Monday 9 May 2011

Why Should The Police Profit From Crime?

A Durham woman was left "devastated" after her boyfriend kicked her five-year-old spaniel to death, it was reported.

Father-of-two Grant claimed he hit the dog with the back of his hand or fist after it bit him.

But Grant admitted to Durham Police to kicking Tilly two or three times while wearing his Timberland boots.
A fitting punishment, I feel, would be giving Miss Woodland a pair of steel-toecapped boots and ten minutes to kick seven shades out of the useless waste of skin.

But we’re civilised, so it went to court instead, where the usual derisory sentence was passed; ban on keeping animals, community service, compensation to the owner, compensation to the police, and…

Wait. What? Compensation to the police?
The 42-year-old was banned from keeping animals for five years, given a 12 month community order with supervision, 200 hours of unpaid work, told to pay compensation of £1,233 to Durham Constabulary and costs of £85. He was also told to pay Miss Woodland £250 in compensation.
So, Miss Woodland gets barely enough money to buy half a new dog, and the police rake in over a thousand smackers just for doing their job?

Something not quite right, here…

7 comments:

gildas said...

And why should ACPO make large amounts of money by exploiting public office? Or even exist?

PJH said...

Durham Times (and Northern Echo - duplicate article) puts the compo at ₤1,500 for her, and the police aren't mentioned.

Wondering if this is a typo somewhere that the rest of the articles are blandly copy/pasting without checking the source.

You know, like 'journalists' these days normally do.

Budvar said...

So let me get this straight, a bloke who happens to be not wearing furry slippers at the time gives a dog a booting because it's quite innocently of course sinking it's teeth into his leg. Is that about the size of it?

Had this not been some poor defenceless womans spaniel but "Stabby McChavs" pitbull Tyson that had escaped for the umpteenth time, I suspect that the outcry for him to be flayed alive would be drowned out by the chirping of crickets.

There but for the grace of God etc.. Any dog who sinks its teeth into me gets a boot as hard as I can until it desists, regardless of the footwear I happen to have on at the time.

Zaphod said...

Budvar makes a good point.

Anonymous said...

I'm just hearing Toynbee claimed we gave a damn about AV and other weird things about it. The dog chose the wrong victim!

JuliaM said...

"And why should ACPO make large amounts of money by exploiting public office?"

Good point!

"Wondering if this is a typo somewhere that the rest of the articles are blandly copy/pasting without checking the source."

That would make more sense.

"So let me get this straight, a bloke who happens to be not wearing furry slippers at the time gives a dog a booting because it's quite innocently of course sinking it's teeth into his leg. Is that about the size of it?"

That's his story, anyway. Am I convinced he's telling the truth?

Errr, no.

Anonymous said...

Sorry.....could you say if the police compensation was to pay for some of the costs of the enquiry.....paying out for costs of a vets report into the cause of death of the dog?

If it goes back into the coffers for covering police time spent on the enquiry and other costs then i dont see the problem.