Homeowner jailed for 30 months for fighting off burglars

[Gromit]

A businessman who fought off knife-wielding thugs who were threatening to kill his family has been jailed for 30 months, while his attackers avoided a jail sentence.

He and his wife and three children returned home to find three intruders, wearing balaclavas, in their home.

The family members’ hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to crawl from room to room. He was told that he would be killed, but made his escape after throwing a coffee table and enlisted his brother in chasing the offenders down the street in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, bringing one of them to the ground.

What followed was described in Reading Crown Court as self-defence that went too far, leaving intruder Walid Salem with a permanent brain injury.

Salem, who has a string of 50 past convictions, was given a two-year supervision order at a court hearing in September this year. He is currently in custody awaiting trial for an alleged credit card fraud.

But the brothers, described as family men at the heart of the local community, were found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a trial earlier this year.

Your comments please.

[Everhelpful]

It is crazy Britain after all,gromit!!

[Sandy-Wroe]

The brain injury suffered by the burglar couldn't have been too serious if he still has the nous to commit credit card fraud.
It's a mad world where a victim ends up in prison and the thief walks.
I wonder will Mr Salem make a claim for criminal injuries?

[daffy654]

Not really doc,the brothers are called Hussain.................
http://www.dailymail....y-hostage-jailed.html

[HARPY]

Salem, who has a string of 50 past convictions,

I think he head butted the cricket bat to get the sympathy vote of the AB mob.

FREE mr Hussain and his brother now

[Twenty20]

According to the Judge, you can't take the law into your own hands. Well, as the so called 'victim' had a string of 50 previous convictions, obviously the law isn't working and people will take it into their own hands.

It's not as it should be, but I can't say I blame Mr Hussain. I would consider the injury to the knife wielding thug an occupational hazard.

[Booldawg]

I guess the courts wouldve been more lenient if the cricket bat had been used in self defence. This would only be likely if it was a split second decesion and the burglary victim, or his family was about to be attacked. Throwing the coffee table at the burglars was the act of self defence, not chasing them down the road; once the burglars had fled the property no acts of violence against them can be construed as 'acting in self defence'.

The judge made the right decision.

[jake-the-peg]

Exactly what part of rugby tackling someone to the ground and beating them to within an inch of their lives with lumps of wood is self-defence?

They hit him over the head with a cricket bat as he lay on the ground so hard that it broke.

Where did they get the cricket bats and lumps of wood from as they were running down the road? Or is it the case they went back for them.

Sorry - whatever the motivation this is an old fashioned lynching it may satisfy the violent fantasies of some, the exercice of vicious, self-righteous retribution, but it has no place in today's world.

[Sqad]

Jake is absolutely correct there is no legal justification for this.

What would I do, given the same circumstances?.....beat the "sh1t" out of him with the nearest cricket bat to within an inch of his life. 2 a.m in the morning, tied my wife up, masked men, tied me up. robbed me.......too bloody right......it's called ..retribution.

[Oneeyedvic]

///.too bloody right......it's called ..retribution.////

and is illegal, and if you get caught, you will face jail.

Personally, I am glad we live in Britain where people like Mr Hussain and Sqad would be imprisoned. Rather that than some kind of stone age justice system.

[Sqad]

Oneeyed.

http://en.wikipedia.o...ht-or-flight_response

It is a normal, natural biological phenomenon.

[ummmm]

Oneeye...are you a robot?