To think that the Justice system is completely f***ed?

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Six Palestine Action activists cleared of aggravated burglary over break-in at UK subsidiary of Israeli defence firm.
So you can now break into a factory using a van, and attack people with sledgehammers?
I just can't believe it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wxlv99xrjo

I work in the criminal justice system so yes I can confirm it’s utterly fucked in all areas, not just sentencing.

I work in the criminal justice system so yes I can confirm it’s utterly fucked in all areas, not just sentencing.

Yeah what intent?

I do ramraids with vans and attack people with sledgehammer by accident all the fucking time.

I don’t think that poster quite understands U.K. law.
Intent doesn’t mean “Meant to do it on” or “Did it on purpose” or “Did it not meaning to harm anyone”
Nor do we have felonies in the U.K.

But I suppose it’s futile trying to explain these things to people.

I don’t think some members of the jury understand or care about the law. We are in severe trouble if certain causes allow violent criminals to escape justice if jury members sympathise with them.

I wonder why the trial was in Woolwich when the crime was in Bristol?

What does it mean then @FMLGFastMovingLuxuryGoods ? Honestly not very clued up on things like that!
I just can’t see how with all the evidence things have come to this conclusion.

I’m amazed it was not a guilty outcome.

From my very brief stint as a juror 15 years ago, the minute the jury is told "there must be no doubt in your mind" it automatically makes everyone have some doubt in their mind and the defendant ends up found not guilty. Even worse when the judge will only accept a 100% vote one way or the other as there will always be someone who isn't 100% sure.

I admit I don't know enough about the legal system to know if this is common or not or if it would be the case in a high profile trial like this rather than the very low key trial that I was a juror on which should never have gone to court.

OJ does keep coming to mind these days. It's very worrying. And so many people turning to vigilante "justice".

Intent effectively means behaviour that you know could lead to certain outcomes.

So for example, if you hit someone with your car because you weren’t fully concentrating or you were speeding, that can be considered intent. The fact you didn’t set out to hit them doesn’t mean intent doesn’t exist. If you are driving perfectly safely and someone throws themselves in front of your car, it can be proven that that’s not intent.

The fact Thomas Corner (I think his name is) didn’t set out to break a police officer’s back, but did it anyway, doesn’t mean there was no intent.

It’s weirdly more complicated than it should be.

It’s been a while since I worked in this field it I’m sure the “reasonable doubt” instruction has now changed

I cannot believe that they got away with this!!! It’s utterly appalling, they could have killed the police woman, she will have to live with those injuries for life now. Sickening how low our justice system has fallen

The rot set in when those thugs in Bristol threw a statue into the water and got away with that

I think the jury were intimidated in this case

This, it’s frightening and definitely a two tier judicial system. Well done Kier and Labour.

How is Keir (please note spelling) responsible for the Bristol statue thing?

Also, if there is a retrial of any of them, they are hardly going to get a fair trial now after the way the news channels have reported it.

They did quite well this time. Despite being on camera using a truck to smash their way in and a policewoman ending up being hit by one of their sledgehammers, they all had them in the video footage, apparently the jury struggled for hours with charges. Palestine Action appear to do what they want. Interesting 'justice' system we have! What next?

Surely it was a charge of GBH? That must have stuck? It’s jury bias here or the wrong charge.

Well thank you @Mithral for your condescending response. Good “squirrel” for making a spelling error a focal point! Am sure you would never make such a crass error…
My understanding is the 2020 Bristol incident is an example where this criminal damage was treated with leniency in contrast with the swift, heavy-handed actions on the rioters in 2024.

So how is it Keir Starmer's fault that the Colston Four jury decided to acquit way back before he was PM?

Bias in the jury.

It wasn't a burglary though. It was a protest. I'm sure if they assaulted someone or caused criminal damage then they could be done for that.

Keir Starmer is a bastard, have I spelt bastard correctly?

Very good point. The Defend Our Juries group are the people who have actively been demonstrating on behalf of Palestine Action.