A burglar was stabbed and beaten to death by a gang of
neighbours after they caught him raiding one of their flats in a
Wolverhampton tower block, a court heard this afternoon.
Drug addict Alan Harris, pictured, was attacked by five
men after he was caught “red handed” stealing a TV, DVD player and
DVDs, it was alleged.
Mr Christopher Hotten QC, prosecuting, said: “It was a
low and despicable crime to burgle a neighbour in such a way. He was to
pay the ultimate price.”
Lee Gannon, Wayne Buchanan, Michael Joyce, Patrick
Summers and Dale Francis all deny murdering Mr Harris, aged 37, in
Wodensfield Tower, Wednesfield, early on March 11.
The court heard his killers beat Mr Harris up and dragged
him to the 15th floor where he was dumped in a lift and had bleach
poured over him in an attempt to clean the scene.
He died later in New Cross Hospital from multiple injuries
including skull fractures and a stab wound. The victim lived alone in
Flat 17 on the third floor of the flats in Plym Close. Cocaine,
amphetamines and Ecstasy were found in his body.
The jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told that on the
night he died Mr Harris broke into Flat 85 at Wodensfield Tower, the
home of Gannon, 25.
He took the electronic equipment along with a Burberry cap and even the bed to exchange for drugs and returned to Flat 85.
Mr Hotten said Gannon returned home with Buchanan, 27, of
Rushall Road, Northwood Park, and Summers, 23, of Dudley Road,
Wolverhampton.
Meanwhile a party was taking place at the nearby flat of
Joyce, a friend of Gannon. Joyce and Francis, who was at the party and
lived in Wodensfield Tower, both aged 19, joined in the attack, it was
alleged.
The trial continues.
Edited by Stan Still - 21 January 2008 at 5:47pm
The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 5:51pm
Well, when judges and the CJS don't deal with offenders properly these type of stories will become more common...people are fed up with sentencing so will take the law into their own hands.
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 7:13pm
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
Still, it was a nice clean death.
This animal is dangerous. If attacked, it will defend itself. -----
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 7:51pm
I have no sympathy for him whatsoever, nor for the Scum that beat him up. With abit of luck they will all go inside as well, at least thats more Scum off the streets.
The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make sure the other bastard dies for his. The secret to longevity is not dying.
As has been said already, little simpathy with any of them. The only bonus is it does appear scum can clean up scum. The more people like this off the street, one way or another, the better.
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:03pm
Originally posted by Shootist
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
Still, it was a nice clean death.
Please remember, that whatever your 'personal' feelings are regarding the victim and the perpetrators that the vultures of the press watch this site and quote from it, just thought I would mention that fact
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:13pm
Originally posted by MAD MAX
Originally posted by Shootist
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
Still, it was a nice clean death.
Please remember, that whatever your 'personal' feelings are regarding the victim and the perpetrators that the vultures of the press watch this site and quote from it, just thought I would mention that fact
Max, Given that for many members of this board, sympathy, for anyone outside the police or bona fide obvious victims, is merely a word to be found in a dictionary somewhere between sh*t and syphillis. I'll try and live with the press quoting me out of context.
On far too many occasions, people give up their freedoms willingly just in case someone might want to try and take it from them for failing to conform.
This animal is dangerous. If attacked, it will defend itself. -----
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:21pm
Originally posted by Shootist
[Max, Given that for many members of this board, sympathy, for anyone outside the police or bona fide obvious victims, is merely a word to be found in a dictionary somewhere between sh*t and syphillis. I'll try and live with the press quoting me out of context.
No probs, but please remember the above paragraph you wrote when you post on www.criminalsolicitor.net in the future defending the rights of the persons so aptly described in your quote above
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
Still, it was a nice clean death.
Please remember, that whatever your 'personal' feelings are regarding the victim and the perpetrators that the vultures of the press watch this site and quote from it, just thought I would mention that fact
Max, Given that for many members of this board, sympathy, for anyone outside the police or bona fide obvious victims, is merely a word to be found in a dictionary somewhere between sh*t and syphillis. I'll try and live with the press quoting me out of context.
On far too many occasions, people give up their freedoms willingly just in case someone might want to try and take it from them for failing to conform.
Well said Shootist & I couldn't agree more. Freedom is a precious thing & can be used to it's full, although it shouldn't be abused. (not well put but I hope you know what I mean). If someone does wrong & pays the price, so be it. No tears shed here. Interesting that your post is your 666!!
