Can we talk about John Crilly?

[SueDoeName]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-50744983

I feel so much that jack Merritts legacy was the likes of this man . He did a fabulous job clearly.

He called him his friend. Cut through all the bullshit around what happened that day.

I believe he was his friend.

Yes, so do I. I wish him well and all who have been helped by the organisation there that day whose vocation it was to see people helped out of their previous lives to better.

He didn't accept his "hero " label and I actually thought he was very humble.

I'm sure it's painful for the victims family but he did kind of get life by default- the actions of another person decided his fate .

His case wasn't black and white.

I do believe his actions that day along with others were heroic.

People can be all kinds of shades of grey.

Reason to never write anyone off .

Totally agree with this.

We’ve the luxury of not being so close to what he did then that we can stand back and see his actions on that day as selfless and ‘heroic’. Can’t blame the family in the original crime for not being able to do so.

I'm a cop and regularly feel for the people I come across. I really don't believe people are all bad . Circumstances can often get the better of people who are on the whole decent people.

How awful for the man this so called hero killed.
Must be awful for them.
I so not think a man who killed a 71 year old. Can be called a hero.

Sam

He didn't kill him. His accomplice did .

I get the conflict but crilly was convicted in what his accomplice did- and I truly believe that people like jack Merritt made such difference to this man he risked his life to save others. Surely that's redemption?

He was convicted under the same law (joint enterprise) that got got Derek Bentley hanged for murder when it was his accomplice who shot the policeman. (Christopher Craig was 16 so too young to hang and only served 10 years in prison.)

I remember my dad telling me about the case when I was young and being horrified that someone could hang for a crime everyone knew he had not committed.

Crilly's sentence was reduced to manslaughter (according to reports I've read his accomplice punched the pensioner once, which led to his death).

Starbucks

Yep. That's what happened. And yet clearly a decent bloke. That law was changed over subsequent years. Rightly so.