A Bulgarian mother has feared for her ability to remain in the UK post-Brexit...Here we go, another whinge about paperwork and the Home Office and...
Oh!
...after being found with a plastic-covered knife at a shopping centre, a court has heard.Hmmm...
Silviya Pavlova had been arrested for an unrelated matter at TJ Hughes in The Mall, Maidstone, on December 18 when the small purple kitchen knife, with a 3.35in blade, was found inside her handbag.
The 53-year-old told officers she wasn't from England and wasn't aware that carrying such an item was illegal, claiming it was "only a thin, small knife, not a butcher's knife".Really? She missed all the news reports about knife crime, then?
Geoff Playford, defending, told the court the blade had been bought a week or two before the offence for kitchen use, but Pavolva then forgot it was in her bag when she grabbed it to go shopping on December 18.A likely story...
"She came in 2017 to join her husband and son who were already here.
"As a result of the shenanigans of Brexit, she's got to apply for residence status to remain, and her case can’t be dealt with until this matter is resolved."So..?
Pavlova, of Melford Avenue, Barking, Essex, pleaded guilty through a translator, to possessing a blade in a public place. She was then given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £105.*sighs*
District judge Paul Goldspring told her: "I accept it is probably not an offence in these circumstances in Bulgaria and nobody is suggesting you have done anything other than cut vegetables with this knife."And then put it back in your handbag?
Julia: pride of placein my handbag was a Swiss army knife which was most useful! Even if I didn’t stab anybody. An older generation of women carried knives on long rail and bus journeys to peel and slice fruit too tough for dentures.
ReplyDelete"She missed all the news reports about knife crime, then?"
ReplyDeleteObviously:
"Pleaded guilty through a translator"
Whats not clear from the report is whether the knife was still in its retail packaging, or whether the 'plastic cover' mentioned was something more home made. If the former I have sympathy, its hardly as if you've going to be able get the knife out of its packaging in a hurry to stab someone with. If the latter than I have less sympathy, that sounds more like an active choice to be carrying it.
ReplyDeleteOne has to wonder if the 'unrelated matter' she was arrested for was lacking in evidence so they decided to do her for the knife as a punishment by proxy if you like.
I knew Geoff Playford from a group holiday back in 1970.
ReplyDeleteGreat guy; haven't seen him since!
(I thought this was entirely relevant to your post Julia - it gives a certain 'panache' to the legal representation and requirement for results that we fiercely demand here, in Kent)!
I carry a Swiss Army Knife too. The larger blade is 2.5 inches long. I don't think that having a small kitchen knife in your bag should be an issue. There is a kind of comb with a spike on one end which she could presumably carry with impunity.
ReplyDeleteFrom the description the knife was probably one of these:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hartsofstur.com/colourworks-10cm-multi-purpose-knife-with-sheath-pink-cwparpnk.html
Perhaps not as innocent as a Swiss Army knife but context is all, and that seems to be missing here. As noted above, sounds a little like plod finding something to justify an arrest rather than prevent 'knife crime'
She was arrested for something else...let's guess shoplifting or purse theft...it's their culture. Then the knife was found when she was searched. Quite common to find evidence of something else when under arrest.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there wasn't enough evidence of the original offence? The court won't hear about that as it is prejudicial.
Jaded
"...pride of placein my handbag was a Swiss army knife which was most useful! "
ReplyDeleteI used to have one too! A genuine Swiss one, that my father (who loved the place, and took lots of trips) brough me back. Sadly, I no longer dare carry it.
"One has to wonder if the 'unrelated matter' she was arrested for was lacking in evidence so they decided to do her for the knife as a punishment by proxy if you like."
It's a possibility, yes.
"I knew Geoff Playford from a group holiday back in 1970."
Small world! :D
"She was arrested for something else...let's guess shoplifting or purse theft...it's their culture."
I suspected that, too.