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'.
Lolz. The “victim” was wasted.
If the kid had asked me, "Gee stoat, should I throw a cocktail sausage at a drunk and crotchety 74-year old man?"
I could have told him what would happen. But did he ask me? Nooooooo.......
‘Leave it to the British to deep fry a sausage.’
That’s rich! The last time I was in America at thanksgiving, the family who invited me to eat with them deep-fried a whole turkey in an electric bucket filled with fat! 8-D
I use peanut oil and a gas fryer.
Hi...I read on a thread here yesterday that a middle school student in the US was charged for drawing a picture of a gun. It is getting crazy out there
Carolyn
Trust me, you’re not reading it wrong at all. In fact, it is even worse than people think.
Crime committed by kids is soaring, and its not just in the inner cities either. Even in the cathedral cities and picturesque tourist traps it can be risky going out late at night. In the nearest large town where I live, called Grimsby, there is a small estate (projects) called Nunsthorpe, known to people for miles around, as the ‘Nunney’. My grandparents remember it being built in the early 50s as low cost housing for WORKING people, mainly the trawlermen at the docks. It was a place that folk took pride in ; it used to have flower competitions, local summer fairs etc.
Not any more. During the past 10 years the older residents have died or moved out, and the Council has repaced them with ‘disfunctional family entities’.These consist of single women with 3 or 4 kids from different fathers, commonly known as ‘Benefit Bints’ (I believe you call them ‘Welfare Mommas’), in other words, scum. Driving home at night, I have seen gangs of 20 or 30 kids roaming the streets, some of them only 12 or 13. They are conspicuous by their clothes, which would not look out of place in Detroit or South Central LA. This year they have kicked a pizza delivery man into a coma, thrown fireworks into a stable, injuring a pony, and have continually damaged cars and front gardens. It is only recently arrests have been made. In fact I have had to resort to a fistfight with a 14 year old on 2 occasions ; kids of this age have no fear of adults nowadays.
Even in the cathedral city of Lincoln I have witnessed drunk 13-16 year olds challenge passers by to a fight ; yet if you injure them the Spikes will arrest YOU because the brats are protected under the Childrens Rights Act 1990.
In the immediate area where I live it is OK, because there is virtually no social housing and the young round here have good parents who work for a living and teach their offspring manners and respect for others (GASP! they must be fascists!) but 10 years of Socialist policies have left a stain on our once nice communities.
PS Do not be surprised if some UK Freepers post here saying that I am (A) Exaggurating, and (B) at least we don’t run around with guns like them Yanks if this countrys got so bad why don’t I bugger off somewhere else.
Remember you heard it here first.
He should have claimed to be a Muslim reacting to racism. They’d have arrested the old guy.
Mark
‘....i don’t hear these stories from Fr’s Brits...either they are in denial or i am reading all this wrong...’
Perhaps your Disney forum tends to attract the more ‘chavvy’ type of Brit who seeks the escapism of cartoons whereas Brit Freepers tend to be more educated and successful and thus less likely to live on a council welfare estate.
‘I wonder if the guy he threw it at was Muslim? That might account for some of the overreaction.’
Don’t be silly - if there were muslims there, they would’ve run out screaming at the first sight of a sausage on a plate offending them! :)
‘PS Do not be surprised if some UK Freepers post here saying that I am (A) Exaggurating, and (B) at least we don’t run around with guns like them Yanks if this countrys got so bad why don’t I bugger off somewhere else.
Remember you heard it here first.’
No. you’re not exaggerating but what can you expect if you live near Grimsby - even people from Detroit are scared to go there and as the locals would vote for chimp with a Labour rosette, they get all they deserve! :D
Why don’t you bugger off somewhere nice with a huge tory majority like the Isle of Wight! :)
carolyn
I live 13 miles away, nearer Louth. Our MP is a proper Conservative, Sir Peter Tapsell.
Even local lads who support Grimsby Town FC only set foot there on match days ; they wouldn’t dream of shopping or working, much less living, there !
The police are jack booted thugs for arresting the boy.
The prosecutors are simple minded morons for prosecuting.
Only the judge is a sane person. Very unusual behavior for a judge BTW.
Me, I’d have drawn my Webley-Vickers and given the little miscreant twenty warning shots to the torso. It’s a mighty thin line between throwing cocktail sausages and axe murder. In fact, it’s exactly the same thing. Except for the sausages and the axe.
Thanks for the reply...we have the same problems as you know...it’s nothing new....i’m not wagging a finger at ya’ll when we have a log in our own eye...i freely admit it...i was informed though that most Disney lovers are chavvy types....i guess if i came on here and said that i only saw tattooed, footie shirt wearing Brits at Disney World...i’d be corrected and told that it’s a broad cross-section of people that travel to Florida :D.....actually i know that’s not the case....thanks again for the reply.
Can people that live in council estates really afford Disney?
‘Can people that live in Council estates really afford Disney ?’
An interesting point.
30 years ago people round here spent a fortnight on the North Sea Coast, half an hours drive away. France or Spain’s Costas were a trip of a lifetime. As for New York or Miami, they were semi - mythical places that may or may not have existed !
Nowadays of course the world has shrunk. Cheap mass Air/Hotel packaging, coupled with a very strong pound, means that someone in this area can spend a week at Disneyland Florida for little more than $1300 ; flight, hotel, and entry fee (obviously spending money extra).
Now a lot of council people are scowler (our trailer trash) welfare types who, in theory, should not have enough spare cash to get to the end of town, let alone Florida.
However, a lot of them supplement their welfare handouts with cash jobs or petty (not violent) crime.
It should come as no surprise that under a Socialist administration someone who has not had a job for donkey’s years, has no savings, and has most household bills paid by the taxpayer, can swan off to Disney without a care in the world ! (Blood pressure rising now).
So in a nutshell
Can people that live in council estates really afford Disney ?
They SHOULDN’T afford it. But some of them can regardless.
Fair play to you squire ; at least you say it like it is unlike a lot of the British public. A lot of Codheads are developing an almost Liverpudlian chip on their shoulders ie any slight criticism of Grimsby/Cleethorpes/Immingham is countered by an abusive, defensive, overreaction.
Whitehall must have spent hundreds of millions on the place but who knows where its all gone ?
Yes you can spot a Scowler by his home town’s nylon soccer shirt. What scum !
I, however, wear my New York Yankees top (bought from Yankee Stadium’s club store) with pride !
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