British Teenage Girl Fined for Kicking Attacker While Down

[econ21]

What an awesome boyfriend by the way! and that witness what a couple of heroes! Good to know chivalry is alive and well.

And ajax. I like to get my rapists (because whether he did it or not he is a rapist in my book) to suffer a little more than some stitches on his face.

Do we know what the boyfriend did or did not do? All I've read so far is a fairly short Scottish newspaper's report (endlessly rejurgigated as it goes viral via right wing US websites). Newspapers have a word limit and they get things wrong. (My limited personal experience of journalism is that in each encounter reported, the journalists have gotten the facts horribly, absurdly wrong.) Until I hear otherwise, my money is on the 21 year old flooring the drunk but who knows?

And why lambast the neighbours for saying what they saw? You imply they did not help, but perhaps you don't need help to kick an unconscious drunk in the head four or five times.

There's no suggestion of rape. Apparently, the attack followed an argument in a bar. I don't feel any sympathy for him, but I don't feel any outrage at the verdict either. I might kick an unconscious drunk's head in if he attacked me and my wife, but I would not claim it was reasonable force.

[Rhyfelwyr]

It's not like they jailed her either, they just think she has to accept that she cannot just punish/kill someone because she thinks it's better for her

Yes it probably was better for her not to be raped.

Anyway, I can't believe anyone is defending this verdict. A guy that stalks a young woman at night in a balaclava should be thankful not to be leaving the scene in a body bag.

I'll tell you what this is!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Hosakawa Tito]

The miscarriage of justice is not the excessive force charge. It is the fact the initial aggressor was not charged with assault. His injuries would not have occured if he had not stalked and assaulted the woman in the first place. Wearing a balaklava to attempt to conceal his identity suggests a premeditated act to do more than just argue with someone. She should appeal this ruling.

A Sheriff, ie law enforcement officer, acted as judge. Did I read this correctly ?

Is pepperspray legal to use in self-defense in the UK ?

[Husar]

Yes it probably was better for her not to be raped.

Absolutely, but that was achieved when he was unconscious, she could have stopped kicking him and waited for police to come.
Since she kept kicking him in the head I assume she either wanted him dead or has very little control over her anger.
I meant that him being dead would be better for her than him being in prison but that doesn't mean she can do what she wants with him.

A Sheriff, ie law enforcement officer, acted as judge. Did I read this correctly ?

That actually confused me a bit as well.

[johnhughthom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherriff

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

When a girl is attacked and suffers an attempted rape it's entirely understandable she have a twich in her flight-fight respose that causes the descent of "red mist", hence she keeps kicking after he stops moving.

It's what you tend to call a "berserk ragge", and I kid you not when I say that loss of control is terrifying.

Unfortunately this physiological twitch, or whatever it is, doesn't mesh well with the law, hence the fine. I have no particular problem with that because the law must be applied equally. I have a HUGE problem with the girl being fined and her attacker not recieving a custodial sentence for attampted rape and being placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

[Hosakawa Tito]

She should counter-sue the dirtbag to recover the fine.

[The Stranger]

With its reputation for rock solid reliability, double action design, sleek layout, and compact size, the P232 is an excellent choice for self defense.

Oh wait, this was in the UK.

americas answer to everything.

kill it!

[Fragony]

americas answer to everything.

kill it!

European answer to everything

'ehhhhhh just don't'

[Greyblades]

Nah, the european answer is to fry it:

EDIT: Removed hotlinked image. Please host pictures yourself. BG

[Louis VI the Fat]

I suspect this is because the UK gives assaulted girls 99 lashes for being outside without a male relative.

Are you trying to invent a new variant of the Godwin?

I refer to the other thread: the difference between us and the Taliban is but one of degrees.

Mind that Islamic legal tradition is refined. They too understand the legal system of thought which separates into parts that which to the untrained mind is one event. That's why they can come up with such headlines as 'Raped Fourteen Year Old to Receive 99 Lashes'. Just because she was assaulted does not mean she ought to escape punishment for being unnacompanied. To the untrained mind, this is an outrage: how indifferent, how fascist, must one be, to punish a girl who just got assaulted?

This case is similar, if difffering slightly in degree. How indifferent, how brutal, must you be to have a crying, desperate teenage girl in front of your judge's bench, who got assaulted late at night in her own home by a beast with a face mask, still in mortal fright, possibly forever, how insensitive must you be to fine this girl a hefty punitave amount right before the eyes of her assaulter, who stands there with a big humiliating grin on his face, jeering that the court is finishing the job he started.

Bunch of . I want the death penalty for the sheriff and the judge.

Apropos the case, since none of us were in the courtroom, it is difficult to make judgment on the outcome. In Europe, it has long been the case that one's human rights are not removed the moment a criminal act is committed and we have the rather liberal idea that someone is considered innocent until proven guilty. This tends to preclude summary execution.

Oh, but I agree this man needs a fair trial and then be hanged.

Anything less is being complicit in any further assaults by this man. We need to change the legal system: if a convicted rapist rapes again, those responsible for his release get life imprisonment. Let's share the risks beteen the victims and the legal system.

In America, it is customary for airplane designers to have to be present in the first manned flight of their design. Brutal, but it works wonders for safety. They design at their own peril. We need to introduce this into our legal system for murderers and rapists. Let's see how much risk those responsible for their sentencing and release are willing to take that they will not commit further crimes.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Oh, I'll play. What you've overlooked in your righteous anger is that as frightened or as angry as she was she did continue administering the beating/kicking well after the guy was quite clearly not going to crawl back up (clear to other witnesses). That's sort of where the line between justified force crosses into needless violence. Once the guy is obviously not going to crawl back up without the help of an ambulance crew there's not much need for kicking him out of self defense...

Oh, because you Brits have to be so civil! Real smart eh?

[Fragony]

Oh, because you Brits have to be so civil! Real smart eh?

He's Dutch, that other mystical place called 'not-USA' ;)

[Samurai Waki]

We can be civil after both of his arms are broken.

[Strike For The South]

This girl wouldn't be arrested in Texas

And I am ok with that

Of course Texans in general do not tolerate barbarity, of course we are not above the contradiction of using our own barbarity to quash those whom wish to upset our civil society.

[Beskar]

America is worse than Britain though. A supermarket was fined tens of thousands of dollars for not being able to have a child running loose in a store uncontrolled which injured a customer. Even though it was that customers child!