Sentence for stabbing an annoying child

[jake-the-peg]

http://www.telegraph....r-old-Afghan-boy.html

18 months

Sound about right to anybody?

Incidently how is a person who has had his rifle confiscated allowed to walk out with hand grenades?

[rojash]

"Sound about right to anybody?"
Absolutely. And the $800 compensation paid to the family must go a long way in helping them deal with a kid who still can't walk to school due to his injuries.
After all they are johnny foreigners, not real people.

[SeaJayPea]

Get pi$$ed and stab a child here and you'll get considerably more than 18 months. As should he have done. But it's the army, and they look after their own.

And as for how somebody who is blind drunk can get hold of that sort of weaponry, words fail me.

[ichkeria]

Shouldn't he be taken out and stabbed in the kidney in front of his family?
Preferably in the high streety of "Royal" Wootton Bassett?

Don't worry - I don't mean it: i am only joking.

[joggerjayne]

How long did it take the Telegraph to find a photo of a soldier, with his gun pointing at the floor, taken at an angle that makes it look like he's pointing his gun at a child?

Dont'cha love the media!

[anotheoldgit]

Absolutely amazing, whereas I don't condone what this soldier did, I feel I must make a remark about this thread.

Had a soldier been killed by a 10 year old Afghan boy, this poster would not have bothered to start a thread on it, only to say if someone else had, that the 'British invader' shouldn't be in that country in the first place.

Interesting to note however that the boy's father went to the Guardian with the story.

[jake-the-peg]

I certainly would have done if he'd received an 18 month sentence for it!

I expect this sort of behaviour from certain parts of the military - unlike you I don't have a military fantasy blinding me from what they can be like.

The point is not the stabbing

The point is the fact that military justice is so far removed from civillian justice it's ridiculous

[Old_Geezer]

It is not the way to win hearts and minds as the phrase goes. I'm unsure comparisons with a different circumstance sheds a lot of light on this.

Hopfully it is one idiot and will not be repeated again. It cetainly does not show the discipline and conduct expected.

As for what punishment is appropriate, I'm unsure. I'll leave that to the 'judges'.

[ummmm]

But Jake, can you compare soldiers with civilians?

[ummmm]

Isn't it more likely that the Guardian went to the boys father?

[SeaJayPea]

<<Interesting to note however that the boy's father went to the Guardian with the story>>

Do you really think that an Afghani shopkeeper has even heard of The Guardian? Far more likely, surely, that The Guardian sought him out after the story broke.

Don't quite understand the timescale here. The incident happened in March last year, his CM was in June and it's only reached the press now. "Details of the incident emerged in a court martial".. Whose court martial was that?

Assuming he was kept in custody after the incident, presumably he's out now.

[joggerjayne]

If he's a shopkeeper, maybe he sells The Guardian.

[anotheoldgit]

/// The point is the fact that military justice is so far removed from civillian justice it's ridiculous ///

You are right military justice is much harsher.

This boy didn't receive life threatening injuries, obviously his father is going to make it sound worse than it was, for compensation reasons.

This soldier was given 18 months, in a military prison, not in a civilian 'Bulletins' and he has lost his job.

There are almost daily stabbings on the streets of London, some will go unpunished and those convicted of a none fatal stabbings will no doubt serve much less than 18 months.

[jake-the-peg]

Can you compare soldiers with civillians?

Obviously not - the soldiers are in a position of trust

This makes the crime more serious not less

[jake-the-peg]

Let's cut to the chase here

Is there anybody here who thinks that 18 months is an appropriate sentence for this?

Anybody?

[ummmm]

AOG - he stabbed a 10 year old child. You think the father is making a song and dance about it to receive compensation? My god....shocking.!!!!

Jake, the article doesn't give much away about the soldier. I was just wondering what sort of frame of mind he was in....A frame of mind that a civilian would never experience, maybe.

[anotheoldgit]

Appealing for the sympathy vote are we Jake?

[ummmm]

No, it's not an appropriate sentence.

[tiggerblue10]

I think it was a life threatening injury AOG. He could have bled to death or have kidney damage.

I'll admit I don't know the difference between ABH or GBH but he should have got whatever the sentence is for this kind of criminal act.

[andy-hughes]

obviously his father is going to make it sound worse than it was, for compensation reasons."

Hard to believe in this day and age, but is it not possible that the father sought some recompense from a moral perspecitve - looking for an apparently as yet unissued apology from the British army - rather than joing the uniquely British 'compensation culture' approach.

"This boy didn't receive life threatening injuries ..." - let's just remind ourselves of the circumstances - a grown man and a professional soldier stabbed a child with a bayonet. I don't care if he didn't break the skin - stabbing a child is a reprehensible crime not mitigated in the slightest by the severity of the injudt sustained.

That sounds awfully close to some sort of defence, and this action is indefensible.