My goat has been got.
Meet Colin Read.Imagine, if you will, the following:
You're a management consultant aged 25, married to a medical student.
You get married in June 2006.
On September 19th 2006 you find that your wife hasn't made your sandwiches for the next day, so you slash her foot with a knife and then beat her up when she protests.
On September 20th 2006 she tries to talk to you about what happened and you beat her up again.
Eight days later, when you find your favourite palm-tree print shirt is unironed, you grab the hot iron and press it twice against your wife's back, branding the steam holes into her skin.
Your wife is so scared of you that she doesn't call the police or go to the hospital. Her friend tells the police what happened, and even then she is so frightened of you that she has to be summonsed to court to give evidence under threat of arrest for contempt.
You tell the police that your wife is "self harming", and then later you concede that it is "possible" that you might have attacked her but you "can't remember".
You maintain this bollocks through a three-day jury trial at the end of which you are convicted of 3 counts of causing actual bodily harm.
Gentle Reader, what sort of sentence do you think you might get after beating and torturing your wife over a period of ten days, lying about it to the police, subsequently half-admitting it, compelling your terrified wife to give evidence against you in court and costing the taxpayer three days of court time that it can ill-afford?
Well, apparently:
The judge said it was the circumstances of the marriage that had provoked Read and... now those circumstances had gone, sending him to prison would 'help no one'".
No prison, no suspended sentence, not even a community sentence lest it eat into your working hours.
You get a £2000 fine.
Which is fine, because you're earning £90,000 a year.
Abusive husbands and partners take note: if your wife doesn't iron your favourite shirt when you tell her to, £2000 buys you the right to brand her with the iron.
Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If you, like Colin Read, were provoked by the "circumstances" of your marriage.
Labels: just not fucking funny, law and order, total and utter bastards
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55 Blogger Comments:
Dreadful isn't it. Yet sadly not unusual.
That is absolutely terrible, that sort of thing must deserve at least a couple of years in jail.
That is shocking.
sending him to prison would 'help no one'
It might help the women in future relationships with him.
Do Judges still pass judgements like that??
ye gods.
I didn't think that the purpose of sending people to prison was to 'help' people, but I may have got that wrong.
My understanding was that it was a form of retribution with the possibility of rehabilitation.
Judges are now Social Workers, I suppose.
I am staggered by the judge's comments, thanks for the spot I may post about this as well later.
Prison - maybe not. But surely that bloke has made himself a suitable case for psychiatric help? Mentalists....
The judge sounds like a Liberal Democrat.
At least the woman actually made the effort to get her husband prosecuted. Often, it doesn't get as far as the courts. And with rulings like this, there's little point in them even trying.
Interesting to imagine what he'd have got for the identical crime had they both been on benefits in Greenock.
I'm thinking five years, at least.
This lad has way too much testosterone - a perfect poster child for our atomised, transactional, get what you want, when you want, where you want and how you like it society. Other human beings quite clearly have no substantive role to play in his life other than to serve him.
And there's far too many others around like him.
And just what types of 'management' can a 25 year old 'consult' on with anything resembling gravity? If I were his client, I'd be asking for my money back.
So, presumably, if I stick a shotgun up Gordon Brown's arse and pull the trigger, I won't need to go to prison since I will have removed the cause of my ire?
What cunts like this require is to understand what, precisely, they have done.
Brand this fuck with an iron -- on his face, to warn any future women -- and then flog him, naked, through the streets of the city, whilst a sign proclaiming his crimes hangs around his neck.
Then put him in the stocks for a week. If he survives that, he may then have been rehabilitated, i.e. taught what pain is.
God, but I loathe people.
DK
Good idea. And when you've done that to the judge, you can start on the offender.
I can only hope that the picture in glorious technicolor on the newspaper website will allow people to recognise him in the street, and give him the kicking he deserves.
