"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

That word being 'vulnerable':

Douglas's lawyer Nichola Poe admitted her client was “no stranger to the courts” but said he did not deserve prison as he was a “vulnerable” man with mental health issues.

She said: “Mr Douglas had an unhappy childhood and an uncaring one. That's further caused him problems when he was diagnosed with dyslexia at 15. There was very little support for that. He had a number of jobs and was in full-time work until he became a heroin addict. That was an addiction that took over his life. The last two years he's come off the methadone project and he's now completely drug-free.

“When you have a class A addiction it doesn't go away. He suffers from depression and anxiety and is on medication. There's been mental health intervention with Mr Douglas and he recently had a psychiatric assessment. You have a man in court who is quite vulnerable.”

Boy, if this man had a dog, it'd probably only have three legs. And be called 'Lucky'...

What had he done to find himself in court (this time).

Ah, well:

Harlow Magistrates Court heard that Douglas has been at his mother's house in Parvills, Waltham Abbey, when he saw Mr Redgwell reversing his car out from the drive of his nearby house.

He stuck up two fingers to Mr Redgwell, who he had already been found guilty of harassing at an earlier trial, causing the neighbour to get out of his car and ask him what he was doing.

Douglas then kicked Mr Redgwell in the middle of his face, grabbed him by the throat, and placed him in a headlock, repeatedly punching him while the victim's ten-year-old daughter looked on from the back seat of the car.

Which rather begs the question, if Douglas is 'vulnerable', what the hell do we call Mr Redgwell?

You are, of course, now thinking 'Well, at least the magistrates won't fall for this pointless flannel', aren't you?

Heh!

Magistrates chair Russell Pearson said the offence was so severe as to merit a custodial sentence but it would be suspended.

He said: “You seem committed to leading a drug-free life and we hope this continues. We feel that given the nature of your mental health issues a Think First course might prove effective.”

Douglas was handed a 24-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months, a supervision order for 18 months and ordered to complete the Think First program.

He was also given an exclusion order banning him from visiting Parvills for six months, and ordered to pay £455 in costs to the court and £300 in compensation to Mr Redgwell. The money will be taken from his benefits.

Yes, indeed.

He won't be paying Mr Redgwell compensation. WE will.

Because he doesn't have any money, other than that the State gives him. Because he's an unemployed former drug abuser with impulse control issues and a criminal record. So, he's unlikely to ever be in gainful employment, and you and I will be paying for him for the rest of his life.

But it's ok. He's 'vulnerable'...

Yet Another ‘Can’t They Both Lose?’ Incident…

How much is a box of pencils worth? Fifty pence? £3.99 if the pencils have rubbers on the ends? Well, if they're part of a Damien Hirst art installation, the value is £500,000. That is what 17-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain discovered when he pilfered some pencils from Hirst's sculpture Pharmacy.

‘Graffiti artist’…?

And that wasn't all – he was arrested, released on bail, and is waiting to find out if he will be formally charged with causing damage to an iconic artwork worth £10m.

*sigh*

It seems this spat has been ongoing for a while:

He originally locked horns with the millionaire artist last year, when he used an image of Hirst's famous diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God, to create collages that were put up for sale on an art website.

And on seeing a challenge, the elder ‘artist’ flared his nostrils, pawed the ground, and charged in to do battle with the young usurper the time-honoured ‘artist’ way.

By proxy:

Hirst reported him to the Design and Artists Copyright Society and a string of legal letters were sent to Cartrain's art dealer, Tom Cuthbert, at 100artworks.com, about the teenager's pieces, also called For the Love of God. The online gallery surrendered them to Hirst with a verbal apology.

Oh, for the days when gentlemen settled their differences on Hampstead Heath with pearl-handled duelling pistols.

At least that provided some entertainment. This is like watching a couple of bitchy schoolgirls pulling each other’s hair…

Taking revenge, Cartrain took the box of pencils that were part of Hirst's sculpture, Pharmacy, which was being shown as part of its Classified exhibition that closed at the end of last month.

He then created a "wanted"-style poster that read: "For the safe return of Damien Hirst's pencils I would like my artworks back that DACS and Hirst took off me in November. It's not a large demand... Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31 July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned.

I’d almost feel sorry for the police, having to intervene in this unseemly slapfest, except for the fact that when the cry went up ‘Arrest the usual suspects’, it was followed by ‘And their innocent relatives too!’:

Police also arrested Cartrain's 49-year-old father, who they suspected of harbouring the pencils. "Initially, we arrested his dad but it soon became clear that it was his son who was responsible," said a police source. "We arranged to arrest him by appointment. The act of theft was clearly a stunt to gain publicity."

