A 14-year-old British boy stabbed a girl of the same age who had rejected his advances. After the trial, the judge released the boy straight onto the street.
This is yet another example of how the irresponsibly lenient justice system is failing an entire generation of English girls, writes Georgina Mumford in Spiked Online.
Mumford asks the question: Why did a boy who stabbed a girl who had rejected him get off so lightly?
The stabbing took place in March this year in Cirencester. The attack was clearly premeditated. The girl was stabbed ten times and suffered cuts to her neck, hands and face. Fortunately, she survived.
Both the victim and the perpetrator were 14 years old, and they were classmates. He became obsessed with her last year.
After she had rejected his advances, he began harassing her via fake social media accounts. A few months later, he tucked a kitchen knife into his jeans and lay in wait for her.
According to the police, the victim can count herself lucky to have survived the horrific attack. However, the total lack of justice that followed will most likely make the girl’s recovery difficult, perhaps impossible.
Judge Ian Lawrie settled for a suspended sentence and a three-year restraining order. As a result, the 14-year-old stabber will be released without spending a single day behind bars following the verdict.
In fact, Judge Lawrie seemed determined to ensure that the boy was released.
The perpetrator was initially held in a secure facility after confessing to the assault to the police. However, during the sentencing, the judge said he was ‘deeply dissatisfied’ with this period in custody.
‘My own view is that custody is the last place you should be. What I am trying to do is to find a sentence that is best suited to helping you and providing you with support.”
He even described the offender as “an intelligent boy” – a bright boy. The judge told the boy that he should ‘stay out of trouble’.
It is quite simply appalling to describe a knife attack that could have resulted in the murder of a 14-year-old girl as ‘trouble’. This ‘sweets-and-sodas’ mentality, where all concern is directed towards the perpetrator whilst the victim is ignored, is all too familiar in Norwegian courts.
Of course, the young boy needs some form of support. But so does the victim, of course. One could have started by ensuring the boy received a fair sentence for a very serious and life-threatening crime.
It is surely not unreasonable to argue that this boy poses a threat to the general public. But since the judge let the perpetrator go free, the victim now lives in fear. As she explained in court:
‘I am scared and nervous wherever I go. Even if someone simply raises their hand next to me, I flinch, because I don’t know what they might do to me … I’ve had nightmares ever since; I relive the incident … I can’t stop thinking about it.”
If one finds oneself in such a state, rehabilitation is virtually impossible.
The sentence was handed down in a youth court and therefore cannot be appealed. Consequently, the sentence will stand, and the boy will get off with only a light punishment.
In May, the British public witnessed a similar horrific incident in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. Judge Nicholas Rowland sentenced three boys aged 13–14 to community service after they had subjected two girls aged 14 and 15 to gang rape whilst threatening them with a knife.
“None of you have been in serious trouble before. You have all coped very well with the restrictions imposed during the trial … none of you need to go to prison today,” Rowland told the boys as he read out the sentence.
Just as in the Cirencester case, it is not only the lenient sentence that is appalling, but also the fact that the judge dismisses such a serious offence, referring to it in terms of ‘boys will be boys’.
It’s a shame the boys didn’t post anything ‘naughty’ on social media, because then the British police would have turned up immediately, and they would probably have had to serve time in prison.
The number of victims following the Southport murders is rising
Offering support and help to young offenders is all well and good, but it is time for the judicial system in Western Europe to also consider the victims whose lives have been ruined.
For girls who have been stalked, attacked or raped, it must be unbearable to hear a judge let the perpetrator off because he behaved politely in court after his ‘misdeed’. Nor is it likely to help to hear about how ‘vulnerable’ and ‘cramped’ these monsters’ living conditions were.
Young offenders should be given help and support, even though it is unlikely to have any effect. But for the sake of the girl, who now wakes up every day fearing for her life, the 14-year-old should have received that help behind bars.
Then the 14-year-old victim might have had a small chance of preventing the rest of her life from being ruined. The current system means that it is in fact the victim who receives the worst punishment.