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:30pm
Originally posted by Shootist
Originally posted by MAD MAX
Originally posted by Shootist
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
Still, it was a nice clean death.
Please remember, that whatever your 'personal' feelings are regarding the victim and the perpetrators that the vultures of the press watch this site and quote from it, just thought I would mention that fact
Max, Given that for many members of this board, sympathy, for anyone outside the police or bona fide obvious victims, is merely a word to be found in a dictionary somewhere between sh*t and syphillis. I'll try and live with the press quoting me out of context.
On far too many occasions, people give up their freedoms willingly just in case someone might want to try and take it from them for failing to conform.
Perhaps the many members of this board of whom you speak Shootist know exactly where there sympathies lie, as opposed to some other who do not. Just a thought...
New Labour: Soft on Crime, Tough on the Fighters of Crime
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:32pm
I don't think we should call them scum until the end of the trial. (If then.) Also, any who have called them scum, remember how you voted in the Englishman's Home (if you have voted).
They might be scum, or they may have decided that the CJS has let them down so badly that they would take the law into their own hands. Maybe they are pretty decent types who only meant to rough him up a bit, but went to far. Who knows... and we won't until the verdict.
Tell me shootist, what the difference is between shooting someone whilst they are in your home, and pursuing them off the domestic boundary and shooting them? Or beating them up in such a fashion? If you or I lived in that area and shot a burglar or beat him up so badly he died, would that automatically make you or me 'scum'?
Mind you, maybe the burberry cap says something.
MOP, Joker & reformed character. Honest. I moderate with purple prose
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:50pm
Originally posted by MAD MAX
Originally posted by Shootist
[Max, Given that for many members of this board, sympathy, for anyone outside the police or bona fide obvious victims, is merely a word to be found in a dictionary somewhere between sh*t and syphillis. I'll try and live with the press quoting me out of context.
No probs, but please remember the above paragraph you wrote when you post on Criminal solicitor dot com in the future defending the rights of the persons so aptly described in your quote above
I will indeed remember that some people accessing this board have agendas.
Were you to read my posts properly, you might begin to understand that I do not defend scumbags. I do not defend their rights, I try to defend mine! Or do detention sheets now have a scumbag score? Does the custody sergeant now have to decide whether or not a prisoner is deserving of his rights? Score 0 and he gets nothing and just goes straight to jail, perhaps three and he can phone a brief for 5 minutes, 7 and he gets the full monty, 10 and he couldn't possibly be guilty. Who decides? And why?
I will continue to criticise posters on any board who seem to have the mentality of concentration camp guards, as their indifference to the human condition belittles them and their office. I will continue to criticise those people who are willing to abuse their authority, and the law, because they are unprofessional, or because they don't give a damn. I will continue to criticise the incompetent officers, and those that defend them, because they destroy confidence in the police. I will continue to criticise those officers who's corrupt practice allows criminals to walk, sneering, from the court unconvicted because the courts see through the wall of crap presented by the prosecution.
And, when scumbags act like scumbags, and suffer the consequences, I will speak of them as I have. I see no hypocrisy in that.
Abusing your powers to lock up a scumbag not only abuses the scumbag, it corrupts the officer, taints his colleagues, destroys public confidence in the police, and also happens to abuse society as a whole.
Edited by Shootist - 21 January 2008 at 9:50pm
This animal is dangerous. If attacked, it will defend itself. -----
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:59pm
M&MBM - This burglar was 'stabbed'. It wasn't a case of him being roughed up and the perpetrator(s) going too far; he was 'stabbed'. I think you have to have worked in places like this to perhaps fully appreciate where some of the comments above have come from. I have no sympathy for the burglar - but equally, he was subjected to a vicious attack whereby he sustained a fractured skull, stab wounds and then had bleach poured over him. Not the actions I'm afraid of your normal regular burglary victim(s). This situation is completely different to one's where the occupier confronts a burglary in his/her own and uses a weapon to defend themselves or their family. There were 5 against one - and it would seem they went far beyond what would be considered reasonable.
Edited by Morek54 - 21 January 2008 at 10:02pm
New Labour: Soft on Crime, Tough on the Fighters of Crime
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 10:03pm
Shootist, are you a police officer? (current or past) or are you someome who works for what was previously called the DSS? just curious. Do you have a Police officer background?, if so how long?, did you go the full distance?? Me well I have just finished my 30yr sentence, no discipline, not corrupt (as you keep repeating) and 17 high court/ Chief Constable commendations. You seem to have a theme of posting highly inflamatory comments regarding the integrity of my brothers/sisters in blue, especially on the defence solicitors forum, your call
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 10:10pm
Originally posted by M&MBM
I don't think we should call them scum until the end of the trial. (If then.) Also, any who have called them scum, remember how you voted in the Englishman's Home (if you have voted).