Angry Steve,
You gotta love the daily mail for that pure unwritten, between-the-lines kind of style eh? Would've been a little easier if they'd printed his work and home address accidentally too.
All,
Personally I think this case would be a useful for citation when we choose to defend beating the living turd out of people wearing che merchandise...or listening to Bono proselytizing on radio one, loudly on a bus over the speakers of their nokia phone before turning it off to listen to inane beat song#2
Wouldn't punishing someone for a crime infringe their human rights somehow...?
"Which is fine, because you're earning £90,000 a year."
Can we hope that, because of the negative publicity, this soon turns out to be no longer the case...?
Domestic violence is commonplace with consistent rates of abuse [Council of Europe, 2002].
Around 90% of cases involve women [the perp being male in well over 80% of cases].
1 in 4 females are affected by domestic violence [during their lifetime] with a rate of 1 in 8 to 1 in 10 annually.
A British Crime Survey found a staggering annual rate of 12.9million incidents of domestic violence.
One study of convicted offenders found alcohol was a feature of abuse in 62% of offences, 48% of offenders were alcohol dependent.
Source: women's aid - Domestic Violence:FAQs, factsheet 2004/05.
Colin Read is undoubtably a violent and despicable sadist [perhaps regularly thrashed by an abusive/alcoholic father ?] but unless anyone wants to dispute the stats there are millions just like him.
Maybe thats why so many judges develop Pontius Pilate syndrome instead awarding a more appropriate sentence ?
Or maybe one or two of the judges are rather fond of putting the boot in themselves [after a couple of whisky chasers, of course].
Where does this fucker work?
Let's make sure he doesn't by the end of the week.
Ooops - how stupid of me.
It's LEK consulting. Off to Google...
This is pretty bad, thanks for marking this one up Chris. Its sad to see the judicial system blow it so badly as this and the killer of Stephen Laurence.
"...Colin Read is undoubtably a violent and despicable sadist [perhaps regularly thrashed by an abusive/alcoholic father ?]....maybe one or two of the judges are rather fond of putting the boot in themselves [after a couple of whisky chasers, of course]...."
You are aware that its possible for teetotallers to be nasty, abusive scum...?
And that not everyone who takes a sip of cooking sherry turns into a wife-beater..?
Goodness me. I don't think anyone could seriously think that the A&E Nurse was suggesting that everyone who takes a sip of cooking sherry turns into a wife-beater. Perhaps you should bear in mind that "alcoholic" is a term descriptive of alcohol abuse, not alcohol use.
In all honesty, reading that made want to vomit, and then find that gutless little prick and kick his balls back into the back of his throat.
I wonder how the judge would feel if it was his daughter that was branded with an iron? How these clowns can look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.
Sorry, JuliaM, that sounded far ruder than I intended. My point stands, I think, but can we pretend I put it in a way that made me sound slightly less up myself?
Agreed Juliam although according to my sister who has worked with victims of domestic violence for many years alcohol often tips a volatile home into a violent one.
As the [above] study clearly demonstrates alcohol is significant risk factor in the majority of cases.
I am surprised it was only actual bodily harm. He was very lucky that he didn't do her more damage, or he would have faced a charge of GBH, for which a custodial sentence would have been pretty much inevitable.
Katy -
Both your goat and mine.
However, I cannot help thinking you've missed the mark on this one. Yes, the bloke is scum. But we know who he is and where he works. Any retribution he deserves can safely be left to the market. Remember the furore after Jade Goody's supposedly racist remarks on Big Brother and the trouble they got her into? Or the contracts that Kate Moss lost after her drugs binge thingy? The market works there.
The real villain here, and the person we should be doing the dirty on, is the judge. What is the fucker's name? Let's post his pic across the web. Who appointed the bastard to the bench? If a single person, let's have his or her name. If a committee, let's have all their names.
The judge and those who allowed him to ascend to the bench are the real criminals here. The judge has betrayed the system that appointed him, the sole purpose of which is to protect us from such fuckwits as this.
