I Thought This Would Be Bigger News...

The former Labour MP Jim Devine has become the third parliamentarian to be jailed over the expenses scandal after being sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment.

The 56-year-old former trade union convenor made false claims totalling £8,385, "knowing full well just how wrong it was and the effect that false claims were having on the public's belief and confidence in parliament", Mr Justice Saunders, passing sentence at the Old Bailey, said.

I guess he's lucky there's a war on, eh?

Devine's offences were "less serious" than those committed by the former Labour MP David Chaytor, who received 18 months in January, and were committed over a shorter period of time, Sanders said.

His defence tried his best:

The offences were "entirely out of character" as he was a "man of integrity and honesty", though Millar accepted that might sound like a paradox.

Well, no, 'paradox' wasn't the first word that came to mind, actually...

A Crisis Of Descriptors...

Breitbart correctly outlines this bizarre case in their headline:

 

While over here, the newspapers are a bit more coy. The 'Daily Record' settles it with nationality:

While TeessideLive simply ignores it (and thus gives the impression 'she' kept it in a jar to wave at passers-by:

H/T: i.r. jackson via email

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here...

...or, , if you work for Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, maybe you do:

A psychiatrist who downed three bottles of wine before a head-on crash has been allowed to keep her job after she was deemed 'no risk' to patients.

Unless those patients are driving home when she's clocking off, I presume? 

Dr Deborah Staite, 50, was uninsured and did not even have a driving licence at the time of the collision in 2020.

She had failed to renew it after serving a previous ban for drink-driving, a tribunal heard.

/facepalm 

GMC lawyer Laura Barbour told a hearing of the medical practitioners' tribunal service: 'The public are entitled to assume that the doctor treating them abides by the law.

'This is a case where the doctor's conduct was so serious that action must be taken to protect members of the public and maintain confidence in the profession.

'There is a risk of repetition.'

Well, yes. clearly. She's already a multiple offender! 

Philip McGhee, for Staite, told the tribunal: 'A reasonable and properly informed member of the public would not expect Dr Staite to be punished by an order of suspension… given what she has already gone through.'

Wanna bet? I'm one of those, McGhee, and I expect her to be suspended. 

The tribunal found Staite's fitness to practise was impaired but that suspension would be 'unnecessary, disproportionate and punitive'.

She will face a review hearing in three years.

What's wrong with a punitive measure? Do they think she shouldn't be punished? 

More Red Flags Than A F1 Race With Verstappen And Hamilton Neck And Neck...

A man disappeared to have sex with his girlfriend – leaving her three-and-a-half year old son in the bath.

*sighs* Luckily, he didn't drown. 

He admitted neglect by leaving the boy alone in the bathroom but was found not guilty last month of causing him grievous bodily harm.

Eh..? 

The 29-year-old, who we are not naming in order to protect the toddler’s identity, said he’d returned to the bathroom to find the boy had seriously wounded his genitals.

Wait, what..?! 

Mitigating, Paul Prior told the court: “What happened to the boy that day must be set into its proper context. This is not a family which was characterised by domestic violence, for example.

“He was step-father rather than father and he had no experience with children, although he had been left alone with the boy on previous occasions they were rare.”

His client had no previous convictions and ‘impressive’ references. They included a letter from barrister Anthony Trace QC, who described the defendant as a ‘fine young man with a great future ahead of him’.

Never mind any of that, how the hell did the kid end up with a serious injury to his genitals if he was alone? 

Turns out, because he wasn't...

The mum claimed she had gone to her bedroom to check for messages from her own mother, with whom they were due to go on holiday the following day. She left her son in the bathroom with the defendant, she said. The boy, who had finished his bath and was being towelled dry, had said he needed to go to the toilet.

“I heard screaming and shouting coming from the bathroom. I dropped the phone and ran straight back into the bathroom,” she said.

Her boyfriend, who looked ‘shocked’, was rubbing the boy’s back trying to calm him down. 

An accident of the 'he fell on it, officer!' variety? 

Doctors said the boy's injury could not have been self-inflicted.

That jury needs to take a good hard look at itself. And so do social services.  

Something Odd About This Case...

Loui Phillips was murdered in broad daylight in Monk Bretton on Sunday, August 8, by a 17-year-old boy he had never met.

The young Barnsley football fan was stabbed in the chest as he rode his bike with a friend along Fish Bank Lane at around 2pm and his killer then walked away.

