The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Woman given jail sentence for 5 months without fair trial - in the UK

My jaw dropped when I read this. There are so many shocking things about this article, I don't know where to begin. I'll try listing them below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313760/Wanda-Maddocks-Jailed-secret--trying-rescue-father-care-home-believed-die.html

1) Why are social services forcibly taking vulnerable old people from their families and putting them in homes?

2) Why was this woman tried in absentia without legal representation?

3) Why was she given 5 months for such a minor "crime" (it's highly debatable whether she did anything wrong)?

4) Why are trials taking place in secret in a country subject to the ECHR and where there was quite clearly no threat to national security or to anyone's safety whatsoever?

5) Why is only the Daily Mail reporting on this? They rightly get a lot of stick, but they're the only mainstream media source that's reported on this. Where the hell is The Guardian, or the Indy? We have clear human rights abuses taking place under our nose, and nobody in the media seems to give a ****.

6) Why is it that with our membership of the ECHR under threat, the media only see fit to report on the universally reviled Abu Qatada, thus increasing support for ECHR withdrawal, while ignoring cases of clear human rights abuse that the ECHR was designed to deal with?

All in all, I'm horrified by all this. What it tells us, IMO, is that if the judiciary decide that they're going to abuse your human rights, you can only do something about it if you have money and knowledge of the legal system (as Abu Qatada quite clearly does) and that it will only get reported on if it fits in with the government's agenda of removing our human rights by stealth.

Finally, and I can't believe I'm saying this, well done to the Daily Mail for being the only mainstream media outlet to report on this.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you