jail for catching &beating the burglar who threatened your family ???

[KidKruger]

Just heard about this:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6956044.ece

Bloke gets burgled then chases and catches and beats the guy who threatened his family, gets jailed for his efforts.

Come on !

Liberals out you come, let's hear it, 'appropriate level of restraint' etc etc.

[SeanMacGabhann]

doesn't SOUND like you want a debate KK

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I was with the guy until I read 'broke the cricket bat in three places'. That takes some going.

[SeanMacGabhann]

That and inflicting brain damage

I've been burgled and have been enraged - and if something happened in the house in self defence I have more sympathy.

But you stop being a victim when you enlist others to hit the streets and disbale people

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Totally agree Sean.

[mockney piers]

The law is pretty clear on this. He broke he law by taking into his own hands.

For the level of violence shown I think he got off pretty lightly and I'm sure his being a law abiding family man was taken into account.

He'll be out by next march.

[Keef]

Basically, what PGC and Sean said. That is not "bleeding heart liberal", it's just not being a psycho.

I support his right to chase them, I understand, and pretty much support him wanting to give them a dig, but smashing a solid wooden bat over someone's skull, that is a bit mentalist in my book.

[Brendan]

I?m inclined to say that if someone decides to invade someone else?s home and ends up brain damaged (or crippled or dead for that matter) for their efforts. Well diddums, they shouldn?t have broken into someone?s house then.

But the law is the law and the precedent for this sort of thing is pretty well established.

[Jeremy]

The intruders sound like a particularly nasty bunch, and frankly I have zero sympathy for him. If you threaten to kill someone, you shouldn't be surprised if you get a beating in response.

Saying that, by beating the guy sensless, they obviously went too far and should have known they'd get in trouble.

[DaveR]

If he'd chased him, knocked him down, given him a kick for good measure, and sat on him until the cops arrived, I'd say well done, and I strongly suspect the cops would have done the same. He went way too far, however. I do think the sentence is on the long side tho'.

[huncamunca]

the copper and CPS will accept a light kicking doled out if it can be explained as required in apprehending someone who burgles your place & thretens to kill your family

setting about someone with bats & bars isnt reasonable force

The Intent charge is crucial here - i.e. they set out to cause injury to the Burglar.

[mockney piers]

Quite DaveR. Indont think the burglars will get much sympathy from anyone, but it's one thing to be threatening and another to do harm. As it goes they scared the bejeezus out of a family but ended up with brain damage. That's a life sentence to the other guy's 30 months.

An old patient of my mums was a chap who burgled a jewellers. The store owner shot him in the head with a shotgun causing brain damage with particular issues with his speech (hence seeing my mum).

The store owner was held as a hero in the letters pave of the local press, but in the end (once chap came out of coma) it turned out they knew each other, it was an insurance job and store owner had felt that killin the paid for burglar was the only way of ensuring he wasn't found out. Down he went for many years.

Now I'm not saying this is the case, but we really dont know what went on. And it reall was a life sentence for the chap who certainly had 'hangings too good for him' said about him. I don't recall the subsequent derails ever hitting the press, it was only because he was a patient tha we got to find it all out.

[Keef]

Spot on DaveR!

If this had been in the house, and he'd managed to grab the bat, and took a swing at the intruder in order to possibly save his and his families lives, that would be completely understandable. However, he picked up the bat, and set off with it as a weapon.

I don't have sympathy with the intruders, but my sympathy for this bloke is limited because he went WAY too far!

Anyone who thinks he didn't, try smashing a cricket bat against a brick wall, and see how easily it breaks.

[????]

Anyone here had a knife held to their and their families throats by blokes in balaclavas waiting for them in their own home

....of course it's wrong but I have a great deal of sympathy and some empathy with them, far more than the farmer bloke.

Now....where's that thread about the bloke who spat in Keef's face? :-S

[KidKruger]

so easy to be miles from the situation at hand and say what someone should do when they have just a couple of minutes earlier been scared to death for their own and their families lives, thinking that any moment their own lives could be ended. can you even imagine being scared your kids are going to be killed or hurt by a stranger who means harm and says he means harm.

yes the law is very clear and well done for pinting it out, try following it when you are in that situation inches from losing your life.

If I had the guts that guy had I am sure I would also be getting 30 months.

suspended sentence the burglar gets ! let's rehabilitate the guy, give me a break.