That’s policing now? Arrest everyone, let the courts sort it out?

Maybe Chris Grayling Had A Point After All...

He was pretty much laughed at by the usual suspects when comparing the UK to the crime and grime-ridden streets of Baltimore as depicted in 'The Wire'.

But read these two stories, and tell me if you think he was totally wrong:

A teenage girl who acted as a 'honeytrap' to lure a smitten 16-year-old to his death at the hands of a love rival was locked up for a minimum of 10 years today.

Samantha Joseph led lovestruck Shakilus Townsend into an ambush in a quiet cul-de-sac where he was beaten with baseball bats and stabbed six times.

And no attempt to try for leniency; in fact, they expressed their open contempt for the justice system at every opportunity...

As the male defendants were led from the court, they began making defiant noises and were joined by their supporters in the public gallery.

And as if that wasn't enough:

This is the moment a ruthless gang kidnapped a friend of Lily Allen and drags him away to be tortured.

The 25-year-old and his teenage friend feared they would be killed when they were seized at gunpoint before being subjected to a constant barrage of extreme mental and physical pain during their week-long ordeal.

Sound like a usual episode of lawless, criminal gangs afraid of nothing and no-one?

Well, it's not fiction...

"There's one law for us and one for them."

What do you suppose the reaction of the council would be if I decided to have a bonfire in the middle of the road outside my house?

Yeh, that's what I thought...

But then, I'm not one of the pets of the progressives:

A council has come under fire after it closed a road to allow a group of travellers to hold a wake.

A brazier fire is burning in the middle of a country lane so the dead person's belongings can be destroyed in what is a traditional traveller ceremony that can last up to two weeks.

But local residents are angry that West Sussex County Council has shut Blackboy Lane in Fishbourne instead of asking the travellers to move their ceremony elsewhere.

I'm even more surprised that the local council allows a lane to be called that in the first place!

Villager Bob Kerby, 63, told The Sun: 'There's one law for us and one for them. We pay our taxes and are entitled to have access to the road. It's also an inconvenience for emergency services.'

The ceremony started - without the council's permission - on Tuesday. The road had originally been kept open forcing drivers to swerve around the fire and piles of logs.

But West Sussex County Council then closed a 30ft stretch citing 'safety reasons'.

I wonder if these are the same 'safety reasons' that cause other councils to ban doormats and insist hanging baskets are taken down?

Can't be, can it? Otherwise they'd simply tell the travellers to move the brazier, or else.

A spokesman said: 'Concern was expressed that a metal drum containing a fire had been placed on the highway verge outside a house where we understand the personal property of a recently deceased member of a travelling family was being burnt according to a tradition.

'The fire was declared safe but because of a truck parked while members of a travellers' family watched over the drum, we have put a temporary road closure in place for road safety reasons.

'This has cost less than £100 and only involves a stretch of road less than 100metres in length and with a very short diversion, so there has been full access at all times.'

Note the whining note that has crept in here, as if these villagers could be fobbed off by the council's insistence that it isn't costing much.

That's not the point.

The point is that the road laws are there to be obeyed, and it should matter not one jot why you want to burn a brazier in the middle of the road - for the safety and good neighbourliness of all, you shouldn't be allowed to do it!

Police said the travellers have not been moved on as no crime has been committed.

Obstructing the road isn't a crime now?

Sunday Funnies...

From 'Cracked', it's a chance to talk a walk on the wacky side...

Time To Send The Chicken Littles To The Slaughterhouse?

Another day, another embarrassing ‘Ooops!’ from government ‘experts’:

Deaths from swine flu could be less than half the annual toll from the usual winter flu, it emerged last night.

The news came as an expert accused ministers of an 'alarmist' response to the outbreak.

This government? Alarmist? Surely not…

Sir Liam is facing growing criticism that he caused panic as the virus turns out to be much milder than originally feared.

The media should certainly be getting some of that criticism, too, for eagerly swallowing everything the government handed out…

And the ‘back to school epidemic’ they were predicting?

That doesn’t seem likely now either:

Sir Liam said he had been looking carefully at data from Scotland, where schools returned from their summer break earlier than in England.

Experts have predicted a surge in the number of swine flu cases once schools and universities go back across the UK.

But Sir Liam said 'there is no suggestion of any significant upturn in Scotland', adding that England was unlikely to see a peak 'before the second half of October'.

Perhaps Sir Liam would be better off at the Met Office…

Peter Doshi, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said actions were taken 'in an environment of high public attention and low scientific certainty'.

