Posted on 08/22/2007 11:46:07 PM PDT by Stoat
Food for thought: The boy of 12 contemplates all the stress caused by throwing a sausage
A 12-year-old boy has been brought before the courts for throwing a cocktail sausage at a neighbour
District Judge Tim Devas compared the incident to a story from boys' adventure book Just William.
The case has been brought before Manchester City Magistrate's Court
It is the sort of mischievous jape which wouldn't have seemed out of place in a Just William novel.
When a 12-year-old boy apparently got into an argument with an elderly neighbour, the youngster retaliated by throwing a cocktail sausage, which hit the pensioner on the shoulder.
Unfortunately, any comparisons with Richmal Crompton's stories of harmless schoolboy misbehaviour end there.
Instead of simply giving him a severe ticking-off, two police officers arrested the terrified boy, put him in the back of a squad car and locked him up in a cell.
He was then hauled before a court and charged with common assault.
A judge criticised police and lawyers yesterday for bringing the case, which has already cost thousands of pounds in taxpayers' money.
District Judge Tim Devas told the youth court where the boy appeared: "I was brought up in the era of Just William. You may not remember it but this incident sounds similar.
"Clearly there are certain things that should be done with a 12-year- old and you shouldn't be bringing them into the court system unless it's absolutely necessary.
"If he has done what was suggested it is very bad behaviour.
"But is it in the public interest to prosecute a 12-year-old boy who threw a sausage?"
He has urged the Crown Prosecution Service to reconsider whether to prosecute.
The alleged incident is said to have taken place on August 11 in Wythenshawe, Manchester, when Michael Deegan, 74, was walking home from a pub.
He claims that after a disagreement the boy threw the cocktail sausage, which hit him on the shoulder.
The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and pleaded not guilty, said: "It was only a small sausage from a picnic we'd been having.
"I shouldn't have done it but he was going on at me like he usually does so I just threw it."
His mother described the case as a 'ridiculous waste of time and money'. She said: "He was worried sick that he was going to be sent to prison.
"He was absolutely terrified.
"I am furious at the way the police over-reacted in the first place and was shocked when he was charged with assault and given a court date.
"My son has learning difficulties and attends a special needs school, so explaining this to him was not easy.
"He was panicking quite badly and I had to reassure him that he wouldn't go to jail."
Oliver Gardner, defending, said: "It's crazy - they are criminalising children.
"Where is the discretion or logic on the police's behalf when they charge a 12-year-old with assault with a cocktail sausage?
"It beggars belief that they have put this boy through the trauma of the criminal justice system, locking him up at the police station and then hauling him before the court."
Dianne Oliver, prosecuting, said she would take the case to her superiors who would review the charge.
A spokesman for the CPS said police charged the boy 'without reference' to the CPS.
The CPS lawyer dealing with the case in court asked for it to be adjourned so the matter could be reviewed, he added.
In a case last year, Judge Jonathan Finestein criticised a decision to prosecute a boy of ten for calling his schoolfriend racist names in the playground.
He called the move 'political correctness gone mad'.
The case was later dropped.
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said the boy was charged because of three earlier reprimands over his behaviour and that the decision to do so was 'completely in line with standard procedure'.
The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and pleaded not guilty, said: "It was only a small sausage from a picnic we'd been having.
"I shouldn't have done it but he was going on at me like he usually does so I just threw it."
By this standard of 'justice', I should still be locked away on my thousand-year sentence for......being a normal, healthy guy?
These things can put an eye out!
Seriously, even though I read that the sausage came from a picnic, what was the kid doing still running around with it?
As far as arresting the kid, ridiculous. Western society is going to hell in a handbasket.
Considering the way out-of-control kid gangs have been terrorizing Merrie England in recent years, this is ridiculous.
This is the funniiest thread i’ve seen in a while...haha...sorry, that picture of the little cocktail weenie kills me!
On the watch for more sausage-throwing youths.
Why would Americans sitting over here want to rag on British police?
At least the sausage assailant was charged with only one crime. In America it would result in a litany of charges such as two counts of destruction to property, terrorizing a neighbor, deploying a simulated gun, and whatnot on top of the assault charge.
OMG...i’m dying now...this is too damn funny!
Truly ludicrous. Mohammadans destroying the UK and they clog up the courts to prosecute a kid for tossing a midget sausage.
It was a regular hot dog before it went swimming in cold water.
Leave it to the British to deep fry a sausage. Why isn’t their health police all over the people who originally served the blasted thing?
Shrinkage!!!!!!! Oh man...i don’t post a lot on FR...but for some reason i have tears running down my face...am i the only one that sees how dang funny this is? :D
It would help to know more about the relationship between the kid and his family and the next door neighbor.
While this seems like overkill, the kid may have been a little bastard for a considerable length of time. On the other hand, the old neighbor may have been driving all this due to an inability to deal with kids, and having a grouchy nature.
A probation workup might help this kid, or exhonerate him and suggest help for the older gentleman.
I'm laughing, too. You know, I could just imagine the poor kid ending up in a UK jail and some Moslem inmates talking about him.
"Watch out for that little one. He throws pork products!"
At least the boy tossed his own weenie.
“The alleged incident is said to have taken place on August 11 in Wythenshawe, Manchester, when Michael Deegan, 74, was walking home from a PUB.”
Lolz. The “victim” was wasted.
Pictured here is the seemingly innocent third party. Not so fast my friends...
Earlier in the day neighbors had called police to say that a number of these cocktail sausages had been seen flying in the direct vicinity of the later altercation. What seemed at first like a simple example of a boy loosing control, now may be something much more sinister, some might even say eerie.
All witnesses of the earlier flights stated emphatically that they hadn't seen any human intervention just prior to the events. This raises the real possibility that the last flight of the day may have been blamed on a poor innocent child erroneously.
When contacted the manufacturers representatives (or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them the pre-flight preparation crew), stated that they would only comment as unnamed sources off camera. When pressed they backed into their place of business and shut the door. Later a faint hum could be heard eminating from inside the building, and strange appearing individuals continued to go in and out at twenty minute intervals.
Is this another instance of weeners gone wild? Is the population at risk. Are more innocent children going to be hurt? Will Lassie find happiness with Alf?
Check in frequently for updates on this and other compelling mysteries.
Okay, so this seemed like a thread in desparate need of an unraveling.
TBH....I guess this struck me so funny because i spend a fair amount of time on a Disny forum for Brits....i am constantly amazed at how much crime happens to this small cross-section of people...lots of youth gangs vandalizing,assaults and robbery...mostly from their version of projects...it’s really bad like ours but it doesn’t seem to be so localized as ours..it’s spread out evenly....i don’t hear these stories from Fr’s Brits...either they are in denial or i am reading all this wrong...
Then a story comes along like this and i couldn’t help but laugh after the horror stories i have read on the forum i frequent....a kid gets the riot act for throwing a vienna sausage!! :D
I'm not touching that one with a ten foot "anything"
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