The extreme misuse of “happy-slapping” got proper punishments

The verdicts on the incident of “happy-slapping” attack have been announced, it was two years detention and a training order for the 15 year old teenage girl; whose name can’t be mention for legal reasons.

For you who didn’t follow the story from the beginning, here’s the short recap. A man named Gavin Waterhouse (29) was attacked behind Morrisons supermarket in Keighley, West Yorkshire by three drunken teenagers. The girl first approached Waterhouse, offering 40 pence for the “happy-slapping” stunt. But when Waterhouse refused the offer, all of a sudden Mark Masters (19) punched his face repeatedly. Then Sean Thompson (17) pulled down Waterhouse, and kicked him while he’s on the ground. The whole action was recorded by the girl for about 15 seconds, using Marks’ mobile phone.

Those three teenagers ran off laughing, left Waterhouse alone lying on the ground. He managed to go home, but not for long he died in extreme pain because of a ruptured spleen.

Even though in her defense at the court, the teenage girl said she had “no idea” it was going to be like that. But one of the witness in trial said, that immediately after the attack she told her in “a bit hyper” act like she was dancing to some kind of music. With so much drowning evidences, the girl have pleaded guilty to manslaughter after admitting to aiding the killing by filming two other teenagers kicking and punching.

But the court wishes to make an example out of this case, especially for youths like these. So while the girl sobbed when hearing her sentence, the judge explained her sin on the attack: “Your part in this cruel and revolting venture was to ask the no doubt terrified Gavin Waterhouse for 40 pence. When he refused, the others attacked him and you filmed the incident on Masters' mobile phone." Her associates; Masters was sentenced to seven years in a young offenders' institution, and Thompson was sentenced to six years' detention. The judge also added, that these teenagers are typical model of the “young, drunken, violent yob who hunt in packs and of whom the public are sick and tired".

After the dramatic scenes in the court, Detective Superintendent Paul Kennedy said something that I believe represent our feelings on such case: “You can't help but feel sick to death of the mindless violence that people seem to think they are free to use, and what the court has done today is to send a message to other young people that you can't get yourself involved in violence because you will be punished by the court."

Read on Angela Balakrishnan’s article (Guardian UK) for more details of the news.

As for myself, this reminds me of what Pocket Now’s question that Sammy has posted here at PA; the question is about “what would make you use your Windows Mobile camera more?” It’s kinda creepy question now, don’t you think? ;-p

[blogged with my Treo 750v]