Village life...

[denny]

An update on what happened to my kid brother... he was at a mate's house, in the garden with several other teenagers (he's 16, most of the others were a bit older than him). The neighbours came around to ask them to be quieter. Apparently the neighbours considered that the best way to do this was for the father (in his 50s) and son (in his 20s) to come around armed with a baseball bat and a bottle respectively, kick the (6 foot) back gate off its hinges, smash up all the garden furniture with the baseball bat, start shoving people around, and wrap up by hitting two of the people they'd pushed over in the back of the head a few times each with the bottle.

My brother has two splits in his scalp near the base of his skull, they've been glued rather than stitched as they were fairly short. His friend had similar levels of damage. They're both okay, they've gone to stay in another village with another friend until they find out what's happening with the assailants, given that the attackers live next door to the second guy who was bottled.

Apparently the police are 'familiar' with the family in question, so they're keen to press charges. Unfortunately they seem to have decided to go for charges of 'Affray' (a public order offence rather than an assault charge) - which is considerably less serious than ABH or GBH, which is what I'd have expected them to try for. GBH with intent is theoretically anything up to a life sentence, ABH is up to five years. Affray is only up to six months (unless it goes to Crown Court), or more likely a fine - seems a bit weak under the circumstances.

I told my brother it should be me with the exciting random violence stories, living in the Big City as I do. He lives in a tiny coastal village in Norfolk, not the kind of place you expect this sort of thing to go on.

Comments

[uberredfraggle.livejournal.com]

Bah. Poor guys. Glad they're ok but that is horrible. Our justice system can be so fucked sometimes. Out in 2-3 years for nearly beating someone to death but 20-30(?) years for setting fire to a pair of curtains. It's crap. :(

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad he's ok.

And that's absolutely disgraceful about the charges. Why won't they go for ABH/GBH? It seems absolutely crazy.

[world-of-skin.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend's dad had the shit kicked out of him by two people, as in, beaten around the head with chairs, not to mention kicked in the head repeatedly, kicked and punched over and over and over, you get the picture.. The two bastards got charged with fucking BATTERY. What a joke. I really don't know how they came to that conclusion, I really, really don't..

I think this is mainly because the police seem to be terrified of these two individuals though. The posse/followers of these two idiots threatened my boyfriend's dad repeatedly, when they found out he was one, of several people, meant to testify against these two men, to the point of threatening my boyfriend's whole family, right down to his little sister, and they repeatedly sat around in cars outside his house and tried to break the front door down etc in order to get inside.

The court had my boyfriend's dad standing by, off work, ready to come into court if summoned, but he was never called in, which at least meant the two people haven't bothered him since but meant, like I said, SOMEHOW, they only got charged with battery. They received an absolute discharge, not even a fucking conditional one...

I don't know all the details, given, as this was back when my boyfriend and I were just friends, so I wasn't involved in the family business as much as I am now, and, obviously, they'd rather not talk about things that've been buried.. Still, this makes me more angry than I've ever been in my life (er, at the two twats involved, not at not being told details!).

Sorry for ranting, it's just I understand your anger totally :(

[mr_magicfingers]

Affray?

From what you've said they could throw breaking and entering, trespass, ABH, GBH and more at these two. I'd want to know just why they're only trying for affray.

I'd be talking to a lawyer sharpish if I was your brother. Questions need to be asked of the police.

Meanwhile, good to know the damage isn't more serious, hope he makes a swift recovery.

[flannelcat.livejournal.com]

Can they only be charged with one crime for one event? What about charging one with GBH, one with ABH and treating the breaking and entering as a seperate crime? Questions *do* need to be asked of the police here.

[flannelcat.livejournal.com]

In other news, feel free to accept a Holy Quest of torching their car.
Some people just plain disgust me.

[kaz-pixie.livejournal.com]

Glad he's OK.

I should imagine that the reason they're going for a lesser charge is because they're more likely to succeed on it and it will go through more quickly. Possibly if they've got other charges going through at the same time this will mean they can introduce the affray charge as a conviction (they wouldn't be able to bring it up if it was in progress) which would mean they were more likely to succeed on another charge.

Of course this infers that the police are clever enough to work this out for themselves I suppose.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Has your brother got a lawyer? Someone needs to put pressure on the police and CPS I think...

[missyasmina.livejournal.com]

[...]seems a bit weak under the circumstances.
Does indeed.
Sounds really weird that the police went for only a 'Affray' considering they already are 'familiar' with those people, and what they now did.
I mean, what are they waiting for? Them to kill someone?

[snoof.livejournal.com]

Dude, wtf?

I'm really glad they're ok.

[twinkle-lfs.livejournal.com]

Almost the exact same thing happened to my ex and his mate during a party at my flat in Camberwell years ago. the culprits were teh local hardman and his mates and both my mates were batted, and slashed with Stanley knives. One was detained overnight in hospital. We couldn't go to the police as the gangsta Paul Mason "owned" the council estate....good luck to your bro in getting some justice.

[ulorin-vex.livejournal.com]

wtf? :/ Glad theyre ok anyway

[burritob.livejournal.com]

Glad he's okay, but holy crap that's fucked up - both the act, and the police response. :(

[swiftangel.livejournal.com]

I'm glad he'll be okay. I agree with several others... is the legal system so fucked that there is no way for the victim to have input as to what charges are filed?

[kynetik.livejournal.com]

That's awful! I'm glad he's ok. Bloody pigs - I guess they're pressing for the charges they're most likely to succeed with.