A no-motive stabbing murder of a 15 year old stranger, and this isn't headline news? 

DCI Mark Oughton said: “This is an incredibly tragic case where an innocent young boy was stabbed to death because his attacker was jealous.

Jealous? Of what? We aren't told.  

“The killer planned his attack, locating Loui and his friend having purposely set out to go and stab him.

This doesn't add up - it may just be clumsy phrasing, but it sounds as if the attacker did know the victim and targeted him personally.

He has shown no remorse for his actions and always maintained his innocence until Monday.

“Loui was still conscious after he was stabbed and managed to give a full account of the attack to a police officer on the way to the hospital. All he wanted to know was where his mum was.

“My thoughts are with Loui’s mum, and his family and friends today; they have suffered unimaginable loss this year and no court result can ever make up for that.”

The teenager will return to Sheffield Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, December 17.

Maybe we'll get some answers about what provoked the attack then. But isn't it odd that the national press seems to have taken no interest in this at all? 

H/T: kwilliam111 via Twitter

I Really Don't Understand Juries Sometimes...

...and I've been on one!

A female getaway driver for a gunman who killed an innocent law student in a 'senseless and shocking' drive-by shooting has been jailed for 15 years.

No pussy pass for her, and rightly so. The crime was awful. 

Aya was shot in the chest by hired hitman Zamir Raja, 33, in Blackburn, Lancashire. She was not the intended target of the shooting, which came after a long-running feud between rival tyre firm owners Feroz Suleman and Pachah Khan.

Ahhhh, feel the enrichment! 

Judy Chapman, of Great Harwood, the girlfriend of Uthman Satia, drove the gunman and driver from Bolton to the Toyota Avensis which was used to carry out the shooting and collected them afterwards.

She was found guilty of Aya's manslaughter but not guilty of the attempted murder of Khan following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

*blinks* How come? 

Not guilty of the attempt on the actual target, but huilty of the accidental killing of a bystander? In what world does that make sense?

They Aren't Here To Protect You...

A man will appear in court charged with criminal damage and dangerous driving weeks after video emerged of a parked car being tossed into the air by a digger after it was left blocking a farm gate.

Good! Maybe next time the scum will think twice about blocking the...

Wait, hang on, surely not...? 

The 57-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident at a farm in Teesdale, which went viral last month.

Yup! The cops arrested the farmer driven to this act by the selfishness and arrogance of the scum who repeatedly block his property. 

And why not? Look at it from a lazy modern cop's point of view; here's a suspect who has filmed his actions, is easy to locate, is almost certainly admitting to it, even proud of it, and well, you're supposed to be non-judgemental about concepts like 'right and wrong' these days, or so Hendon teaches you...

The force said a 20-year-old arrested on suspicion of assault during the same incident on June 5 has been released under investigation while inquiries continue.

While someone who won't admit any wrongdoing and could disappear is too much trouble. 

And still they ponder why they are losing the respect of every law-abiding man, woman and child in the country... 

Incompetent, Lazy, Or Corrupt..?

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary said: "Police received a report that two dogs had allegedly attacked a horse, which was said to have sustained superficial injuries, at a rural location in the Helston area at around 3pm on Wednesday 31 March.

“An allegation of a public order offence was also made. Officers carried out enquiries into both allegations and no further action will be taken.”

Are they all incompetent in this police farce? 

I mean, I know they give up easily when faced with anything likely to raise a sweat, but good grief, this isn't the sort of incident you'd expect them to swerve, is it? 

Hope claims the owner encouraged the canine and even threatened to shoot her and her brother with a hunting gun, Cornwall Live reports. The dog became so violent it "dangled" off the horse by its teeth, Hope alleges.

The teenager said: "We asked the owner’s name and why he was there. He claimed he had permission and was getting up in our faces, making threats. His dog was on my big mare, and he was saying ‘go on, go on’, while blocking the foals from getting to her.

"We jumped over the gate to get away from it, and the dog went into the fields to attack the other mare.

"He [the owner] was throwing abuse at us, threatening to shoot us with a hunting gun, and then went away after 15 minutes of just staring at us."

Someone with dogs attacking livestock and then threatening to shoot the owners of said livestock, and they won't take action? Why not? 

Or, possibly, someone from a specific identity group that the police won't touch?