By James Simons-
The British system looked an awful mess, as two teenagers who forced a man to strip in a Bradford park before robbing him of cash and his phone, got off lightly with a suspended sentence.
The robber found the pair, both 17 at the time of the offence on September 3 last year, on the Grindr phone app, and subsequently met them in Bowling Park.
As they entered a secluded wooded area, The two youths ambushed the men as they entered the secluded area and put bandanas over their faces. One of the men went further to produce out a handgun, which was later found to be a pellet-gun.
The thug forced the man to his knees and ordered him to remove his clothes, hand over his phone and money, saying: “If you tell anyone we’ll tell your family.”
The man got dressed and later found his clothes on Bowling Park Drive, from where he called the police.
The teenagers, who are both 18, admitted the charge of robbery.
The court heard that both youths had suffered “troubled” childhoods and mental health issues, and had been victims of child sexual exploitation. This background to their past lives was successfully used as a reason to free the criminals and give them light sentences. Child exploitation is a horrid experience, but that cannot in any decent society excuse the sort of humiliating robbery committed by the two teenagers.
However, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, shockingly said that while the robbery offence was “truly wicked”, the case was one that “cries out for intervention rather than custody.”
Instead, he concluded: “These are two men who are as vulnerable as I have ever seen in this jurisdiction. To put it bluntly, they have seen things and had things are done to them that is quite shocking.”
The pair were given 21-month sentences in a young offenders institution suspended for two years, up to 35 days rehabilitation, and a six-month curfew. That sentence is too soft and does represent justice. Robbing a victim of their possession, then stripping them naked is very humiliating for anybody to experience. A custodial sentence should have been imposed, instead of the ridiculous sentence given. When The Eye Of Media.Com attempted to quiz the judge further about what appeared to be flaws in his judgement, we were told to put our request in writing through an email and wait for a response.
The Eye Of Media.Com will be pushing for an appeal on this judgment, it is a bad one that makes the British justice system appear very weak. Lawyers who present past horrific experiences to mitigate offences are doing the law a great disservice.