The guy - Gary - who lost his leg in bombing - has served 3 yrs for rape

[ThomCat]

Can't find a nrews report but there must be one. It was the topic of discussion on LBC this morning.

It was a few years ago. He was part of a gang that kidnapped 2 girls and took part in raping these girls, at knifepoint, 45 times I think it was. He was given 7 years and served 3, that info is correcxt.

He's looking at £50,000 compensation and trying to relese a record to raise more money.

Personally I think he should give the money to the 2 girls who are scarred for life emotionally. Whay compensation did they receive for his crime on them?

Certainly changed my view on him.
Makes me feel sick.

victim of rape is now talking on R2, she believes in the rehab of prisoners, which I agree with, also, he was a victim of 7/7, so should get compensation....but he should have kept out of media and keep very quiet

nice bloke - lied about his conviction being quashed anyway, done for burglary 3 years ago...what a paragon of society

i really don''t know what I'd want!! I think and I know its a cop out that it would depend on my reaction to a given individual - as frankly it would with or without a conviction for rape! I firmly believe in the rehabilitation of offenders and would hope that as such if I had a problem with somebody on the basis of a conviction would have the balls to talk about it with them.

If he had done anything to atone for his crime he would have talked about it by now - he approached the Mail and lied about being cleared.

I'm shocked at this news.

But what a plank, getting himself featured so heavily on BBCNews. Did he think this would not come out?

Abigail Witchalls has not yet received any compensation for her injuries.

do you think he called the bbc in as he was in the ambulance then? I know he's got a dreadful history but that's a bit cynical!
He was in coma for a while too I thought at the time thinking back now.
The media are very aggressive about getting "real victims" stories, I guess stuck in bed unable to move he had sod all choice but to do it at first.
He must have known and just wondered how long it would be, in which case he was a total muppet to lie about it.

hats what the campaign was for, to make the compensation arrive much faster for victims of crime?

the victims (incl the horrible Garri) need a better spokesperson surely?

he must be a complete muppet to think his story wouldn't come out

Just hate the whole 'people affected by this are affected for years -it's psychological as well as physical' - and the difference for a rape victim is what? Just total hypocrisy.

On a slight tack, does anyone else feel there is a slightly unsavoury race/class angle to the Sun's report?

"Musician Holness was one of a gang of six thugs who pounced on two 16-year-old girls as they walked home from a concert.
The blonde and brunette victims, both privately educated, were bundled into a dank garage at council flats in Brixton, South London."

Presumably 'blonde and brunette' and 'privately educated' contrasted with the photo of Holness is code for 'working class black man rapes nice middle class white girls'. So it would have been less bad if they'd been black, or working class? Or he'd been a white man?

Sorry if this is incredibly obvious to anyone else, but I'm not a habitual Sun reader, and I find their turn of phrase a bit freaky.

This is amazing really. Personally I think that yes he deserves his compensation. However he has put himself in the public eye, and worked on getting our sympathy when he MUST have known this would have come out. There must be many other victims who also are fighting for more compensation, but they are doing it under a shroud of anonimity. If he had an ounce of common sense he should have done this too. Let someone else be the spokesperson for the campaign, since this is only going to weaken the whole case tbh. People aren't going to fight by his side now they know this.

And frogs, yes I read those descriptions and thought why didn't they go teh whole hog and say 'White posh girls and big black criminals'

Hasn't this been a massive failure on the part of the BBC? With all their resources how could they not have discovered this?

Personally, I don't have an opinion the money. He's a victim of a crime and our society says he's therefore deserving of compensation. It won't give him back his leg.

I'm more concerned that the BBC gave a platform to this man to subvert and demean all the rhetoric about victimhood. That these women would've switched on the 6 o'clock news to see a ongoing progress report of the man who'd attacked them. He's obviously a very dishonest (not to say deluded) person. And id the thought that his actions could have caused these women distress never entered his mind then that points to sociopathic tendencies, which he obvioulsy had 20 years ago.

