To think justice served on the Mum of Disabled Child in Revenge Attack

[Mitmoo]

Thanks to milkmilk for posting this on a different thread but it has got lost.

The mother of a disabled child who plotted a revenge attack on a poster who launched attacks on a disabled child via the internet found not guilty.

DM but that doesn't matter - it's an important article.

A mother who joined a revenge attack on a man responsible for a vile campaign of internet abuse against her disabled daughter has been spared prison.

Sylvia Hooper, 52, was described as a ?decent and law-abiding? woman who dedicated her life to her seriously ill daughter Kim Arnold. But she snapped after looking on helplessly as a cowardly bully sent her a series of appalling comments via Facebook.

One labelled her a cripple and said the wheelchair user should be left to ?roll down a hill.?

Another message read: ?Your mother should have had an abortion. She only had you because she felt sorry for you.?

Mr Hooper, 19, punched the bully after his mother said ?hit him? and Berwick was then taken back to the family home by car. He was forced to crawl inside and make a ?grovelling apology? to his victim while on all fours. At one point he was hit on the chin with a rolled up newspaper.

All three admitted assault but denied false imprisonment and the judge ruled that not guilty verdicts should be entered.

He said: ?I sentence you on the basis that Mr Berwick sent messages that were wholly disgraceful and shameful but then tried to put the blame on his girlfriend.?

Mrs Hooper was given a conditional discharge. The two men were given community orders which included voluntary work.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028961/Judge-spares-mother-jail-plotted-attack-internet-troll-posted-horrific-comments-disabled-daughter.html#ixzz1Vpq1S3To

Precised down full article on the above link.

Good for the judge, the right decision was made.

I don't htink anyone is suggesting total paranoia, though Leningrad.

surely it is only sensible to limit the info you give out on fb/other internet fora?

you don't have a public profile - so on some level you don't want ot give out info to all and sundry on here. surely your fb account is not open to the world and his wife?

and cetainly when my dc are old enough to have a fb account, I will be advising them to set their settings accordingly. if they cannot understand the implications of ehy, then they are not mature enought o have the accoutn in the first place (obviously in dd1''s case, she may never understand these implications fully. but hten I (or another carer) woudl be doing the settign up anyway, so the settings would be applied)

Quote from article:

'Danny Moore, for Mr Hooper, said Mr Berwick got a kick out of ?playing mind games with a severely disabled young lady?.

It also said that he has done this before. I wouldn't describe posting vile comments as 'mind games'. It sounds like he was pretending to be pleasant and then attacking her, possibly using other names.

I don't just have my very closest buds on facebook. Some of the people I went to school with have married names now and therefore aren't easily found.

There's also people I've got to know through other friends, it's nice that they can 'find' my page too.

Once again, why should people have to hide away and isolate themselves completely? You'd not find ANY personal info if you found my page, my profile pic and the ability to message me is all that can happen. Some sad people chose to abuse that, I am not about to shut myself off from the world completely because of them.

Lenin, I do see your point.

I like to connect too (and god knows, the internet has been a lifeline for that, given the SN issues!)

but it just is not sensible at all to have open profiles, and be searchable by anyone who happens along.

we all know there are nasty people out there. they are not right, and we shoudlnt have to change our lives in any way to take account of that, but the fact is we do. daily (not talking about SN here, just life in general)

the man was in the wrong. absolutely. there should have been a way in law for him to be dealt with (i thought cyber bullying was taken seriously? why were the police not able to act? I would be interested to know this). if for whatever reason it turns out the police could and shoudl have acted, then this is a very serious situation indeed (the situation was serious anyway, imo. but if they woudl have acted if against any other person, then the implicaitons are huge)

but it is still not right for the family to take things into their own hands.

and it is still sensible to take reasonable protective steps, like ensurng that the local scum cannot find you on a very visible media.

I lock my front door when I go out. I shoudln't have to, and I resent the fact that I have to change my life in this way (we didn't lock up when I was younger and living abroad). but I do have to. locking down your settings on fb is jst another of those things.

my accoutn being locked down means I have to be proactive about finding people, rather than them being able to find me. but so be it.

I do think that the default settings for fb shoudl not be "everything open to all unless you say otherwise"

This isn't just about this case or people protecting their own DC's. Any piece of shit, and that is what Berwick is can just set up an account and search for whoever he chooses to target, because they are disabled and vulnerable. That isn't right and the law needs to be place to make sure that it doesn't happen. The technology has moved quicker than the law, thats all.

But then again if he didn't have access to a computer would he take to the streets to ridicule disabled people. Or shout abuse outside of their house, if they lived alone. I have support disabled people to live in the community for it to fail because of people like him. They have had to return to supported living or even be sectioned again. A support worker shouldn't have to live in a disabled persons house with them to keep them safe from 'fully fuctioning' (haha) adults or even children. This case is more about the lack of leglislation on hate crime and not about this vile thing (Berwick) getting his come uppance.

Silver- if he sent messages mentioning sex, gender, race etc something could have been done, so that is all people are asking for, the same protection for the disabled. At one time sexism and racism was passed off 'as life' but the law has ended that abuse.

I thought that disability hate crime was a crime punishable by law now?

I wonder if he has bothered the girl since? I bet he hasn't. So problem solved as far as the family is concerned, a bit of community service probably feels like a reasonable 'price'.

It's not about people hiding away and isolating themselves completely Glitter. When interacting on the internet it's about blocking anyone who sends hate mail or anyone you do not want to be in contact with.

In an ideal world there would be no need for us to be suspicious of the motives of strangers, but as we do not live in Utopia we need to be proactive about protecting ourselves and our more vulnerable LOs both in RL and on the net.

