A pensioner was punched in the face and robbed – by a woman who was weeks away from giving birth.Her target didn’t let that hold her back, though:
When the brave 71-year-old fought back, attacker Clare Louise Jones told her: "Don't hurt me, I'm heavily pregnant."Now that’s chutzpah!
Speaking after Jones was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Friday, Mrs Harris said: "She's a scumbag.Scumbags, Mrs Harris. The sort that the justice system is supposedly set up to protect people like yourself from, at least, in theory…
"I regret hitting a pregnant woman, but I didn't know she was expecting because she was wearing a coat. Anyway, what kind of person attacks a pensioner when she is seven months pregnant?"
Jones, formerly of Border House Hostel, Belgrave Boulevard, Mowmacre, Leicester, admitted committing the robbery at 8.50pm on July 29 last year.Ummm….
She was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision and conditions to undergo drug rehabilitation and attend the Just Women project, which aims to improve the lives of vulnerable women.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but isn’t Mrs Harris the vulnerable one?
James Varley, mitigating for Jones, told the court his client had committed the robbery when she was the victim of an abusive relationship and under extreme pressure.I think you highlighted the wrong word in your thesaurus, Mr Varley. The word you should have used was ‘despicable’. It’s an easy mistake to make...
He said: "She was desperate."
.. Mrs Harris, who is now 72, said she thought the sentence was "a joke".And no. It’s not her only offence. It never is, is it? We aren’t talking Jean Valjean, here, after all…
She said: "It's ridiculous. I knew all that would happen was she would get her wrists slapped.
"Everyone is bending over backwards to help her, but no-one thinks about the effect on me."
Jones has 24 previous offences on her record, mainly for shoplifting.Let me guess, she was ‘desperate’ all those times, too?
Mr Varley added his client was "aghast at how she had sunk so low last July, when she was pregnant as well".Yeah, yeah, yeah…
He said Jones had previously shoplifted because of a heroin addiction. She has since sought help and is on a methadone prescription, he said.
Let’s face it, Mrs Harris is right. She’s just a scumbag.
12 month suspended sentence for attempting to mug a pensioner, just getting off because she was pregnant. That is more of a reason to imprison her, endangering the pensioner and endangering the unborn child, who will be her provision of income for the next 18 years.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I saw a programme on an old Irish home for unmarried mothers, were the nuns treated the inmates like scum. I was shocked and appalled, how could you treat people like that. In this instance I tend to see the positives in the scheme and would suggest this woman for a pilot scheme.
To quote Mel Brooks "Send in the nuns!"
I beg to suggest that vulnerability is evident in the CJS when a thief with 24 previous convictions, progresses to robbery.
ReplyDeleteAnd another Mel quote: If magistrates can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country.
Prison for a Tweet, nowt for attcking a pensioner and as anon says, endangering an unborn child.
ReplyDeleteThis country is, to use the current terminology, utterly ****ed.
Christ almighty, I give up. I really do.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if she really was pregnant?
ReplyDeleteFair makes yer proud to be British, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteEr, doesn't it?
Oh.
Classic. Its like the man who kills his parents, and then asks the court for mercy because he is an orphan.
ReplyDelete"Vulnerable" is a very useful word.
ReplyDeleteWhen used by counsel for the defence, it means "please let my client off".
When used by commentators, it means "please give these people taxpayers' money, and create a cadre of social workers to care for them, and amend public policy to do what I want".
This despicable woman should be sent to prison. Her child should be forcibly given up for adoption when it is born, on the grounds that someone taking heroin or methadone and committing crimes while pregnant cannot possibly have the best interests of her child at heart.
For some reason, social workers don't care about parents who abuse drugs. Perhaps because they think drug taking is cool; or because they are non-judgmental; or because they see the mother as "vulnerable". If the word is restored to its correct usage, the vulnerable person is the baby, not the mother.
"That is more of a reason to imprison her, endangering the pensioner and endangering the unborn child..."
ReplyDeleteSpot on! And as James K points out, why are the SS so strangely reluctant to act in cases of drug addict mothers, yet so eager to swoop on parents of sick children?
It makes a mockery of the entire system.
"This country is, to use the current terminology, utterly ****ed."
Indeed!
"I wonder if she really was pregnant?"
Could the courts be that easily fooled?
You know, on second thoughts!
" If the word is restored to its correct usage, the vulnerable person is the baby, not the mother."
Words seem to mean just what the user wants them to mean. We are in fantasy land.