[SeanMacGabhann]

well, suspended sentence and brain damage

"so easy to be miles from the situation at hand and say what someone should do when they have just a couple of minutes earlier been scared to death "

Well that is both true and one of the reasons we live in a civilization and not some wild west hell hole

[DrDom]

I don't think he'll be doing much as he's severly braindamaged. I don't have any sympathy for the guy, though. If you enter someone's house, tie them, their wife and kids up and hold a knife to their throat, then that persons brother and friends turn up chasing you away and then catch you, then what do you expect.

[SeanMacGabhann]

As Piers said, I don't think anyone has sympathy for burglars - this one or any other

But it's just not correct to say he got away with anything, or even got off lightly. The homeowner has his own idea of what justice should be and has dished it out - so he can't complain either

[Keef]

so easy to be miles from the situation at hand and say what someone should do when they have just a couple of minutes earlier been scared to death for their own and their families lives, thinking that any moment their own lives could be ended. can you even imagine being scared your kids are going to be killed or hurt by a stranger who means harm and says he means harm.

I think this is the whole point though. As I said before, had he gotten hold of the bat, DURING the horrible situation in the house, then it would be totally excusable. However, rather than calling the police, and being with his family, the bloke went mental and smashed a person's head in with a bloody cricket bat, I mean, come on!

Yes I feel sorry for the guy, and I don't know what I'd do in that situation (neither does ANYONE on here), but I like to think, if I went after someone, I'd give them a dig, not brain damage.

I love the following comment at the end of the article.

So the courts are more interested in 'law' than 'justice'.

Well, er, yeah.

I fucking hate the way the word "Justice" is thrown about in this country by idiots.

Oh and Quids, I'd love to get hold of the kid who spat in my face, and yes, I'd love to slap him about a bit if I'm honest. I don't want to do lasting damage, or kill him.

[mockney piers]

I love the wail the daily mail *spits* take some sort of personal affront at stories like this.

And who on earth mentioned rehabilitation, though doubtless years of expensive physio/speech therapy to ensue for one.

My bottom line is burglar got commeuppance. He didn't get justice (except insofar as the other guy has been put away.

Your vigilante also got his just desserts. Though difficult to know how I'd react* my first concern would be for my family not taking a bat to someone. His actions, however you view them were premeditated and against the law.

Seems to me a case of law done good all round under difficult circumstances frankly.

For the record I have awoken to balaclavaed robber in my flat in the middle of the night though whether armed or not he didn't threaten me. The first thing i did was call the police.

[????]

The state should also deliver some sort of justice to the wronged.....and too often it doesn't, so our justice system is also cupable to some extent. Would this guy have got what he deserved in the courts? Who knows but my suspicion is no. 50 previous convictions suggest that the legal system had failed at least 49 other true victims.

Again, it's not right.... but the assumption that the state consistently delivers 'justice' or punishment for this sort of crime has its flaws. My sympathy is almost entirely with the guy whose private house was invaded and family threatened with death (this is not a 'burgalry' BTW)and I have very little for the whacked one... that's my honest feeling on this not my.....I'm struggling not to use the 'L' word 'stance'. Criminals as victims, sob, sob...I tend to sh!t on that view.....

edited to 50 for %0

[iaineasy]

I would have beat the burglar senseles and gone to prison I am afraid, the man and his family went through a terrifying and humiliating expeirience, at the point you break in and threaten my famiuly with death you get whats coming to you, simples.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Mockney, don't you recognise the Milk Tray Man when he comes to your flat?

[Keef]

iaineasy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I would have beat the burglar senseles and gone to

> prison I am afraid, the man and his family went

> through a terrifying and humiliating expeirience,

> at the point you break in and threaten my famiuly

> with death you get whats coming to you, simples.

No "Hugs" then? ;-)

I'm struggling not to use the 'L' word 'stance'. Criminals as victims, sob, sob...I tend to sh!t on that view.....

I don't think anyone on this thread has been soft or liberal about this, and noone has shown sympathy for the twat who got beat up. People have just said that he went too far.

I can't stand all this "if someone done that to me, I'd fecking 'av 'em", because frankly it's macho bollix, which I suspect would never be backed up, and hopefully the situation will never arise!

[vinceayre]

I recall a lawyer friend once telling me that its better to kill a burglar than seriously injure them them as dead people don't make as good a prosecution witness as live people and they cant disagree with your version of events.