Even the passenger gets in trouble!

But seriously... that is sickening. Absoloutely sickening. A person who is willing to attack someone that old does not belong in society.

Given the excuse was "he was in my way" and the guy is on two crutches, he's liable to boot someone in a wheelchair for not moving fast enough.

Heaven knows what he done is on that scale.

That's disgusting, so freakin' disgusting.

Wow... just... wow.

Are they trying to one up the American "Justice" system now? Jeez.

~Tobe

Yup....I love 'justice'... =/

Wow that's... that's really disappointing.

Dude, and light as day, there he is, on tape and everything... he's basically getting off like R. Kelly!

It might have been a super rude old guy

How utterly idiotic. Dude gets caught on camera punching an old man, and that's all he gets as punishment? This makes Kaze a sad chao, indeed.

He'd get tossed in jail without a second thought if he pulled that off here in the States. With that kind of evidence, he'd probably stay there for a couple of years.

That came up on my ticker tape this afternoon. Sickening, really. But all kudos to the school kids who chased the guy and gave evidence against him. Too bad they've just been taught that it's not worth bothering, as the justice system will ignore it anyway.

I really hope someone appeals that sentence. After all, didn't someone just get 12 months in jail for kicking Sir Alex Ferguson in an unprovoked attack?

DW

That guy should be lined up and shot.

But on a more civilized note, I'm glad to see America isn't alone. Welcome to the "lolz justice" club, UKers. Free drinks.

Wow. Just wow. I don't know what to say about that.

on my train today, an old lady took an age to get off the train. rather then punching her, the bystanders helped her and her luggage off the train.

but that's just good manners, this guy obviously has no idea what that means. ox; the old boy should sue and claim compensation, at the least, for loosing his sight.

It's not just a manners issue, Becca - the attacker's mentally ill.

That was possibly a mitigating circumstance in the sentencing, since prison wouldn't serve as rehabilitation or deterrent in those circumstances.

But I still wonder if there's anything that could've been done in terms of psychiatric detention - and judging from the amount of coverage this case is getting in the national media, we're not the only ones who find the sentence unduly lenient.

Even the police've gone on record as being disappointed.

ah, i'm on a really slow computer and so hadn't clicked the link to read the article.

mentally ill or not, it was still a far too lenient sentance. surely some other type of sentance could've been given..? *unsure what mental health services can given, however*

That's not actually mentioned in the article that's been linked to from here - it's something that I've picked up on elsewhere.

If he's capable of that level of dangerous, irrational behaviour, I wish I knew why he hasn't been detained for the safety of both himself and anyone else, even if a custodial sentence wouldn't have been productive.

At the very least, I wonder what sort of psychiatric evaluation's been carried out. Given the state of most social services departments and their so-called "Care in the Community", I'm wondering what information the judge had to work with to decide the sentence.

Well, having a mental illness changes it, somewhat. I agree that prison wouldn't really change much, but why is someone dangerously unstable walking the streets?

They had him leaving the courts with a grin on his face walking down the street as if he'd just won a few grand of the lottery, he knew what he was doing. He should be detained at hm's pleasure in a secure mental facility for he is a risk to society, maybe next time a group of small kids in blocking his way on the tram?

Just so people can see that I wasn't pulling the mental illness from thin air.

The point's been brought up elsewhere, too.

The beeb mentioned his mental illness on the tv news, but not on it's site news. :crazy :

A different case where a paranoid schizophrenic killed a mental health worker and as a result has been detained indefinitelyfor this case was found that he "had been refusing to take his anti-psychotic drugs."

I wonder if Mr Gordon had been on anti-psychotic drugs if this attack would've occured?

I saw that, too. For all we know, those drugs could be the sort of treatment he's about to get.

There's far, far too little information in that article to go saying whether it's the wrong sentence or not.
Some people are being maybe a little hysterical.

Still, from everything I've seen, his illness was known. And this should never have happened. Either he should be punished, or whoever deprived him of his medicene should be...

Sorry, Xag, I disagree. It is one of the purposes of the justice system to protect the vulnerable. Granted, if this guy has a mental illness, he is vulnerable and needs help. But his victim also deserves protection. And right now, the signal we are seeing so far is that it's fine to go ahead and punch out whoever you like whenever you like.

Maybe that signal is distorted by the media and that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Maybe the guy really does need help. But that help should never have been at the cost of someone's sight. And now that it's happened, some sort of redress should have been made.

DW

Blinding an old person with no provocation is a cause for hysteria, though.

True a sentance can't serve as a detturant for the mentally ill, as it's not wholey their fault for what they do, but to keep a dangerous person away from harm is an important place in the law.

Plus, if police have stated on record that they're disappointed, I'm sure they have full access to the facts at hand and it's easier to trust their input than anything else.

I assume he'll be monitored, at least, so my only hope is that something like this doesn't happen again.

Oh and I also hope the poor guy who got hit will be ok... I mean two crutches and now blindness....

As I was saying: details on both the circumstances and the treatment seem to be too sketchy to make a call on the fairness for the most part.

Speaking as someone who's actually reported on mental illness cases from court: that's another mechanism for the protection of the vulnerable whilst under treatment, though, so there's a limit to what news organisations can be expected to report.

I'd like to see the actual social service monitoring procedures, though, since a lot of London boroughs and their social workers have very sketchy track records in this area. It's possible that a right hand somewhere didn't know what the left was doing.