But I really can't get over the BBC and their astonishingly shoddy research.

Yes, Frogs. Bur also the sexual frizzon of calling the gorls 'blonde and brunette' like they were parcontestants in a beauty contest!

monkeytrousers I'm a radio producer and don't routinely check the (criminal or otherwise) background of my contributors. I might go to a professional body for a spokesperson and have checked certain facts when alarm bells have rung (one person springs to mind who definitely had an agenda other than the one he was citing). I do however check facts via reliable sources. In this case, I find it very odd that someone who'd been jailed for such a high profile crime would want to expose themselves to such publicity, when he must have known that he would be found out. Because his name seems to be different to the one he was convicted under, I imagine a member of the public contacted the media to alert them.

I see Bundle, yes, but I think in the age we're living in the parameters have moved slightly. Who's to say that a certain type of person doesn't actually commit a crime just to be in the news or be on police, camera, action? It can't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine that happening and if so what's to stop people who want their 5 minutes of fame regardless of who it may hurt, case in point? I don't know what the response of the media should be, it's all getting a bit like Frankenstein's monster.

Haven't read all of thread, but I can't see that his pat should affect his claim for compo- He WAS an innocent victim of this, and what happened to him isn't made any the better for his actions in the past. However, I think if he has any moral conscience at all, he would be giving some either to his victims or to victim support.

actually I think 50 grand in compo out of public money is too much, rapist or no rapist.

Message withdrawn

Karma i guess.

I thought I was going to get lynched for that comment, essbee. It's not a little voice I'm proud of - the wooly liberal pinko side of me (to quote - I think - motherinferior ) tries to drown it out but it's there nontheless.

Barbarians bring out the barbarian in me, it seems.

oh, it's teh divvils work

I was thinking along the same lines as you monkeytrousers. Can you imagine the horror that these two women will go through seeing him parade himself as some kind of hero? This will have opened up some very painful memories for them.

Looking at the quotes it would seem he has disassociated himself with his crime, speaking as though he had nothing much to do with it really.

Divine intervention and yes, it was a pity it wasn't his middle leg. The whole issue of compensation is blurred by the emotion of what he did, 45 times, I hope he disappears so his victims no longer need to see his face.

The logical part of my brain says yes, he served his time, etc. ....

.... but, I just wish thsi wasn't able to happen. It does seem unfair.

But I know that it can't be that way. Our justice system should be better...he should have been inside for a hell of a long time for what he did.

I guess he now has a different punishment...and the other side of my brain thinks, for his victims, good and glad.

Such a tough one.

The justice system is very odd at times. I have an adult in prison at the moment for just over 4 years. He beat up his daughter's abuser (he was very confident and he says had proof that he was guilty of this). he acted immediately and without thinking he says. He says he'd do the same again in such circumstances, and knows it was wrong. As a result her never got parole and has done the full sentence. The abuser got a simialar sentence when found guilty - how right is that to start with. And according to this man, the abuser is not released - must have gone along with the prison stuff and did what he had to to get parole. How fair is that?

Haven't read all of this.
The money issue doesn't bother me too much - there are so many economical injustices anyway, I doubt the women who were raped as 16 year olds are jealous of the £50K.
I have seen him numerous times however on breakfast TV and watched the presenters gush about how fantastic he is and how he is a symbol of our resistance to terrorism etc etc.
He allowed cameras to follow him round, he accepted invitations to appear on TV, he accepted gushing praise.
And all the while he is a rapist and a criminal, one who has in my humble view committed a terrible crime.
The argument "he's done his time" therefore he should be able to walk away and live a normal life sits very uncomfortably with me because he's not is he?
He's in the papers, he's on TV.
What must his victims have thought when he was presented as such a "good bloke"?
I'm not sure I'd have been able to stand it.

My italics.

No comment.