else.

Imagine what they're going to be like once they go out into the real world green as fucking grass!!

JuliaM said...

"... all 'good character' means in a court is as a nod to the judge/jury that the person has no previous convictions. "

It must surely stick in the throat, though?

"I'd be interested to know why she wasn't also prosecuted for endangering the lives of the kids (and other road users) by driving after taking amphetamine ?"

No doubt CPS dropped it at 'not in the public interest', a legal term meaning 'we can't be arsed to do our jobs properly'...

"Yet more bollox from self righteous do-gooders."

Well, not really. It was during a heatwave.

"These people are nothing short of complete fucking morons..."

Or just monumentally self-centred, which can amount to the same thing in the end.

Budvar said...

Julia, heatwave or not, we have an 8 year old kid who can work out how to lean on the horn, but not able to work out how to open a window or the friggin door from the inside?

This is a case of an unruly little brat who when confronted, turns on the water works, the bleeding hearts go "Ah" and mummy finds herself before the beak.