Katy.
I am not surprised by the the actions of an obviously spoiled fuckwit. I am however deeply saddened that this is how far our leaders policies have taken us down a road that I have no wish to travel. Why do our elected officials deem that it is acceptable to tolerate an unelected Judiciary that have oblviously lost any sense of justice? Assuming they actually ever possesed one in the first place, politics and a brown nose seem to get you pretty far in those circles. Your thoughts on punishment for this swine seem quite acceptable if a tad lenient. Recipe: insert one Devils Penis (an extremely hot, small and pointy red chilli) into the perpetrator/ criminal/ abusing cunts' chocolate starfish, at the first whimper ram home to the colon with a rolling pin, preferably a Mrs. Beatons type with the door handle at each end. Great blog folks, being rather new to computing this is my first attempt at commenting, though I have been visiting regularly for the last couple of months.
John.
PS. a couple of links, pertinent to this of story of course, give them your thoughts.
http://www.lek.com/includes/getOffice.cfm?pk_id=8D0D085D-1422-216A-5B8956509050D3C5
http://www.12kbw.co.uk/people/profile/id/46/
However, I cannot help thinking you've missed the mark on this one.
The point of the post is the inadequacy of the sentence and the attitude of the judge. I'm sorry if that isn't clear in the post itself.
JGBall - I am passionately in favour of an independent and unelected judiciary. A judiciary that depended on the popular vote to keep its job would be heavily susceptible to corruption, and would certainly not be impartial, and would generally be a Very Bad Thing, unless you want sentencing policy to be dictated by the flighty whim of the MSM and/or whoever happens to have the fattest wallet.
I agree that judges should be more accountable, but I don't think that the way to achieve that is an elected judiciary.
Katy,
point taken, especially the independent part which I totally agree with. The unelected part was simply a thought on their apparent lack of accountability, by no means suggesting a way to address the sorry situation. We elect politicians and look where that gets us. Though elections are not the only selection process that is susceptible to corruption. Surely they must have way to ensure that justice is served and applied impartially instead of, "oh this guy went to Cambidge, it must be an aberation." That's what one of the links was about, just wondering if it was a school tie thing. The other is his firms office, where the psycho shit will be tomorrow instead of rotting in a cell.
"Sorry, JuliaM, that sounded far ruder than I intended. My point stands, I think, but can we pretend I put it in a way that made me sound slightly less up myself?"
Heh. No problem ;)
I'm just sick of the jumping to conclusions about alcohol being a factor when it wasn't even mentioned in the report, and god knows, if the ineffectual sack of shit judge thought he could have used it as a mitigating factor (as well as the long hours!), he probably would have...
Mr Kitchen 03:03.
I hope you are serious. Flogging and time in the stocks is the penalty that came to my mind as I read the report. I don't mean one flogging, I mean a series of floggings, over several months. I think that would cure the man's problem.
The fucker should have his back branded - with the car. Bastards like this really grind my gears and if I ever come across him in daily life I'll be sure to give him a sound kick in the gonads on behalf of women everywhere. Twat.
"with the car."
ha ha that made me laugh.
My soon-to-be-ex threw a kitchen knife at me once - very much like the one DK holds.
I stressed her out though so maybe she was provoked. I don't know.
Oh - she missed by the way. whew.
Maybe impartial commensurate punishment in a three strikes and you're out system. He should be sliced with a knife, beaten and then branded with a steam iron, and should then have to pay massive compensation to his wife. For a second offense the punishment and compensation should be doubled. A third offense means he's just not getting it and isn't a fit member of society, so hang him.
I think that there is probably a happy medium between a £2000 fine and branding, flogging or death. Like a prison term, or suspended prison sentence, for example. I can't help thinking that a lot of people enthusiastically advocating flogging and branding and hanging on this thread are also the first to jump up and down about "barbarian" African or Middle Eastern jurisdictions who actually do carry out these sorts of punishment.
