It never rains but it pours. Pours? I think a drenching would be more apt. We have had rain. Boy oh boy oh boy, have we had rain? It didn’t rain cats and dogs; it rained elephants and rhinos with a couple of hippopotami thrown in for good measure. Neither did it rain chair legs. It rained a whole bloody bedroom suite. Being on my own, Chris and Douglas away in London, I was to be found dashing all over the place (at my age?) with basins and towels as the rain thundered down alarmingly and water came in here, there, and everywhere. Thank you, farmers, but I reckon your olives now are swollen near to bursting point so don’t pray for any more rain please. Fat chance! Not that I haven’t seen torrential rain in Crete before but this time I think in a few hours we had more rain than a lot of places get in a whole year. At least it didn’t go on to be another China or Pakistan.
The lady who has received abuse and death threats after having been photographed dumping a cat in a wheelie bin and her details posted on Facebook has been fined for the offence and forbidden to have animals for five years. I think it was five. She’s still saying how sorry she is and to this day does not know why she did it except that she was depressed! Well, is that an excuse or isn’t it? The fine was quite paltry, three figures, the costs more than double.
If you will forgive me, Mister Dostoevsky I would like to continue with my dissertation on crime and punishment the word ‘costs’ triggering it off.
Kenneth Noye is not a name known to many people but he is a murdering thug. He was part of the gang responsible for the Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery in 1983 and was later charged with the murder of Scotland Yard officer, John Fordham who was keeping a watch on his house. Despite stabbing the police officer no fewer than ten times he managed to persuade the jury that he was acting in self-defence and escaped a murder charge! The following year he was jailed for fourteen years for his part in the robbery.
In 2000 he was jailed for life for killing 21 year old Steven Cameron during a ‘road rage’ incident on the M25! He fled the country starting an international hunt for him and was extradited from Spain in 1998.
He repeatedly stabbed Mister Cameron with a nine inch knife he kept in his car while the victim’s fiancée looked on in horror. At his trial he admitted the stabbing but once more pleaded self-defence. This time he didn’t get away with it. The jury convicted him of murder after the pathologist said the injuries suffered by Mister Cameron were ‘considerable and consistent with murderous intent.’
End of story? This dangerous specimen locked away for life so he won’t hurt anyone else? You have got to be joking. He could walk free in a matter of months, his case having been referred to the Court of Appeal, the evidence of the pathologist (now disgraced evidently) being considered not entirely reliable. This is ridiculous. Stab wounds are stab wounds and when they cause death the only conclusion is that it has to be murder.
A jailed Somali criminal is appealing against his deportation order at the end of his sentence. Why? Because if he is sent back home he would more than likely be executed so, no doubt, he will stay in England to continue his criminal career.
Put these appeals together with all the others made by guilty criminals appealing against their sentences and how much do you think it costs the country, ultimately the taxpayer?
A Saudi prince has just been convicted and jailed for the murder of his manservant, a relationship which evidently had sexual undertones. He was photographed on a camera in a hotel lift viciously beating the poor man who of course had no recourse in defending himself. The prince evidently thought he would have diplomatic immunity but discovered otherwise. Now, when he has served his sentence, however long or short it may be, will he return to Saudi Arabia or again will the appeals process be brought into being because, if he were to return home, he would most likely be executed. Homosexuality in Saudi Arabia is against the law. Steal chocolate and lose your hand. Love your friend and lose your life.