He called for a new framework for dealing with epidemics, saying a single, one- size-fits-all public health strategy cannot respond to the 'vastly different challenges' posed by the different types of threat in the world.

Sorry, Peter. ‘One size fits all’ is this – and almost any other – government’s approach to just about anything…

Children Of Men Progressives…

There’s a lot of questions over at the ‘Mail’ on the case of the teeny torturers:

Aged just ten and 11, the two sadistic brothers were already well known to police and social services.

So how, critics were asking last night, were they allowed to commit one of the most shocking crimes Britain has ever known.

Well, I think a clue might be found in the following paragraph, actually…

Yesterday they yawned in court as the horror of their crimes unfolded - and they escaped trial for attempted murder by pleading guilty to lesser charges.

Not enough of a clue?

Well, try this as well:

The horrific and protracted assault was carried out while the baby-faced culprits, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were supposedly under the care of scandal-hit Doncaster Social Services - and on the day that they should have been interviewed by police about an attack a week earlier.

The younger of the pair was on bail, his accomplice was being 'monitored' by a youth offending team after being placed on a supervision order.

In other words, they have never, ever faced anything like punishment, or ever been forced to take responsibility for their actions for anything, ever since their birth to equally-feckless and irresponsible parents.

So, it’s hardly surprising that, completely unchecked by the authorities in lieu of their non-parenting, they went on to commit even more horrifying crimes, is it?

But it wouldn’t be a ‘Mail’ story without at least one false moral panic:

The convicted brothers even used to watch the same Child's Play videos as Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were released from custody in 2001 after serving just eight years of their so-called life sentences.

*sigh*

This has been debunked time and again, but like Bush’s plastic turkey, it keeps appearing…

It’s difficult to see how any of the authorities supposedly tasked with dealing with these children, in the absence of anything that could be termed a ‘responsible adult’ in their lives, can hold their heads up:

Given that barely a day had passed without them abusing or assaulting someone in the weeks prior to their arrest, it ought to have been crystal clear to the police and social services that these boys, now aged 12 and ten, were poised to commit some terrible crime.

Yet even when they beat another hapless young lad to a pulp, in an apparent rehearsal of the chilling abduction and torture they would carry out a week later, the police failed to act decisively.

Worse, when the victim's parents identified his attackers to them, the 'investigating' officers warned them that they could get in trouble themselves - for 'bandying around names' without sufficient proof.

Hmm, it seems, as Iain Dale pointed out in the recent lorry driver case, that it’s perfectly OK when the police themselves do this:

” The tragic murder of the nine year old girl in a lorry in a layby near Peterborough is a terrible story. Her step father was found hanging nearby. Since the discovery the Police have publicly speculated that he assaulted his step daughter and then killed himself. I agree that this, on the face of it, looks the most likely explanation. But I question whether this should have been said publicly at this stage of their enquiries.”

But the ‘Mail’ does get one thing bang to rights – this case has been helped on its way by the progressive meddling that now infests all areas of the establishment:

This timorous approach perfectly exemplifies a seismic shift that has taken place in Britain over recent years.

It has seen us become a society where the 'rights' of unruly children take precedence over those of the neighbours they terrorise.

Now we see where this inevitably leads, will we see a rethink and wholesale reform?

I’m not putting money on it…

Next Time, Try A Bunch Of Flowers...

A man sent child porn to a woman he had never met after an online conversation.

*sigh*

I can see I'll need to break in a new tag...

Err, No Comment...

A furious father threatened to attack his girlfriend's mother with a baseball bat.

Lee Martin, 26 , flipped after an anonymous tip-off to Social Services that his daughter was living in a "violent" house.

That showed those anonymous tipsters, didn't it..?

Twisted Firestarter

An arsonist who torched wheelie bins on his way home from nights out drinking has been ordered to stay indoors at night.

Was he hard to catch?

Well, no:

He was caught after firemen realised that the attacks usually ended with a blaze in Poynter Road, Hove.

Clark, 28, who lives there with his parents, was detained by firemen after a fire at nearby Conway Court flats on May 23.

So, a 28 year old who starts fires when drunk. Does he have a valid excuse why he shouldn't be locked up for a considerable amount of time?

Oh, you bet:

Ed Fish, defending, said Clark had suffered a brain injury in a road accident when he was 11 which had affected his behaviour and short term memory.

Mr Fish said Clark could remember nothing about the fires but accepted that he was responsible for them.

Surely someone this damaged after 17 years is unable to function?

Apparently not:

The court was told that Clark works as a volunteer at a horse rescue centre and at Brighton General Hospital.

One hopes he isn't in charge of the incinerator...