Monday 13 February 2012

When Even The Defence Can’t Find Mitigating Circumstances…

A teenager who threatened two police community support officers (PCSOs) with a knife before throwing it at one of them has been jailed for three years.
Mitigation’s going to be good!

Or…maybe not:
Ryan Preston – branded a menace to society by his own barrister….
Oh dear…
Teesside Crown Court heard how the Darlington teenager has been in trouble since school, when he started drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

He has previous convictions for burglary, being drunk and disorderly, assault and attacking a police officer, prosecutor Shaun Dodds told the court.

On September 30 last year – while on bail as a burglary suspect – Preston approached the two PCSOs as they spoke to children in Darlington town centre.

He jumped off his bike and pulled out a kitchen knife which he brandished, before lunging towards the officers shouting: “Come on, lock me up.”
Open and shut case, then?

But his barrister obviously felt he needed to at least make a semblance of effort:
Jim Withyman, mitigating, said Preston, of Cartmell Terrace, Darlington, had a “destructive” childhood. He said the three months Preston had spent on remand had “made him realise that with this lifestyle he will spend ever longer in prison”.
Really? But then, it seems to be what he wants, doesn’t it?
“When sober and not under the influence of drugs, he is a pleasant young man. However, when in drink and on drugs, he is clearly a menace to his community,” he added.
Well, unless the drink and drugs sneak up on him and force themselves down his throat, I can’t see how they can be excuses?

The comments are, as always, chavtastic:
preston11 says...

This is one artical that explains nothing in his life!As people that don't know him as a person why on earth do you comment? get a life! People have an oppinion but not knowing him and commenting is SAD! Coming from this family is MINT! We all have a life and if you don't like the way we live it GET GONE!
No, I think us normal people will stay here, and the likes of young Master Preston will get gone. Sadly, though, never for long enough:
mitcho88 says...

first of people cant comment on his mam or his upbringing shes a good mum n ryans a good lad.all u know of him is what you av read the pcso's n police in darlington r backward if your name is know even if you try change they dont let you n he hasnt killed anyone hows he an oxygen theif??
Yes, clearly the PCSOs and police have some mind-warping ray that makes an otherwise ‘nice lad’ act so….
kristal27 says...

This Lad, like thousands of others his age need 2 years of National Service where they can learn self-respect and a trade. You lot may like to get off on your pontification and type your witty answers but i doubt any of you are under 40 therefore no idea of the hopelessness and frustrations young kids have these days. No I don't condone throwing a knife at the Police, but why turn this into a total denegration of this lad and his family - or in terms you lot may understand better - stop slagging off this lad and his family, but for the grace of god and all that.....
Well, ‘Kristal’, you’ve got me there. I’m not under 40, but even if I was 21, I think I’d be struggling to understand how the ‘hopelessness and frustration’ might drive me to get off my face and throw knives at the police…

5 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

"This Lad, like thousands of others his age need 2 years of National Service ... "

Dear kristal27 ..

With his attitude towards life and other people, he'd be very fortunate to survive two weeks in the Armed Forces, before someone put him in "The Rembrandt" .. in a very deep & meaningful way ..

Chavs, ready! said...

I love the way the chavs (and no doubt the eager, legs open n ready chavettes) will rally round the scum. No matter wot they av dun they are all, apparently, good m8s and light the place up with their ready wit and cheerful if not angelic countenances.

No, strike that... the chavs I often see all have rat-like faces, for some reason.

Anyways.... I cannot of course comment on this case as I wasn't there (thank God) but I can comment on the would-be scum who go online -- well, they wouldn't actually write a letter, would they? -- to rail against their m8s being caught. Of course, these fellow chavs are just as likely to end up being a victim of the criminal actions of other chavs and certainly see their own communities destroyed by petty crime and vandalism.

But, hey, it's all okay because they is MINT, innit!

(Mint: a plant, that unless contained, spreads up everywhere and chokes out other life)

Captain Haddock said...

(Mint: a plant, that unless contained, spreads up everywhere and chokes out other life)

Eureka !

That's the answer .. all "Chav" areas & estates in the country should immediately be planted with loads of Mint .. with any luck, it will quickly strangle the denizens, just leaving local councils to collect the remaining detritus ..

And burn the corpses as fuel, to provide heat for old people's homes, hospitals etc ..

Trevor said...

Some of those comments! I can't quite remember when I first heard it, but 'You don't know me' has become the reflex outraged response of a depressingly large number of young people to any criticism.
No matter how egregious the behaviour, unless you have enyclopaedic and intimate knowledge of their personal circumstances, the mere raising of an eyebrow is considered to be the height of rudeness.
Of course, in their defence, they've been deliberately taught these ideas (e.g. that's it's wrong to be 'judgemental') but that doesn't make it any easier to stomach, though.

JuliaM said...

"With his attitude towards life and other people, he'd be very fortunate to survive two weeks in the Armed Forces..."

And with the Armed Forces under pressure as they are, why should they become society's dustbin as well?

"No, strike that... the chavs I often see all have rat-like faces, for some reason."

They do, don't they?

And I wish you were right about mint; sadly, it never seems to grow too well in my garden! I must not have the right soil...

" I can't quite remember when I first heard it, but 'You don't know me' has become the reflex outraged response of a depressingly large number of young people to any criticism. "

And invites the immediate response: 'No....and I never, ever want to!'