'I thought that disability hate crime was a crime punishable by law now?'

I think it has to be proper stuff though, like lynching and arson, battering with implements and tarring and feathering. Rather than just hateful words.
Racism went through the same agonisingly slow sequence of recognition that it isn't how you treat other human beings.
When I was a child, racist language, verbal taunting and minor assault and job discrimination were not worthy of notice by the authorities.
They are now, but it has taken decades.

Mencap are saying that the law doesn't go far enough on disability hate crime and that the police are not trained enough to know how to respond to it. That is why they are asking everyone to contact their MP via their website to keep it on the agenda.

Glitter I agree with you on all counts. I'm also searchable on FB even though you cannot see my wall, photos, posts etc until someone is a "friend" on there. That's the way I want it. If people I knew as a child/teen/other areas etc want to find me, they can and vise versa. I like it that way. But, my profile is locked down and I only approve friends that I "know", not just random people. That's security conscious in my mind.

I can't stand all the disabilist comments and the ease at which people get away with it and which the blame is easily shifted on the victims. Oh if only they'd have had their settings blah blah blah then it wouldn't have happened... No because a man as vile as one willing to send abuse to a seriously disabled person would never do anything like that to anyone else. Hey, maybe next time he'll forget FB and hurl abuse in the street. I'm sure that would be their own fault for leaving the house though...

To me, it's akin to someone blaming a woman being harassed on the basis of her wearing a short skirt.

'Of course you can take steps to protect yourself and your family online but if someone is determined this can result in a lot of hassle for you. Where do you stop? Change email address? Hide every account you can? Stop participating in open forums? Change mobile number? Change school or move house if you have to? Things can escalate no matter what the person on the receiving end does. Once it's obvious it's targeted and sustained the police and courts should act quickly against the perpetrator.
'

Quite.

We've ahd many types of abuse, and I am certain some of the perps would say warrnated- people getting nasty and coming here or screeching at me becuase fo school incidents (I was fighting for 1-1 for ds1 and I did eventually get it but only so much I can do at school).

Once the kids realised ds1 was a target though they got wise which is when parents started knocking and shouting about fictional incidents: first time I handed over some toys ds1 had purportedly stolen only to find that DH had bought them for him but said kid had been trying it on with an overly-trusting dad: thing is when you answer your door to a 6 foot bloke shouting you (or I) just panic, and then you stop answering teh door for a while. Or when you get to the school gates and the kid screaming that ds1 hurt him just as an excuse to get out of PE has escalated to a very angry dad turning up to meet me (then with a newborn in a buggy) and screaming voer at me and not one person sticking up- well yous top going to school unaccompanied.

Life starts to become one long panic attack.

lcukily the boys are now in specialist schools (ds1 starts his in 2 weeks0 Nad will be taxi'd so our address will not be immediately visible to everyone on the school run which is a huge relief but you know, if the bullies can't get you on FB they will find a way.

Cheese same settings here

I live away from home; I have a hobby that involves a wide community- I don't want to be even more isolated.

If someone wants to get nasty that is their fault not mine.

Would I do it?

Yep. If I was pushed that far of course I would.

If I had tried to stop it, got ignored and the fucker just kept on going.

Only I wouldnt bother involving anyone else. I would got round and give the twat a smack myself.

I wouldnt risk incriminating anyone else.

It wouldnt be my first course of action but why does the victim always have to be the bigger, better person in these cases? Some people need a smack. This bloke did.

I am a nice, decent person with a well developed sense of right and wrong. But if some arse was tormenting my disabled child I would feel it was my place to do something about it. My job.

Flame away.

thefirstMrsDeVere I get you.
I know what ds would do, he is 19 and would rip their head off.
bullies like the man who did this should be stopped by the police, but they are powerless. the bullies just continue with their vileness,
sadly most people on this thread seem to blame the real victim, to think her family enjoyed this!!!(yeah wtf)
this thread proves why disabled people feel so alone.
yet when they are tormented to death. people cry crocodile tears and say why wasn't something done to prevent this....

"I'm sure this doesn't necessarily apply to this particular family, but I do think some people enjoy being victims. You only have to look at threads here to see that."

that quote from Wannabe's post really sums this thread up for me, thats mumsnet for you, always there for you ........not

couldn't agree more with that last line, 2shoes

the law could not stop this man's vicious assault

The single most tragic element of this case is that if police and prosecutors had been prepared to act, they could have done. The Malicious Communications Act, Protection from Harassment Act and other statutes do criminalise these types of messages. People can be and are prosecuted for sending vile, abusive or threatening messages (even if only one is sent).

The onus is not on the victim to change settings or stop using social media. The onus is on the perpetrator to stop the oppressive conduct.

It was shocking that in a case as bad as this police were either ignorant of the applicable laws or not prepared to enforce them. But anyone reading this thread should not go away thinking it's just 'words on a screen' and there is no potential for criminal liability. There most certainly is.

If only the family had had access to good legal advice, they would never have ended up in this terrible position.

Bullying the disbled girl was dispicable, but that in no way justifies them being spared jail.
To punch and kidnap someone goes way, way, way beyond what anyone could consider reasonable or justified.I hop the sentence gets reviewed!

The thing is, once in a blue moon, very rarely, a bully picks on the wrong family.

This is what happens when you do.

You get a slap.

Hurray.

I agree with everything you have wrote MrsDeVere. if appropriate action had been taken in the first place then they the family wouldn't have felt so helpless and resorted to the actions that they did.

I actually think he got off lightly a punch, a whack with a newspaper and grovelling on his hands and knees.

i hope so to spider. I hope it is reviewed and their punishment removed.
hopefully the awful bully will have learned from this.
guess what disabled people have people who care for them and will fight for them