Mitigating for French, Nick Maggs said: “He accepts that it was him and he was responsible.
“The report writer asked why he didn’t admit it. His explanation was ‘well, my dad told me to’.
“That’s not a good explanation but one has to compare it to other defendants who are convicted at trial and maintain that position upon conviction. But now that he expresses some remorse is significant.”
Oooh, scraping the excuse barrel there, Nicky boy...
Recorder Leslie Cuthbert said: “You participated in what can be described as a group attack on him, a simple member of the public who was trying to do his civic duty to prevent you and your two associates from stealing alcohol from Sainsbury’s.
“In return for him doing that courageous act you participated in punching and kicking him, fracturing his left eye socket and his left shoulder dislocated.”
And that calls for a spell in chokey, surely? Surely...?
Recorder Cuthbert said that French is “only just” not going to prison, giving him 23 months suspended for two years, plus 200 hours unpaid work and 15 days rehabilitation.
He also ordered French to pay £2,000 in compensation, plus £1,750 in costs.
From his well-paying job, I suppose?
The comment thread is very enlightening.
ReplyDeleteJaded
Can't he at least be locked up for non-payment of fines when the inevitable happens?
ReplyDeleteThe attack took place in March 2017 - four and a half years ago! The 'justice' system moves about as quickly as an arthritic sloth. It's completely unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteThe court may 'order' French to pay compensation, but it then becomes a civil debt and, if he refuses to pay it, the victim has to take him to a civil court, at his own expense, and even then, French may not pay it by claiming he has no money., and the compensation written off. If the court had said that he must pay the compensation within 14 days or go to jail for the period of the suspended sentence, that may make him concentrate his feeble mind somewhat. Having been there, I know that the legal system and justice are many miles apart.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
"The comment thread is very enlightening."
ReplyDeleteThey always are! I'm suprised they haven't deleted it...
"Can't he at least be locked up for non-payment of fines when the inevitable happens?"
Probably not, as Penseivat points out.
"The 'justice' system moves about as quickly as an arthritic sloth. It's completely unacceptable."
I wonder if it's some kind of record?
" If the court had said that he must pay the compensation within 14 days or go to jail for the period of the suspended sentence, that may make him concentrate his feeble mind somewhat. "
I doubt there's anything that can do that at this stage, since it clearly runs in the family...