Three stories this week have shown the sexist hypocrisy of the Government and other organisations (Equalities & Human Rights Commission, Fawcett Society et al) who deny there are significant numbers of male victims of domestic violence to be bothered doing anything to practically help or ensure they accept that victims are from both genders are supported. Never more so was this highlighted by the recent announcements on a strategy to End Violence Against Women and Girls, but not against men and boys. That's OK.
These issues also highlight the pathetic sentencing of women for cruel acts of domestic violence against men when if it was men carrying out the violence they rightly would have been sentenced for a lot longer. An issue raised on this site many a time.
The reason why this is important is that this week we have seen stories on:-
Thomas Cresswell's family receiving an apology from Jack Straw about the leniency showed to his killer Jane Andrews where she was allowed to be in an open prison such a short time (eight years) of a life sentence.
Terry Smith's attacker Alison Newman was sentenced to a sickenly bad two years (one in prison, one with a tag) for butchering him with a knife for five and a half hours. The judge states that she suffered from battered wife's syndrome (of which he denies) so was lenient but there is no evidence here that this was the case. Certainly nothing to say Terry Smith had been charged with it or been spoken to by the police. Look like the female judge took it at face value (coverage in Shields Gazette and Sunday Sun) and of course, will be used as a cause celebre for the disbelievers who think women cannot be violent. I would suggest the judgement is political because unless there is evidence, it cannot be said to be true.
Peter Hale's attacker, his wife Joanne Hale, got an abject six years for slitting his throat and stabbing him in the heart (coverage in The Sun, Telegraph and BBC).
These poor sentences are due to a number of factors.
Firstly, the judiciary as with all political parties, the establishment and multi-million pound domestic violence industry do not view or treat male victims of domestic violence in the same way as female victims. They know they cannot get away with such sentences if female were the victims, there would be one hell of backlash. They think male victims do not count.
Secondly, they can get away with passing such pathetic sentences because those mentioned above do not believe females can be this violent.
Lastly, because of three decades of social conditioning that only females can be victims of domestic violence, these sentences can be passed without comment by the media and others on how pathetic they are.
Update - Another article in Evening Chronicle shows that the judge is making it up when she says Newman was a battered women. No evidence. Read the comment from Terry3 on the newspaper's comments section. I would suggest that Terry Smith has probably been defamed by the judge.
Hattip - John Kimble
Just done some Googling on the Alison Newman case - people are claiming she also stabbed her ex-husband too!
Also if she was abused why did she attack her partner as he was trying to leave her and then imprison him in the house?
It really doesn't add up at all.
Posted by: John Kimble | Friday, 18 December 2009 at 02:12
She's a woman and therefore, by definition, the victim. Someone asked why he didn't press charges before. Any man who's tried to get the police to take action against violent female partner will know the answer to that - the police simply refuse to help (or just arrest them). It's the standard policy of most police forces (and individual officers) to always treat the man as the offender and the woman as the victim.
Posted by: Jenny | Friday, 18 December 2009 at 11:14
Here's further evidence of the bia. Newman gets 2 years for what was attempted murder and false imprisonment, yet a guy throws a tiny tv remote at his wife, due to a rare congenital condition no one knew about it kills her (odds of a million to one). Quite clearly unintentional yet he gets three years!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236944/Engineer-accidentally-killed-wife-remote-remote-control-jailed-years.html
Posted by: John Kimble | Friday, 18 December 2009 at 17:33
Three months ago a woman in Edinburgh stabbed her husband five times with a 5" kitchen knife and received 18-month probation order and 240 hours of community service.
If he had done that to her it'd have been a very different story.
Woman stabs husband, gets probation order and community service.
Posted by: Bob | Monday, 21 December 2009 at 22:38
Here is the link ! Didn't manage to post it properly;
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/123459-woman-who-stabbed-husband-avoids-jail-sentence/
Posted by: Bob | Monday, 21 December 2009 at 22:41
dear mr john kimble, who are you to judge people in these situations when clearly you dont no whats went on behind closed doors to battered woman unless you are a smelly fly on the wall????? and you clearly dont no my great mother alison newman!!!!
Posted by: cheryl | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 15:57
well what can i say to all this shite, after doing 8 months in low newton and 4 month on tag i can simply say its great to be free again without the physical, mental and sexual abuse that terry smith aka jerry oconnor was guilty in newcastle crown court, judge bolton could clearly see what a nasty intimidating man he was. i dont care what people say about me because i know i never did those injuries to him. but hey feel free to slag me off!!!!!!!
Posted by: alison | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 16:05
According to all the media reports Newman plead guilty to the offence in question and was therefore jailed as a result. This site is simply reporting news from other respected sources and my comments are simply based on the evidence presented to the court which led to the conviction. I personally view an attack of that severity as an attempted murder though we should of course clarify that the actual charge was "wounding with intent" This still carries a possible life sentence though and looks like a very serious case. It would appear that female sentencing discount has occurred as so often happens in such cases.
Posted by: John Kimble | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 17:02
well all i can say to that mr kibble is i plead guilty coz my mother passed away as my trial started, otherwise i would never of changed my plea,terry smith was an abusive man who has no friends due to the nasty man he is, infact im going to put my side of the story over to the papers very soon. telling why he changed his name and yes this will be worth the read believe me. ali marie xx
Posted by: alison | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 21:41
may i just add that i am alison newman and i was in court 16th dec so i know exactly what was said that day, print any more shit and il see you in court. how fkin dare you!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: alison newman | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 21:47
my daughter cheryl did me proud when i got sentenced, she got all the nasty comments removed from all the feed back on the newspaper articles. terry jerry and his family couldnt wait to start writing loads of lies about me, but now its my turn to ave my say so if anyone wants to know the truth i advise them to not believe anything that comes out of terry jerrys mouth. plus the newspapers made lots of crap up as well.
Posted by: alison newman | Wednesday, 09 February 2011 at 08:18
and to say id stabbed my ex hubby was a bit nasty like, considering he got sent to jail as a result of a nasty attack on myself, so mr kibble if id not self defend i may not of even been alive today. you people know nothing about what terry jerry put me through,and if you aint been in a situation like i was then who are you to even open your mouth then eh????????
Posted by: alison newman | Wednesday, 09 February 2011 at 17:59