To think being bullied doesn't justify stabbing someone in the face?

[Topaz25]

So this article popped up in my newsfeed today. Teenager stabs girl in the face and beats another black and blue because they called him HARRY POTTER
www.facebook.com/dailymirror/posts/552566581523132

I was shocked at the amount of comments defending him! I was bullied as a child so I do understand it is devastating but that doesn't justify stabbing someone in the face! He didn't just lash out in the moment, he went home to get a knife to cause maximum damage, he lead the girls to the park, he thought this through. He is a danger to the public. I am also surprised at the sentence, I think stabbing someone in the face while shouting "die, die!" indicates intent to kill and should have been charged accordingly. I do wonder if his supporters would want to live next to him when he gets out or have him round to dinner since he is so misunderstood? I don't agree with bullying but when he attacked two younger girls I feel he effectively became the bully, it was a massive overreaction to the situation and he had other options. AIBU?

I have zero sympathy for the girls too. If one of mine behaved that way they wouldn't need to worry about looking over their shoulder as they'd be grounded. I'm disgusted with the mothers comments these girls followed him to the park where they continued to harass him and spit in his face. Yes he deserves punishment for the extent of the retaliation but that doesn't change the fact that the girls behaviour was appalling.

I would like to point that pre sentencing reports refer to depression and witnessing violence in his upbringing.

It is important to acknowledge how much violence is cyclical between generations, if we are to reduce violence over time.

I feel like some people have no understanding of quite how vile some 15 and 16 year old girls are capable of being.

HomeHelpMeGawd do you have any links to these reports?

Mainly people who see everything as black and white Merry, I think.

The vast majority of people I know irl would be (rightly) horrified at the viciousness of his retaliation, but think they probably deserved to get back what they were happy to dish out.

Agree Monica, but also agree his punishment is fair and should not be more.

He described his own actions as 'monstrous' so I think it's fair to say he regrets what he did and understands his actions. 4 years for assault actually seems like a fair, not very lenient, sentence.

Aga, I don't. But they're referred to in the link you posted from the Southern Daily Echo: "The judge, who read probation and psychiatric reports, said that he took into account Walker’s difficult background, depression and the provocation.

In mitigation, defence barrister Keely Harvey told the court of Walker’s vulnerability and violent upbringing.

“He is shocked at what he saw as he grew up,” she said.

At school, he was bullied and seen as a “wimp”. The provocation and verbal abuse he suffered inside and outside the flats were the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, Ms Harvey told the court."

In the report I read yesterday it was claimed that the girls were blocking the stairway as he tried to pass them, grabbed at or touched his shopping bags, verbally abused him far beyond this one particular silly name calling and finally spat at him before following him to a local park where he attacked them.

That does not excuse him stabbing and kicking them in the face but I can't see that any of the three come out of this well.

And I do think it's possible that a younger girl can bully an older boy at school.

Some girls I was at school with were very secure in their confidence that no boy would dare to touch them no matter what they did to them, because they were girls, because they were younger, because they had bigger, scarier brothers or sisters to back them up if a boy did stand up to them and in some cases because they had bigger, scarier parents to do the same thing.

"The fact that he was able to throw a point of water over his supposed aggressors and then carry out a plan to lure them to a park to stab them indicates he was more than able to stand up for himself and did a bit more than "snap"."

When you say "lure", there is no indication that he did anything other than simpy walk past them and continue to the park in the knowledge that they would follow him to continue bullying. Nobody has suggested that he lured them to the park by any deception or anything, merely that he knew (presumably from previous experience) that if he walked away they would follow him in order to harrass him.

I was bullied at school: my bullies waited for me at every break and followed me about. Does that really mean that I lured them places? Is that really a valid term for "they chose to follow me in order to bully me"?

To me, the mere fact that he was able to deduce that they would follow him wherever he went speaks volumes about the kind of behaviour he was exposed to.

As I said before, I agree with the prison sentence. Society needs to make it quite clear that violence is unacceptable.

But comparisons with American school shootings would only be valid if the shooter walked away from the school and was followed by pupils and teachers calling names and spitting at him. Don't people think if this happened that the response even to these incidents might be slightly different?

It's a case of tough titty on those girls as far as im concerned. I wouldn't have jailed him, i would have provided him with some anger management counselling. I was bullied at school by the same kid for years. Nothing would stop him in his relentless harassment until one day i turned around and broke his nose with a quite tasty right hook. Funnily enough, he stopped after that.

there is a quote from a woman here who appears to be Ryan Walker's mother/step-mother/otherwise closely related, and the bullying she describes is quite a bit more serious than suggested:

www.facebook.com/policealertsUKnewsreportsUk/posts/693570744008998

YANBU

The Columbine kids were bullied too.

Well that certainly changes my views...

Ageofgrandillusion... turning around and puniching someone is one thing..stabbing another! Also 19 is an adult.. he wasn't a little kid who lost it

Calling someone names is also different to spitting at them and (allegedly) trying to set them on fire.

If that is true my sympathy for those girls has vanished completely.

Vegetarians, he was actually 18, and perhaps 3 months out of high school.

If I were scared of someeone I wouldn't go home where I was safe get a knife then go out again. I know newspapers frequently get it wrong.. but still safer than believing a random FB person

IS he? It says 19 on the Mirror link

But the newspapers are also reporting that the bullying was serious, prolonged and more than just a bit of name calling.

Even if the girls did try and set him on fire..if he then went to a safe place and came out with intent to stab.. he needs to go to jail. It's not the same as fighting someone off.

That doesn't change the fact that I think the girls would deserve to go to jail too mind you!

Sorry i haven't RTFT so there might be additional links, I was just going with the OP's link

I'm also interested to know who released the photos of the girls' injuries.

YANBU but at the same time I can understand how relentless bullying can lead to one incident can make you snap. Even though that individual incident in itself is mild IYSWIM. I've snapped before at one minor insult as it was the latest in a long line of grief. In my partial defence I only screamed fuck off and I am ashamed and feel guilty for that.

He was 18, he is now 19.

I don't think the Facebook person is exactly random, though not necessarily reliable.