Teenage boy receives referral order after stabbing girl who rejected him

Sentencing the boy, Judge Ian Lawrie told the court the stabbing was a "very troubling event" but he did not take the view that the offender was a "danger".
He said: "He's still young. And he is capable of learning."
The judge told the court he was "surprised" the boy had spent three months in custody as "while the offences are serious", it was "inconsistent" with the usual process for youth cases.

Stabs/attempts murder of a child for rejecting romantic or sexual advances and isn't to be considered a danger?

I think realistically it was sexual advances, not romantic.

Time for parents to start taking some accountability I'm afraid.
Yes, the internet is partially to blame, but the fact it is almost always young boys committing these offences has to be addressed too.
I was on the jury for a very similar case to this, and the perpetrators mother was present for every day of the trial. She heard the most horrific details of what her beloved son had done. Her only reaction when he was found guilty was to call us all c*s, and threaten the lawyers and judge.
This was a seemingly normal, middle class woman, not the criminal stereotype you might imagine. Yet she couldn't accept that her child had done something truly terrible.
The last I saw of her was her blowing kisses to him, and saying how proud she was of him, as he was led away to start his sentence.
As a former teacher I can tell you that the most violent kids would often have the most enabling parents.

This is outrageous, so offensive.

My daughter was called a bitch at school. She was drinking at the water fountain and a boy came up and said “Move over, bitch!” I wanted to complain but she wouldn’t let me. What was heartbreaking was she seemed to feel this was entirely normal. (What was heartening however was that she subsequently told me she had rammed the boy’s head into the drinking fountain when he started drinking. While it’s not the behaviour I’d generally encourage, I was quite proud of her on this occasion.)

He’s 14 and he pleaded guilty. In those circumstances the sentencing guidelines suggest that a referral order must be imposed except for the most serious offences.

Stabbing is awful but it doesn’t seem to be the most serious offence. The most important thing here is to make sure that he doesn’t do this again. Imprisonment would not do that.

If you’re objecting to the sentence, you must be clear about the sentencing guidelines and state why they were not properly followed.

Agree.

This does not seem to be a system intended for this severity of violent offending - that the girl survived the attack seems to be mostly luck rather than lack of his intent.

Although I briefly had contact with a secure centre for teens through work, years back. I was horrified that it appeared little more than containment and entertainment. Very little of any value appeared to be happening there beyond everyone got through the shift, and there was a lot of smashing up of the environment and violent behaviour. I hope there was more to it than what was apparent, I really do.

And there were issues of what happened to girls within secure centres, (obviously predictable issues) which I think if I recall were supposed to be single sex but weren't? To do with the girls being a much smaller population and places being hard to find. The range and background of the kids there was also highly concerning, in that the population could include severely traumatised kids who just couldn't be kept off the street any other way and were there for their own safety, alongside severely violent offenders.

I have no idea of the bill of containing this boy in such a placement for years, with really no other goal than removing him from the streets/schools as a risk to everyone else.

Not my child but I know of a grandma who's teen dgd (I think she's a very 'young' 14 year old,for context) was walking home from school,minding her own business when another teen (a lad) from her school grabbed her on the back of her neck,pinned her down,rummaged in his pants and told her to 'kiss my cock' while shoving it in her face

She refused and managed to get away from him-she's badly shaken and upset (who wouldn't be?)

What have the school/police done?

Nothing-the school say its not on their land so can't do anything and the police have told her to walk the longer way home and to avoid him at school

His parents have just shrugged and said 'we'll have a word'

Hes strutting around thinking he's untouchable (and let's face it,he is until he goes too far,which is just a matter of time) with his mates cheering him on

It's been going on forever-i remember being assaulted by classmates and fuck all was done

It's not 'boys will be boys' it's dangerous and all girls/women deserve better

That poor girl-what a joke of a sentence

I read somewhere (just a few days ago but cant remember where) a woman saying 'i do NOT want my murder to be a safety warning for other women'

Sadly,it's a real threat to us all and all they do is trot out 'lessons will be learned' but they never are

That's a rapist in the making and future abuser of girls and women.

Yes, I was shocked to find that girls were placed in YOIs. With entirely predictable results.

This is horrific. Poor girl.

If it helps any, the teenage boys that I know around here have very strong and somewhat emphatic opinions about boys who rape or abuse. Considerably stronger, apparently, than police, or the courts.

Which tbh leads to another argument for the courts/police etc to deal properly with offenders.

Either they are happy for 'vigilante' justice to take hold, and for more violence to result out of anger at lenient sentences, potentially criminalising more people, and potentially harming the offenders, or they get a grip on all of the downstream consequences of crime, not just for the offender but for society as a whole.

I'm happy to scrutinise his family background if you have any information on it, @ZeldaFighter ? I can't see any details about his background in the BBC article.

