Barry George found Not Guilty

[Jonone]

I watched the programme about Hawkwind last night. Depending on your poiint of view it was a band full to the brim with weirdos but so what ? If someone is into Morris Dancing or Civil War Re-enactment does that make them a weidro? How about line dancing ? I seem to remember in the thread about Max Moseley there was a lot of support for his right to privacy and I can't recall anyone calling him a weirdo and yet his behaviour was hardly conventional.

It might comfort you to think that it's always the weirdos who perpetrate the headline grabbing crimes but I doubt this is true. Outwardly Dennis Neilsen, Sutcliffe, Fred West weren't weirdos - they only became so after the fact when more was known about them, but until then they were a clerk, a lorry driver and a builder.

Why not show a bit more compassion towards someone like Barry George? Do you not understand that there are well documented medical conditions and learning disabilities which are part of the story of who he is? You've probably all got mates who exaggerate and embellish stories and tell 'tall tales' and yet you see nothing sinister in this. Barry George makes you feel better about who you think you are, but why does that need so much validation ?

[Jonone]

Alice, you use emotive terms like 'accosting' but why were no prosecutions brought against George for these behaviours which you describe as serial ? You're just a sucker for the story concocted by the prosecution. You won't answer this, but i'll ask it anyway .. why is your need to believe in George's guilt so great?

What is it that Barry George is doing for you? Reassuring you that you're 'normal' ?

[Steve R]

Jonone wrote:

> I watched the programme about Hawkwind last night.......

Re: Hawkwind, here's their dancer, Stacia, in 1972 (how I enjoyed those concerts):

[img]http://62.49.31.254/images/stacia.jpg[/img]

[Sam Slater]

If there was enough evidence to convict, he'd be still in jail.

Whether he's a danger to the public, due to his mental health, is another matter entirely. The trial was about murder and they found him innocent.

[Jacques]

Oh for fucks sake.

The overwhelming reason for having trial by Jury is the chance of receiving a fairer trial:

Juries come to cases with ?fresh minds?. They do not, like magistrates, preside over the same area and, ipso facto, the same police officers week after week, year after year.

Prejudicial and inadmissible evidence is denied to juries by the intervention of the judge. No such intervention takes place before magistrates.

The standard of disclosure of documents as ?unused material? is far higher at the crown court and during the progress of cases between the magistrates and jury trial.

Of cases commencing as contested trials, 62 per cent result in acquittals in the crown court against 24 per cent in magistrates court. By simple extrapolation between 2,000 and 3,000 people every year would be convicted in magistrates court, who would otherwise have been acquitted in the crown court.

Now do you want a fairer trial or not?

[Jacques]

For someone who does nothing for you, you have a lot to say about him ......

[Jonone]

Are you deflecting all the accusations of 'weirdness' that come your way in the direction of people like Barry George? It does seem to be a mania for you.

I would have thought that if you're unconventional you might have a bit more empathy and compassion for the guy. It seems strange to me that you don't.