Quote Originally Posted by joebloggs View Post
I hope your son fully recovers dom..

my younger brother was attacked by 2 drunk neighbours about 10yrs ago, there is no justice for the victim at all, my stepfather was with my brother, and he tired to push them off him, but as he was in his late 60's and had to use a walking stick he couldn't do much against 2 men in their early 20's.

when the police arrested the , they both denied it, then one later admitted it, but the other denied it to the very last minute before he was going to go b4 a jury. they both claimed it was self defense, becuase they thought my brother was going to hit them , and they said they punched him once of twice. they infact kicked him many times to the head, well they broke his jaw in 2 places, cracked his cheek bone, he lost a few teeth, and massive brusing to most of him face til halfway down his chest, the first instinct i had apart from beating the out of them, was to take pictures of him and while he was in hospital.

when it went to crown court, it was delayed, postponed a few times, when it finally came to go b4 a jury, the other scumbag changed his story, becuase we handed the pictures into the police as evidence, i was sat outside the court room, and right next to me was 3 people talking, saying oh he just had a few bruises , i realised who they were. cps barrister and their barristers , they were doing a deal, i said to them, they broke his jaw in 2 places, cracked his cheek bone, they walked away. their just as bad as the scum who did it to him.

in court, i was when each one of them had character witnesses, one said how he would lose his job, he would not be able to see his kids or wife, what a decent person he was (later found out he was charged with GBH in the past) , the other guy, he had his g/f father saying what a decent b/f he was (infact he had been arrested many times for breaking into and stealing cars), i could believe this, shaking my head and tutting, i was , the court usher told me to be queit a few times, i wanted to give evidence of what i knew they had done in the past..

anyway fearing the worse, the judge would let them off with a slap on the wrist, how the judge seemed to believe what the scumbags had said, i didn't seem to believe what my stepfather had said ( a guy in his late 60's, never been in trouble in his lfe), i was suprised when they judge said, looking at the photographs he had no alternative but to give a prison sentence, they got 6 months each, so they did 3 months in HMPS, i felt justice had been done in a small way, they should have got a couple of years, but the way it was going, if not for the photographs they would have got off with it..

my brother never fully recovered, and i'm sure the scumbags had forgot about it soon as they got out, there is little or no justice for victims..

and if anything ever happens take photos straght away, time will heal any wounds, if the victim has to goto court to give evidence..
I am really sorry for your brother and your family Joe. Reading your brother's story made me so angry.

You are so right about lawyers, invariably they are only interested in making the easiest deals between themselves. The are not monitored or rewarded against outcome unfortunately.

Many years ago, I lead an initiative between Polaroid and various Police forces across the country. The aim was to facilitate victimless prosecutions. In domestic violence cases the victim often suffers in silence for 7 years before it goes to court. Of the cases that go to court in over 75% of cases the victim changes their mind and refuses to give evidence against the perpetrator for a variety of reasons.

By the time the case has gone to court things look very different. The bruises have faded, the victim is now composed and relatively calm, the perpetrator is wearing a nice suit and as you said, has character witnesses prepared to explain how nice he is.

We issued rapid responses vehicles with Polaroid cameras (digital photos at the time were inadmissable) so that they could capture the scene with the blood on the walls, the victims obvious distress and the unsettling appearance of the perpetrator at the time of the event. A picture tells a thousand words. This lead to the first victimless prosecution - in Wales I believe.

Again i'm really sorry about what has happened to your brother Joe and your son Dom. Seeing what I saw all those years ago when I went in the rapid response vehicles to 999 calls of domestic violence (particularly on army barracks) still haunts me and reminds me how mindless some members of any society can be.