Perhaps that's why they chose those specific charges. So MN and other women's groups are prevented from asking for a sentence review.

Which would render our justice system even more ineffectual than it already is, and verging very nearly, on corrupt.

It wouldn't surprise me.

Judge Lawrie appears to have form for sympathising with offenders - a few of his other decisions - the man needs to be looked at by his superiors so here's hoping there will be a backlash on this case.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-5075079/Paedophile-avoids-jail-bad-back.html

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/judge-throws-out-case-against-6870779

I forgot to add,the lad in question comes into my work (retail) and yep,your right

He's a cocky little twat who is banned but that doesn't stop him-he just tries to sneak in (we sling him out and he struts back in)

This young lady is lovely (I know her lovely family) and is very upset (I don't blame her) from what I can gather,he's been chasing her for months and nobody cares

He's always trying to touch up other girls and all they seem to get back is 'he likes you' or 'just ignore him' (im sick of hearing a girl scream and he's standing there,smirking)

That's the same shite I got at school (I left over 30 years ago) and nothing has changed

It's why I get so angry at 'lessons will very learned'

They are never learned but it's a good soundbite to trot out when yet another woman is raped/killed/badly hurt

If they where serious,then they'd clamp down on this behaviour and do something about it

But they won't because its expensive and 'lads will be lads'

I've been touched up 10 times over almost 11 years at work

7 of those times the police didn't bother to come out,twice they didn't even bother to watch the cctv/spoke to me like I was making a fuss over nothing and once walked in with 'what do you want us to do about the man who pinned you against the bin and touched you in your knickers?'

'Do your job and arrest him,you have the cctv as proof' was the wrong answer apparently

Not once where these males spoken to,let alone arrested or charged

Somehow,it's my fault for daring to have a job so that means I'm fair game

What he needs is an older male to intervene. He needs firm, clear, absolutely crystal clear boundaries. He probably needs help.

Absolutely shocking to hear your story. I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences at work. You know that your employer now has responsibility to protect you from sexual harrassment/abuse?

https://www.rightsofwomen.org.uk/get-advice/sexual-harassment-at-work-law/

But there is no element of punishment. He'll attend a meeting with one youth worker and two amateurs, be told to sign a piece of paper saying he won't do it again, and that's it. He'll be home by tea time, to collect another kitchen knife so he can do it to some other poor child.

And how can attempting to murder someone, stabbing them repeatedly, and then stabbing someone else who tried to protect the victim, not be serious enough? But for the luck of the gods, the boy is a murderer. He needs to be detained for public safety. Except public safety - especially the safety of women & girls - is irrelevant to men like Judge Lawrie.

Fuxache.

And then we wonder why men act like they're free to assault women. It's because they are. And they know they are.

I'm so sorry you've been treated like this.

Perhaps we should be more Norway. Evidence suggests that removal from toxic family and peer group can be effective at preventing further offending. I imagine that the foster families are very well paid, they’d have to be really.

Judges don't have superiors, really.

Police Det Supt said this:

'"What is unusual in this case is that it's a 14-year-old child that has had this obsessive behaviour.
"It's the type of thing we'd see in domestic violence cases with adults, but it's not something we would have normally seen when it comes to child offenders."'

To be fair to work,they have always been amazing

They have allowed me to have time to explain what's happened,time to calm down,slung the bloke out and called the police (my manager may be small but she's bloody fierce-shes very supportive)

The problem is,I work alone (sort of) as front of house (the only problem I did have is when I refused to go into the gents alone and they disagreed but I sorted that with colleagues to go inas pairs and the problem sorted itself when a bloke tried to pin me to the wall in there-they had a change of policy because of that)

The problem is the police-they don't give a fuck

I once turned round and said 'you've learned nothing from Sarah everard' and they just laughed

Nothing changes and that is so depressing

They are not scared of other/bigger men/the police/the system/their parents

And these are just the stories that make the papers-a girl was stabbed for fuck sake and nothing happens,just a 'don't do it again'

Every single woman I work with/are friends with has had something happen-i think I read 1 out of 4 women have suffered some sort of harassment

Bollocks-itll be 4 out of 4 of any women over the age of at least 16 (and younger)

Not all men (I have sons and a dp who wouldn't dream of it) but it's always a man

That is appalling. And sounds like your police force is shocking. Letter to your MP/papers? Try to get things in writing, take notes, write down everything that's happened as best you can remember it, with dates and any other witnesses or evidence to support.

Police forces vary; our local police are amazing when it comes to dv, threats, harassment, etc.

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints/

This decision is now on the list of those being reviewed,

Also re the boy in the OP:

'Det Supt Ian Fletcher said* of CCTV of the attack: "Anyone who sees footage would say she is very *lucky to not have very serious, if not fatal injuries."'