The association of that is pretty traumatic. It depends say you had a very close relative who’s incontinent, the faeces could be a reference to the incontinent relative, and maybe that relative died in very tragic circumstances or due to hospital malpractice. And there could be a very sinister message behind that. Next up: what could happen after leaving a flaming bag of shit on someone’s doorstep? If it’s done by a prefect or someone in authority then it could be. If it’s mitigated upon by high spirits then you would probably get very little. There are all sorts of aggravating circumstances: is it done by someone with authority or someone without? Is it done by someone within their peer group or not? If it's during an initiation ceremony it would be a heavier sentence. Again, it depends on whether it’s done by a boy, or by a master, or by a prefect. If it’s done where everyone’s drunk and there are a lot of high spirits, it’s different to if it’s done in the cool calmness of an initiation ceremony at a public school. I’m not sure someone would get custody for that, but they would probably get a stiff fine – a few hundred pounds probably, but it depends. If it’s done maliciously – to humiliate and to intimidate – then that's a common assault. I suppose it depends where it is – if it’s at a rugby club, where that’s normal behaviour, or if it’s done in high spirits or if it’s done maliciously. What could you get for "debagging", as in pulling someone's trousers down? A lot of people don't realise you can assault someone without touching them, but if you cause someone to fear for their safety then that's an assault. You can also assault someone over the telephone, and you're looking at custody for that, too. If you prank call someone and tell them somebody's died, then they have a heart attack or you cause psychological injury you could be looking at charges like assault or grievous bodily harm. For example, you could make a prank call to an ambulance that leads to someone dying because the ambulance wasn't available. Prank calls that involve 999 can be taken pretty seriously. What about prank calling? How much trouble can that get you into? But for a guy who’s out of work it would be £10 or £15, or whatever. They can means-test fines, so if you’re really, really wealthy it could be quite a few thousand pounds. If you’re of good character – or if you haven’t got too many convictions – then I suppose a fine, probably. So what's the very worst punishment you could get? That would be a defence to a charge of harassment. But if you’re reacting to really crude racist remarks, which obviously we had with Mr Farage against the Romanian community, then you could say an egging by a Romanian – or on behalf of a Romanian – might be justified in the circumstances. In one sense, in a matter of law, there can never be a reason to egg someone. If was egged by a member of the Romanian community and he’d just made disparaging remarks against the community, you might be able to argue justification. If I were representing a defendant, I’d be going for: "They’re nice but misguided – give them a bind over or give them a conditional discharge." There would normally be a reason, and then you could put forward a mitigation. Tim Lawson-Cruttenden: Well, I suppose egging someone is a criminal assault – probably common assault – but mostly wouldn't end in a custodial sentence. So, hypothetically, what's the worst punishment you could get for egging someone? That expert is Tim Lawson-Cruttenden, a controversial anti-harassment lawyer, who kindly took the time out of his day to answer questions about pulling people's trousers down in public. We wanted to find out, and figured the best way to do so would be asking an expert about the maximum punishment you could potentially receive for a range of playground pranks.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |