A girl in her early teens who was missing and vulnerable, and these grown adults are moaning about not being able to prosecute her? How pathetic.
How on earth does a “girl in her early teens” give a police officer a concussion and break one of their fingers!? (Edit: Apparently by repeatedly punching them in the head).
I totally understand that emergency workers feel vulnerable when things like this make it seem like assaulting them is not a big deal.
Also, I think the expectation is that if this had been a boy rather than a girl, and especially a boy from a poor background, there would have been no question of him being charged.
On balance though, in the circumstances and as this was a first offence, it seems to me that giving them a caution with follow up supervision and counselling is probably the right approach at this stage. I just hope everyone, regardless of demographic and background, would be treated with the same level of understanding.
>However, the CPS has said the child was given a youth conditional caution and this was the “best course of action”.
Which counts as a criminal record, until you’re 19, iirc. So she wasn’t let off with nothing.
Hope they are both doing okay.
TBH I think they made the right choice. Sending a mentally ill child to juvie for a first offence doesn’t seem a reliable way to stop them re-offending. She’s been told that if she steps out of line again, she’ll face serious charges. A caution is no small thing to a minor or her family.
Like the article said, the conviction rate for assaulting an emergency service worker is 84%. If someone is drunk, insane and/or stupid enough to attack a police officer, I doubt hearing about this case would make much of a difference.
4 comments
A girl in her early teens who was missing and vulnerable, and these grown adults are moaning about not being able to prosecute her? How pathetic.
How on earth does a “girl in her early teens” give a police officer a concussion and break one of their fingers!? (Edit: Apparently by repeatedly punching them in the head).
I totally understand that emergency workers feel vulnerable when things like this make it seem like assaulting them is not a big deal.
Also, I think the expectation is that if this had been a boy rather than a girl, and especially a boy from a poor background, there would have been no question of him being charged.
On balance though, in the circumstances and as this was a first offence, it seems to me that giving them a caution with follow up supervision and counselling is probably the right approach at this stage. I just hope everyone, regardless of demographic and background, would be treated with the same level of understanding.
>However, the CPS has said the child was given a youth conditional caution and this was the “best course of action”.
Which counts as a criminal record, until you’re 19, iirc. So she wasn’t let off with nothing.
Hope they are both doing okay.
TBH I think they made the right choice. Sending a mentally ill child to juvie for a first offence doesn’t seem a reliable way to stop them re-offending. She’s been told that if she steps out of line again, she’ll face serious charges. A caution is no small thing to a minor or her family.
Like the article said, the conviction rate for assaulting an emergency service worker is 84%. If someone is drunk, insane and/or stupid enough to attack a police officer, I doubt hearing about this case would make much of a difference.