They might be scum, or they may have decided that the CJS has let them down so badly that they would take the law into their own hands. Maybe they are pretty decent types who only meant to rough him up a bit, but went to far. Who knows... and we won't until the verdict.
Allow me to remind you.
If it wasn't for the fact that the people who did the beating were likely to be as big a set of scumbags as the burglar, it might give me heart. I find it hard to mourn for him though.
The scum bit is conditional within the sentence. Accordingly, if they are not, in fact, scum, but decent citizens pushed to their limits, then it doesn't apply, and, in fact, I would indeed gain some heart, as made clear in the above paragraph. I hope that helps clear up any misunderstanding, to which we appear prone.
Tell me shootist, what the difference is between shooting someone whilst they are in your home, and pursuing them off the domestic boundary and shooting them? Or beating them up in such a fashion? If you or I lived in that area and shot a burglar or beat him up so badly he died, would that automatically make you or me 'scum'?
If you shoot, or otherwise hurt, someone in defence of your life or property, because it is necessary to do so, and not merely, in your eyes, desireable, then no problem. If you pursued them intending to arrest them as is lawful (contrary to the beliefs of many police officers) and the confrontation makes it necessary for him to be shot, or hurt, then again, no problem. If the only satisfaction you take in the event, other than the excitement of the confrontation (sometimes unavoidable. It's an adrenaline thing) is a grim satisfaction at an unpleasant and necessary job well done, then no problem.
It is not the shooting, but the reasoning behind it that defines it's value.
If the people doing the beating / shooting do so because the burglar has happened to steal property from someone who stole it in the first place, and these people shoot or beat him rather than call the police because he deserves it and anyway they ain't no grass innit, if they enjoyed the beating and the killing out of pure feral bloodlust and because he was the weaker man, then they're probably scumbags.
A scumbag is defined by what he is, more than what he does.
Mind you, maybe the burberry cap says something.
Certain evidence for the prosecution M'lud.
Edited by Shootist - 21 January 2008 at 10:47pm
This animal is dangerous. If attacked, it will defend itself. -----
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
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Posted: 21 January 2008 at 10:32pm
Originally posted by MAD MAX
Shootist, are you a police officer? (current or past) or are you someome who works for what was previously called the DSS? just curious. Do you have a Police officer background?, if so how long?, did you go the full distance?? Me well I have just finished my 30yr sentence, no discipline, not corrupt (as you keep repeating) and 17 high court/ Chief Constable commendations. You seem to have a theme of posting highly inflamatory comments regarding the integrity of my brothers/sisters in blue, especially on the defence solicitors forum, your call
Not that any of the above should affect the value of what I say, but seeing as you asked.
22 years service. Left after smashing my hand up so bad in a motorcycle accident that I was unable to continue. I got a couple of commendations (No CID self service), a fair number of discipline allegations, only one of which went the distance, a reprimand for banging someone who needed it on the nut with a truncheon.
I was operational for most of my service, mainly in a response role in the last 6/8 years. I had the highest arrest rate in the busiest division of my force in the last couple of years. A couple of times double that of the second bloke on the list.
As for corruption, my definition is only that of the person who abuses his authority. Whether it be the 'noble cause' corruption, of the corruption of the incompetent. And, for the record, I never said you were corrupt.
I post as I genuinely feel. What I see in todays police upsets me greatly, as I loved the job. I will never, though, adopt the position of blind support whether right or wrong, as some on this board seem to insist on doing.
Since leaving the job, it has been my doubtful privilege to see another side of the police. In case you are wondering, no, I have not been arrested, or otherwise knocked off. I have helped people who have, and I have had a number of encounters with the police that defy belief.
I have also met up with many professional and entirely commendable officers who have acted with great professionalism, which is, BTW, what they're supposed to bloody well do. You shouldn't join an outfit that claims to be the best in the world with the intention of being a doom brained drongo.
What I have also seen, and what worries me the most, is good officers wanting to do their best, who are lead astray by incompetent dickheads who don't have the faintest idea of good policing principles.
Finally, it's not necessarily the integrity of your 'brothers and sisters' I question, though there are those that merit it, but the competence and professional standards that seem to be increasingly dispensed with.
Back to you.
This animal is dangerous. If attacked, it will defend itself. -----
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
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