gbh without intent and stabbing

[brendasparke]

my 15 year old son was stabbed in the leg and recieved 10 stitches..the stab wound was 2 inches away from his main artery,he could have died....my husband found the boy on the same night and caused gbh without intent to the boy who stabbed my son..it was spare of the moment for my husband seeing my 15 year old in the ambulance with blood pools in outside of the ambulance he reacted the way most human beings would..what do you think the out come of the case will be and how many years in prison will my hubby get??

[VillageVicar]

I'm so saddened to hear of this. It touches a particularly sensitive nerve for me.

http://bigworldsmallboat.blogspot.com/search?q =when+violence+touches+your+own

I�m going to also add a link relating to the matter of retaliation:

http://www.bexhillobserver.net/news/Battered-W illem-back-in-hospital.1871414.jp

I feel, under the circumstances, provided your husband has no history of aggression or violence, he will not be sentenced to prison. However, I believe he needs to not only express his regrets for his actions, but ensure that he speaks with his GP to seek some documentation that what he did was out of character and he was not in control of his emotions due to the rage he felt at the time. It may also be beneficial that he obtain a number of character references from friends that his personality is one of calm, control and civilly responsible.

I very much understand the emotion of outrage and the desire to seek his own justice. I understand it passionately. I too experienced that same rage when this happened to my son and was later compounded when his assailants stuck two fingers up to the courts and society. The following article from the Daily Mail will show how badly the situation got out of hand:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/artic les/news/news.html?in_article_id=432107&in_pag e_id=1770


I�m deeply saddened that your family is caught in this horrific societal nightmare.

I wish you the very best

Fr Bill

[redcrx]

i can understand why your husband acted the way he did but GBH is a serious matter. What happens will also be dependant on other factors
What injuries did the lad receive?
The fact the you say your husband 'found' the lad suggests that he actually went out looking for him so I doubt that will go in his favour.
Has your husband got any previous convictions?

[Vadersdad00]

You Husbands reaction would be expected. Had he seen the Boy attacking your son, or fleeing the scene of the stabbing he could claim self defence, or defence of your son....But as he went looking for the boy this shows pre meditation. They will also take into consideration what your son was doing when he got stabbed. if your son was innvolved in some unlawful activity with the other child this wouldnt look good for anyone .

[redcrx]

Vicar, that story made me feel sick to the core. What a horrific thing for those lowlife lads to do. Not only to put your son and you as a family through such hell but to brag about their sick actions against an innocent lad aftre receiving such a laughable sentence

Vicar and Brenda, i hope that both of your sons are recovering well from the physical side of these attacks and also that the mental traumas are easier to deal with as time passes.

[bednobs]

v v were you on five live the other day?

[seatrout]

This is retribution and the courts will take a dim view of it. The sentence will have to act as a deterrent to others. AS custodial sentence is likely particularly if he is charged with s18 as you seem to suggest

[brendasparke]

village vicar im so sad to hear of your sons horrific injuries.i did look on your posting and he was very badly injured..i hope he is well in all aspects..the trouble today with gangs they dont realise what sort of trouble they no previouscause..my son was out with a few of his friends and they clashed with another gang of boys,unfortunatly they all got arguing and one of the other group had a knife..my son was stabbed..CHILDREN should not be allowed to carry weapons it causes grief and even death...i dont tolerate violence but if the police were doin their jobs properly they would have caught the boy as he was around the corner that is how my husband caught him...he dont ever go round hitting people but his head was in bits seeing my son full of blood and a 2 half inch cut in his leg..he is so sorry for what he done at the time but i think most dads would do or think of doing the same..my husband is a great man ...no previous crimminal convictions..the other boy did get a couple of stitches in his face..if he wouldnt have used a knife it would have just been a boy fight between two groups..violence is not the answer,but unfortunatly thats what children do this day and age.

[VillageVicar]

Bednobs: Yes, I�ve been on several times. I�m on a number of shows regularly, ranging from the BBC to Premier Radio. They all kind of blend into one, but a week ago I sat on a panel with the Education Secretary to discuss bullying in schools.

Redcrx: Thank you for your kind words. It has been an extremely challenging time for all of us. My daughter was traumatised by the event as well. Bless her heart, when the police phoned me to come to an �incident,� it never would have crossed my mind that it was my own son. Especially in that he had just phoned, as he always has done, to tell me where he was and that he was heading home for dinner. About fifteen minutes later, my mobile rang. It was the police asking me to �attend� an incident. For some clergy, this is a typical practice, where there may be a death, or we�re being asked to make either an emergency or bereavement visit.

I didn�t really give it any thought as I left. But my daughter asked if she could ride with me and she would get out when we saw my son and she�d walk back with him. Even as I approached my son�s lifeless body, it hadn�t registered with me that it was my son. It wasn�t until I was over his body that the conflict began in my mind, recognising the clothes and his distinctive hair.

After numerous reparative and reconstructive surgeries my son looks wonderful. Emotionally he is well balanced, he is actively loved, and his home environment is one of calm. And whilst he certainly has no fears about going out, or being with his friends, my daughter and I can see that there is a �spark� that is missing. It isn�t depression: someone said to me that it�s that he has lost his innocence. At a loss to find any other words within my vocabulary, I would say this is rather accurate.

Thank you again for your kind words.

Fr Bill

[VillageVicar]

Brendasparke: Thank you for your kind words. Indeed, my son has been badly injured. The assault, including the subsequent actions of the gangs, as well as some of the parents, electrified parts of my community. One of the assailant�s mothers had the audacity to write to the newspaper, blaming the citizens of our community for her son�s behaviour: her reasoning was that there wasn�t enough for young people to do here. The paper was inundated with replies, the most polite of them providing extensive lists of free things for her son to do, which interestingly did not include assaulting people. The more vociferous responses offered some rather extremely succinct suggestions as to what the mother could do as well!

Whilst I certainly understand the guttural animal instinct of rage and the desire to adjudicate on-the-spot justice, what your husband did was patently wrong. Not only did it offend the very principles of our civilised society, it provided the worst possible image of maturity and parental responsibility imaginable. From what you�ve shared with us, not only did he deny the police the opportunity to conduct their investigation and possibly gain extensive additional witness interviews, which could have helped lead to the arrest of other participants, your husband most probably has placed himself in a position where he may gain a criminal record. If convicted, the parents of the boy he assaulted �could� bring a civil action, seeking financial remedies.

Continued:

[VillageVicar]

Part 2

I agree with you: Children should not be permitted to carry weapons. But neither should anyone else in our society. Our nation is becoming increasingly victimised by individuals where there is little or no understanding of social, civil, or family values. In the absence of these essential foundations and in an aura of parental apathy, more and more children are falling deep into an abyss from which they cannot escape.

Our schools are laboured with the detritus of dysfunctional families, where the absence of the most fundamental building blocks of respect cause other children�s education to deteriorate, teachers to leave, and communities to languish. It�s an environment of anarchy that is affecting the very fibre of our civil society.

Every screaming second of the days following my kind, compassionate, and well-respected son�s assault were fraught with gut-wrenching emotions of anger and rage. What held me closest to keeping that rage in check was not my thinking about the law, or our society: most of all, it was about how I could impart the right message to my children and how my actions would guide them in their future development.


With greatest empathy

Fr Bill