Posted on 06/30/2009 6:26:16 AM PDT by naturalman1975
A knife-wielding burglar got a shock when he attacked a pensioner in his home - a couple of right hooks to the face. Gregory McCalium had not realised that 72-year-old victim Frank Corti was a retired boxer.
This police mugshot of 23-year-old McCalium, taken soon after he was arrested at Mr Corti's home, shows the facial injuries the OAP inflicted as he made a citizen's arrest.
Today, McCalium is beginning a four-and-a-half year prison sentence after a judge told him he 'got what he deserved.'
A court heard how Mr Corti - who served with the Royal Engineers in North Africa from 1956-58 - was at home with his wife Margaret at the time of the incident.
McCalium, a neighbour, smashed his way into the couple's home and lunged at Mr Corti with a blade.
The pensioner dodged the knife and punched the intruder twice in the face, leaving him with a black eye and swollen lip.
After the sentencing, Mr Corti said: 'We are very pleased (with the sentence) because our life was severely disrupted by the incident and we are pleased he won't be troubling us for a few years. He then restrained McCalium until police arrived.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sorry - shouldn’t have said he was gaoled - he was convicted but not imprisoned.
And just an addendum - I had to check because I wasn’t sure - Butler’s conviction was quashed on appeal.
Joint Public Statement from the Crown Prosecution Service and the Association of Chief Police Officers
What is the purpose of this statement?
It is a rare and frightening prospect to be confronted by an intruder in your own home. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Chief Constables are responding to public concern over the support offered by the law and confusion about householders defending themselves. We want a criminal justice system that reaches fair decisions, has the confidence of law-abiding citizens and encourages them actively to support the police and prosecutors in the fight against crime.
Wherever possible you should call the police. The following summarises the position when you are faced with an intruder in your home, and provides a brief overview of how the police and CPS will deal with any such events.
Does the law protect me?
What is ‘reasonable force’?
Anyone can use reasonable force to protect themselves or others, or to carry out an arrest or to prevent crime. You are not expected to make fine judgements over the level of force you use in the heat of the moment. So long as you only do what you honestly and instinctively believe is necessary in the heat of the moment, that would be the strongest evidence of you acting lawfully and in selfdefence. This is still the case if you use something to hand as a weapon. As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and the fear felt, the more force you can lawfully use in self-defence.
Do I have to wait to be attacked?
No, not if you are in your own home and in fear for yourself or others. In those circumstances the law does not require you to wait to be attacked before using defensive force yourself.
What if the intruder dies?
If you have acted in reasonable self-defence, as described above, and the intruder dies you will still have acted lawfully. Indeed, there are several such cases where the householder has not been prosecuted. However, if, for example:
• having knocked someone unconscious, you then decided to further hurt or kill them to punish them; or
• you knew of an intended intruder and set a trap to hurt or to kill them rather than involve the police, you would be acting with very excessive and gratuitous force and could be prosecuted.
What if I chase them as they run off?
This situation is different as you are no longer acting in self-defence and so the same degree of force may not be reasonable. However, you are still allowed to use reasonable force to recover your property and make a citizen’s arrest. You should consider your own safety and, for example, whether the police have been called. A rugby tackle or a single blow would probably be reasonable. Acting out of malice and revenge with the intent of inflicting punishment through injury or death would not.
Will you believe the intruder rather than me?
The police weigh all the facts when investigating an incident. This includes the fact that the intruder caused the situation to arise in the first place. We hope that everyone understands that the police have a duty to investigate incidents involving a death or injury. Things are not always as they seem. On occasions people pretend a burglary has taken place to cover up other crimes such as a fight between drug dealers.
That’s the idea: make it technically legal to defend yourself, but remove the means by which the majority of people could defend themselves.
A society that depends on the government for protection is beholden to the government, and thus easier to rule.
Nice that it was eventually overturned though.
BTW, one thing I found interesting in looking up UK self defense law a while back is about who started the argument. Here, at least in the case of concealed carry of a firearm, if you start an argument and make no effort to withdraw you will later not be justified in using your gun to defend yourself if attacked. Minus the gun aspect, it was interesting to see that you can start the argument and still be in the right in the UK.
Here in Tennessee it’s so much easier—we just shoot them.
In places that have the Castle Doctrine, one is allowed to shoot any unauthorized person in ones home, end of story. The authorities are the only exception.
His attacker was not a Muslim, black, lesbian, gay, transgender or any other protected species.
Thank you for your patient and thorough explanation of the legal right of self-defence in Britain - so often completely misunderstood in this forum (particularly in the form of false conclusions drawn from the Tony Martin case). After reading some of the earlier posts, I was about to take a deep breath and have a go myself, but then I saw that you’d already set out the facts with exemplary clarity.
The perp wasn’t a muslim...
“Assaulting” burglars is illegal in the UK, isn’t it?
No it isn’t.
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