James Partridge, defending, said his client had a tough upbringing in Zimbabwe, where he was put up for adoption.
He witnessed domestic violence and had to hide from his adoptive father.
In Seaford, he left home at the age of 14, and saw a friend get stabbed when he was a teenager.
Mr Partridge said White had fallen in with the wrong crowd and started using drugs and alcohol.
He sounds a lot more like they were the right crowd...
But since 2018 he has “got his life back on track”, and is taking prescription drugs for depression.
Which explains why he decides to fight all comers one evening at the train station. Hey, perhaps for him, that
was 'getting his life back on track'!
But Judge Jeremy Gold QC said: “I have viewed the footage of your behaviour on the night in question.
“You were determined to fight that night, and it all took place in Seaford Railway Station.
“You have experienced things as a young man and child that you should not have experienced.
“But you are an adult now. You cannot constantly rely on that as an excuse.
“You can’t drink yourself into the state where you behave in this way.”
/applause. A judge who gets it, finally!
It can't be right to apply this Gold Standard in UK criminal courts. I mean, how will the hordes of legal aid lawyers pay those eye-watering public school fees, when their criminal clients are packed off to jail?
ReplyDeleteOh silly me...with a coronavirus outbreak in UK jails a near certainty, early release of prisoners is almost guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteWhere better to get your life on track than a railway station?
ReplyDeleteMost judges and magistrates in UK seem to have totally forgotten that our law states that self intoxication is not a defence to any criminal behaviour. One swallow doesn't make a summer but it can indeed very welcome.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/Rr63Bexo8z8
ReplyDeleteAnonymous. Exactly. It's a rare judge or lawyer who understands the difference between exacerbating and mitigating factors.
ReplyDeleteMTG: The UK could reintroduce the old fashioned punishment of flogging. Cheap, quick, simple, and the taxpayer doesn't have to pay their board and lodging for the term of their sentence.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt Singapore could tell the government how to do it.
@ Anon
ReplyDeleteCorporal punishment was considered 'normal' back in my schooldays. Such violence was also mirrored in the way boys frequently settled disputes or established dominion over rivals. I look back on that era with some personal regret and it must have come as little surprise to most of my generation, when research demonstrated how counter-productive this savagery had been.
If corporal punishment was lawfully reinstated, we would have to look to some public service equipped to dispense 'the old fashioned punishment of flogging'. Police ranks are not short of bullies and disturbed sadists who exhibit an unhealthy interest in exercising brute force, especially when beating handcuffed and helpless victims. And the police are those most keen to see the return of corporal punishment, with ample volunteers spurred by a pathological desire to thrash unfortunates to within an inch of their lives.
That is, if such a draconian punishment were ever again handed down by a misguided court.
"I mean, how will the hordes of legal aid lawyers pay those eye-watering public school fees, when their criminal clients are packed off to jail?"
ReplyDeleteGood point. It's all a racket, isn't it?
"...with a coronavirus outbreak in UK jails a near certainty, early release of prisoners is almost guaranteed."
And as if by magic, what has the news just announced?
"It's a rare judge or lawyer who understands the difference between exacerbating and mitigating factors."
We clearly aren't recruiting the best and brightest.
"If corporal punishment was lawfully reinstated, we would have to look to some public service..."
God, imagine having to draft the risk report!?