Thursday 16 February 2012

It’s Actually Perfectly Natural…

…if you are a thug who is never checked by society’s boundaries:
A judge has branded a law “toothless” for stopping him giving a thug an eight-year sentence for “appalling” violence against strangers.

Instead, Judge Scott Wolstenholme could only pass a five-year extended sentence on Samuel Mark Ackroyd for leaving one complete stranger with a broken cheekbone and another with broken teeth, and both with blurred vision.
Not his first attack, not by a long chalk:
Four years ago, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC warned Ackroyd: “There’s something wrong with you. This is unnatural behaviour.”
Except…it isn’t.

He’s reasoned that, since there’s very little chance of harsh punishment (or even any punishment) for getting blotto and attacking random strangers, why not do it?
Despite getting a suspended sentence, after his father told the judge he was reforming his drinking habits, Ackroyd continued the career of violence he began when he was 16.
Shocker, eh?
His barrister, Laura Addy, said he recognised he had a problem with alcohol and was remorseful for his actions. When not in drink he was a very different person.

His family were very supportive but “do not condone anything he does”. On his release, he wanted to work on oil rigs.
I bet they have a better way of dealing with aggressive, antisocial drunks:

*splash*

Hope you can swim, Sammy boy…

4 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

"he wanted to work on oil rigs" ...

Ha ha .. given his record of unprovoked violence & habitual drunkeness, he doesn't have a snowball in hell's chance of being employed in the Offshore industry ..

Oil rigs are places which can afford to be extremely choosy who they employ .. and they want responsible, dependable people, capable of operating safely in a highly dangerous environment ..

I know a couple of former comrades-in-arms who, after leaving the Service as highly qualified divers, were employed offshore & from what they told me, there is a strict "NO Alcohol" policy aboard the rigs ..

The closest he'll ever get to "Oil" is as a grease-monkey .. and even then he'd be bloody lucky !

Mullah Kintyre said...

Oil rigs?

Sure, he can get some practice by going to Iran whenever he's ready and surprising the locals there.

David Gillies said...

You've more chance of getting a drink on the International Space Station than on a oil rig. Literally.

JuliaM said...

"Oil rigs are places which can afford to be extremely choosy who they employ.."

And they are unlikely to want him!

"You've more chance of getting a drink on the International Space Station than on a oil rig."

I'd like to see him thrown off the ISS, now you mention it...