Here is an utterly appalling story that I found via Feminist Philosophers: a British male executive who was convicted of beating his wife and branding her with an iron walked free with a £2,000 fine.
Yes, that is his picture. His name is Colin Read. No, I do not have any qualms about posting that. And I feel 100% obligated to tell you that if you live in England and see him walking down the street, you should turn and run in the other direction.
A management consultant branded his wife with a hot steam iron because she had failed to press his shirt.
Cambridge graduate Colin Read, 25, also slashed her with a knife because she had forgotten to make his sandwiches.
But the £90,000-a-year executive walked free from court – with just a £2,000 fine.
His wife Elizabeth, also 25, sat quietly in the corner of the courtroom at Southwark Crown Court as he indicated he could pay the fine within 28 days.
He was spared even a community punishment because the judge ruled that “special circumstances” suggested he was unlikely to reoffend and his job meant he was too “busy” to find the time to complete any order.
. . . A report recommended a community service order, but Recorder William Featherby questioned how Read would fit it in around his long working hours.
He said he was concerned that Read had denied the offences despite overwhelming evidence and he called the iron attack “appalling”.
But the judge said it was the circumstances of the marriage that had provoked Read and that now those circumstances had gone, sending him to prison would “help no one”.
Yeah, you know, personally, I think that if his wife could find time in her day to receive beatings, this ass can find time in his day to do community service– or, gee, I don’t know, go to jail.
But hey, he’s a guy, he’s white, he’s rich, and the only person he hurt was his wife! It was an isolated incident. It’s not like he might ever get married again, or have a girlfriend, or meet another woman while going about his daily life. It’s not like someone who attacks his wife with an iron, holding it to her back so hard and so long that the iron’s steam holes were burned into her skin, might be capable of violently lashing out over inconsequential events ever again. And if he does, chances are that a chick will be the one pissing him off.
Also, we can’t forget that she was his wife. It’s not like she was your wife. Geez. You do what you want with your wife, and he’ll do what he wants with his! Why do you care so much how a man treats something that belongs to him? The judge sure didn’t!
Do you ever read an article and briefly feel like you might just be the last person left on earth with a soul still intact? If so, I feel ya.
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Or, you know, the sort of guy who slashes his wife’s feet with a knife while she sleeps because she didn’t make him sandwiches for work the next day and then beats her up when she complains about it…
That case is such bullshit. And people wonder why domestic abuse victims don’t like to come forward. This fuck brands and cuts his wife, and he gets a slap on the wrist fine? Yeah, there’s some incentive to come forward.
$2000 won’t even cover her medical care and therapy bills. What the fuck?
this makes me sick. seriously. ill to the point of wanting to cry. men like this won’t stop. it frightens me to know that people ACTUALLY think it’s ok to let this jerk-off go walking around freely…
are they still married, legally? what is to stop him from going after her and actually killing her now? but i suppose his long work hours will keep him occupied, like they so obviously did before!!!
good grief.
and, btw…thanx for posting his picture…b/c i think everyone should be able to see the face of this ass hat so we can be warned…
Well, akeeyu, the money shouldn’t even go to her. It’s a criminal case, and a fine, not a settlement. Assuming that the British legal system works fairly similarly to the U.S. one, the government receives the money.
And Brandann, they are still legally married, but she has obviously filed for divorce. But yeah, there isn’t any huge reason to believe that she is safe from him.
Also, since she’s in the UK, she won’t likely have to pay any medical bills, as she would presumably be covered by the National Health Service (NHS). Not sure how therapy coverage works there though…
On another *appalled* note, this is a case of fucking classism like I’ve rarely seen. “Oh, you’re such a busy and important man we couldn’t possibly trouble you with jail time! All you did was brutally assault someone you’re supposed to love!”
Sickening, sad, and pissing me the hell off. Thanks for posting.
God. How utterly and thoroughly depressing. I don’t know what else to say.
Jeez; I really hope she appeals this ruling. What an asshole judge; how do those arguments even make any sense?
Here’s hoping that an angry mob does what the judge was too inhuman to.
Disgusting. I know our jails are overcrowded, but getting a fine for seriously wounding a person is not enough. He won’t learn, he will do it again. What if ends up with someone who has CHILD?? He should have been ordered to receive psychological help and anger management as well, otherwise what does this teach him?
I don’t care how pissed off I am (and I have a stressful important job too, you rich prick) I know it is wrong to hurt someone else, and I wouldn’t even comprehend of slashing someone with a knife or burning them! Hasn’t he ever heard of walking away and calming down?
My stepfather was exactly the same, and he never got so much as a caution from the police, because they could never prove what he had done. Eventually my mother divorced him and he was ordered out of the house, although even after stalking and threatening her and his own children (!!) he still has had nothing done against him.
People have serious problems with respect, proper behaviour and violence these days, that’s all I can say.
You just know that guy’s dad is the judge’s golf buddy or some such shit.
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