Personally, I am not into capital punishment or state-sponsored corporal punishment. I just think this bloke should either have gone to prison or at the very least have been subjected to some sort of concrete inconvenience.
Prison - definitely.
Even if he did have a rush to the head the first time he should have felt sufficiently guilty to either seek help or at least very carefully watch his temper.
He chose not to and ended up beating her again and worse. He should be made to take responsibility for his actions.
Can't be bothered to work it out but I'm guessing he's taking home £4-5K net per month so a £2K fine is nothing.
It's like a footballer's fine.
Domestic violence is something I was frequently subjected to by my husband. When I eventually managed to find the courage to report it to the police I was astonished to discover that he had a string of convictions for violent crime, one of his convictions was for him beating up a police officer.I also discovered that he had spent sometime in prison, prior to meeting me. Men who beat their wives up are often violent to other people as well. Prison is definitely what they require and a lengthy sentence too.
I can't believe that bloke got away with it. He'll do it again.
Well, we can always contact him direct:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/colinread
I couldn't help but notice whilst googling that the lek.com email addresses format is usually firstinitial_surname or in some cases firstintial.surname.
And another company to avoid
http://www.bladeice.com/
as he is to do with it
Hit the f*ck*r in the pocket
"Personally, I am not into capital punishment or state-sponsored corporal punishment. I just think this bloke should either have gone to prison or at the very least have been subjected to some sort of concrete inconvenience."
Like having a breeze block dropped on his testicles from ten feet up?
judging by the number of recent Cambridge grads in the friends list I'm guessing this is indeed our man http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=10080&id=531971647
If we poke him will it hurt ?
Chaps,
While I totally agree that this little scumbag deserves one hell of a lot more pain than he got from the judge, it's starting to get a bit lynch-mobby around here.
Are we 100% sure the "naming and shaming" contacts above are the right ones? I'd hate to see DK and Katy getting tarred with the same brush as Rebekah Wade.
Let's leave the vigilante justice to Sun readers.
jesus h christ - i think i'm going to puke.
it's starting to get a bit lynch-mobby around here
I agree. Let's be having less of the emailing his employers and the damaging of his knackers, please. If they didn't know about it before the Daily Mail article I am pretty sure they will now.
Lets be civilised then - He's guilty as fuck - string him up.
We pay people to do jobs for us and quite clearly in this case they've failed so they should be replaced and we should employ people more in tune with what we want
I thought it's common in Taliban country but it's more common here than one would care to admit.
Has anyone thought to direct their ire towards the "judge" in question? Or the Home Secretary? Might not that be the better way to go? Also, it might be a deterrent towards future judicial abominations.
It is not this chap's fault that the judge is a misogynist too. What is wrong about this set-up is not so much the crime as the sentence. Not saying the crime is ok, but had it been punished suitably, I would be less upset than I am by this travesty of justice. Which, as you say, gives a very upsetting message. As well as lets him get away with it.
A well orchestrated campaign of objection to the judge and the decision will go a lot further than pursuing this heinous chap in a vigilante (equally unelected) fashion.
May I recommend this as a starting point?
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/Search.do;jsessionid=A52C3F0D192F05C9F827747E72114991
WTF?
Thats serial abuse and harassment
doesnt matter if it happened over 3 days or three weeks
If she had turned round and killed him with the carving knife I can bet you she would have been locked up for a long time.
Is she allowed to appeal the decision?
unfortunately, i don't think so...that would be "double jeopardy", no?
i heard from a friend who works in the same building as the company and he said that this guy's been canned
I've known Colin Read for a long time, went to school with him. He was just as violent and unpredictable then as he obviously still is now. In fact i remember being at the bad end of one of his tempers once and got thrown onto a table and punched in the chest.
Some people obviously don't change. I know there are two sides to every story, but too much of what has been reported rings true.
His ex wife is most definately better off out of it.
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