Here in Staffordshire:
Scorned mother Ann Dunn attacked her estranged husband's new partner with a knife.As you do…
The 52-year-old struggled to accept the breakdown of her marriage of more than 20 years after her husband, Christopher Dunn, told her he had a new partner, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard yesterday.And she didn’t leave it at just threats, oh dear me, no…
In June his new partner, Lyn Leese, began to receive texts from the defendant.
Some were of a threatening nature, including 'Watch your back'.
"As she began to cross the road she heard a car approaching at speed.So, actual injury?
"It stopped next to Mr Dunn's car. The defendant got out and approached the complainant and said, 'I do not think so'.
"The complainant felt a sharp pain to the left side of her neck.
"She realised the defendant was holding a kitchen knife.
"Mr Dunn helped the complainant restrain and disarm the defendant."
The complainant was left with a cut to her finger and the base of her thumbs and she had a small mark on her neck.And that wasn’t the end of it. Incredibly, they let her go!
Dunn left in her car and sent further threatening texts to her husband. And when she spoke to police she said: "This is not over yet. Tell her to get her hands off him."That’s pretty dim, I have to say.
Hamish Noble, mitigating, said Dunn struggled to accept the breakdown of her marriage.More, I suspect, by luck than anything else.
"She perhaps felt she could do something to sabotage the situation," said Mr Noble.
"Things came to a head on December 2 and she made a foolish decision to go to the property and to take a knife with her.
"Thankfully the injuries were not more serious than those sustained by Miss Leese."
Judge Robert Trevor-Jones sentenced Dunn to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with 12 months' supervision and 160 hours' unpaid work.Right, so, targeted stalking, threats and actual injury. And no time in the Big House.
Meanwhile, in Scunthorpe:
A violent offender has been jailed after holding a knife to the throat of a 54-year-old man and threatening to kill him.Wounds? Not a scratch.
Nick Adlington, prosecuting, told the court how Eckersley held an eight-inch knife to the throat of Thomas Carolan, 54, and threatened to kill him if he did not hand over his wallet.OK, so, there’s robbery. No crime passionel, this…
Laurinda Bower, mitigating, said: "He has shown absolute remorse for this by entering his early guilty plea.And yet…he got four years!
Eckersley was sentenced to four years, half of which he will serve in prison before being released on licence for the remainder of the sentence.Now, aside from his criminal record (we have to assume Ann Dunn doesn’t have one, as it’s not mentioned) and the robbery, what’s the difference in these two cases?
Why the discrepancy in sentencing?
I took a view on this phenmon fenonim
ReplyDeletepheremoni thing over at my place today, with a post in a similar vein (no pun intended). Sorry, forgot how to do the hyperlink thing.
Interesting to compare this one-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9198502/Royal-Marines-love-triangle-ends-in-harassment-case.html
Threatening messages, "hateful note", over a grand total of four days, in a clearly, er, highly emotional love-tangle. No violence, knives, etc. Basically, very upset bloke sends angry TXTs.
Two years suspended, six weeks inside.
It also brings out the crusty old Tory buffer in me that wonders what the feck Ms. Kirianne Curley thought she was playing at.
This woman was a liar and a thief, just google her name, flaunting herself on TV, as the grieving war widow, obtaining charity handouts from RBL and Royal Marine Charities.. When all along she was having a three way relationship within 2 weeks of her husbands death, the guy who was charged handed in his notice due to his sentencing, he has lost everything, Kirianne continues to live it up as a Royal Marine Wag, probably ensuring that her next victim has life cover!!
DeleteTo some 'age advanced' magistrate types, the thought of an aggressive woman, with or without a knife, can bring on, what is described in legal terms, as a 'stiffy'. Never having been in that aggressive woman situation (sadly), I can imagine it would be difficult to send a woman down whilst trying to hide an erection - unless the term 'send her down' meant something else. In the second case, the bench, being strong, heterosexual types, owning all of the Terminator DVDs, would have no such reservations. It has always been so and will always be.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
@Hogdayafternoon: good post! Have commented.
ReplyDelete@IanB: 'crusty old Tory buffer' heh! But yes, you do have to wonder, don't you?