GBH With Intent

Original posting, August 2006

Thugs who beat a pensioner and threw him onto a railway line moments before a train arrived were sentenced to six years at Swindon Crown Court. I trust this was the sentence handed out to each as they were presumably equally guilty, though the report failed to mention this important fact.

Another example of inadequate/poor reporting.

Alexander Graham (40) and Raymond Lawrence (24), headbutted and kicked Ray Beatty (71), a retired BBC editor, after drinking eight pints each.

Eight pints of what? Weak or strong beer, lager, cider, vodka... tea, coffee?

[This very poor English almost suggests that Mr Beatty drank eight pints of ..?, even though it states "each". If I were a teacher of the English language I'd give an English student 3/10 as a score for this (presuming the names have been recorded and spelt correctly). A foreign student would achieve more as they could very understandably make an error like this.]

A suggested alternative:

Alexander Graham (40) and Raymond Lawrence (24), each after drinking several pints of beer, headbutted and kicked Ray Beatty (71), a retired BBC editor.

He suffered head injuries and fractures. The two thugs (!!) followed Mr Beatty to the opposite platform as he tried to escape and were convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Intent to what? Have a chat?

Is that not attempted murder? Intent to kill? But no doubt this cannot be proved, so just intent to... do something.

Physically throwing Mr Beatty in front of a train that didn't arrive for 'moments' no doubt gave him a reasonable chance to escape, even though he'd been headbutted and kicked and so, presumably, was barely conscious. Or even unconscious?

With intent..?