Words fail me—Domestic abuse goes unpunished

[matgb]

Executive who branded wife with iron freed with a £2,000 fine:

A report recommended a community service order, but Recorder William Featherby questioned how Read would fit it in around his long working hours.

He said he was concerned that Read had denied the offences despite overwhelming evidence and he called the iron attack "appalling".

But the judge said it was the circumstances of the marriage that had provoked Read and that now those circumstances had gone, sending him to prison would "help no one".

So branding your wife with a hot iron isn't worthy of punishment in and of itself? A £2K fine (about a weeks pay for this guy) is going to sort it all out?

Prison has three functions: Punish, protect and rehabilitate. This guy seems barely able to acknowledge he's done wrong, but because he has a busy job he can just pay it off?

Judith Stephenson, of Women's Aid, said: "This case is extremely worrying. It takes an enormous amount of courage for a woman to go to court and this sentence may deter other women from doing so."

That people (predominantly but not exclusively women) become trapped in abusive relationships and feel they can't get out is something I can't relate to, can't understand. But I know it happens, and it has happened to people I like and respect. To have the court system then effectively dismiss it out of hand is horrifying.

Via Katy at The Devil's Kitchen.

Comments

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

And what's with the crap that he "couldn't remember" if he did it?

Yeah, after claiming she was a "self harmer." A self-harming contortionist if she can burn herself in the back with an iron!

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Oh but you KNOW she used duct tape to attach the iron to the wall and then just backed into it.

Well, at least they put a giant picture of the jerkoff on that article. Perhaps then people will spit on him as he walks the streets.

It's even sadder that he still has that 90K job. Hmph.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

It's even sadder that he still has that 90K job.

I would hope the negative publicity will lead to him being fired. Unless his bosses and all their clients are also emotionally retarded abusive sons of bitches.

[matgb]

I want to agree with you, bringing the company into disrepute and similar.

OTOH, I'm also strongly in favour of separating professional existence with personal life. Even so, I'd not want to work with him, or encounter him in my business dealings.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I couldn't work with him and I certainly wouldn't want to give my money to a firm that would employ him.

Generally I agree about keeping professional and personal lives separate, but in an extreme case like this where someone has shown themselves to be a truly repugnant human being, I think it's impossible to keep them apart.