Criminal treated as a victim again
Check out this story about a man threatening a woman and then following her home and then tell me if you feel justice has been done.
According to my old friend Judge Stephen Ashurst, John Taylor was not justified in defending his wife. It is interesting to note that there is no mention of the aggressor, Barry Smithson, facing any charges for his disgraceful behaviour.
The sad thing is that this story isn’t a one-off in Britain today.
More rights for criminals than victims. It stinks.
See you soon…
May 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Where’s this piece of human excrement getting the money to fund an operation at the Nuffield? -
Sight fear convict in freedom appeal
A THUG awaiting sentence for his latest crimes could be temporarily freed from jail - to prevent him going blind.
Anthony Alan Birkitt is already blind in one eye, York Crown Court heard.
Now he faces an operation at the private Nuffield Hospital to deal with a detached retina in the other eye.
But because the hospital is private, prison bosses won’t arrange a prison escort so that he can have the operation.
He is currently remanded to Hull Prison, awaiting sentence for putting another man in fear of violence through harassment.
“It would be quite wrong for a remand in custody to run the risk of a man losing sight in both eyes,” York’s top judge, Judge Stephen Ashurst said.
He said if Birkitt’s defence team could show him conclusive evidence that Birkitt was scheduled for an eye operation on May 17, he would consider an application to bail him for the operation and for a short period afterwards to recuperate.
But he warned that the freedom could only be temporary and in considering bail, he wasn’t promising or giving any hope that he wouldn’t jail Birkitt for the harassment. The judge said: “The offence he has admitted is very serious, and he has an extensive background.
” Whatever is said about his reputation, it doesn’t impress me one little bit.”
He said if he granted bail, he would set stiff conditions, including an electronically monitored nightly curfew and restrictions on his movements to protect the harassment victim.
Birkitt, 32, of Ratcliffe Street, Clifton, York, admitted the harassment offence at an earlier hearing.
He has a string of previous convictions for violence and has served prison sentences in the past.
He was due to learn his punishment when he appeared before Judge Ashurst.
His barrister, Paul Williams, revealed that if he was in prison on May 17, the authorities would not allow him to attend the hospital because it was not an NHS hospital.
Defence lawyers will make a bail application behind closed doors once they have written proof from Nuffield Hospital about the operation.