So much for the season of goodwill! I have never seen so many fights, brawls, domestics, stabbings, assaults and general nastiness in my entire life. It didn’t even stop for Christmas Day. All I can say is that I am glad that I was not rostered to work on New Year’s Eve, as I hear things went absolutely crazy.
Two examples of Seasonal Skirmish stood out.
The first came from a household in an undesirable area of London. The caller was a medium sized child, who reported that their parents had been having a fight, and that Mum had thrown a plate at Dad. Our first priority in calls like this is to get the police down there; ambulance crews don’t relish the prospect of dodging low-flying crockery. As there was a bit of a shortage of ambulances we told the police to let us know when they got there, and then we would send an ambulance in. There’s no point in having an ambulance parked up for an unspecified period of time when we don’t know how quickly the police will be able to get there. Our sector controller rang back the patient, as is procedure when there is going to be any kind of delay.
“His eyeball’s cut open!” wailed an older child. “And there’s a piece of plate still wedged in it!”
As you can imagine, this call suddenly jumped to the top of our list and we sent a message back to the police saying that this call was perhaps a little bit more urgent that we initially thought.
“Don’t pull the plate…” began the sector controller.
“My brother’s just pulled it out!” exclaimed the child. “And now there’s blood EVERYWHERE! HEEEEEEELP!”
Poor kid - he was only trying to help, I suppose. No child should ever have to witness something like that, let alone be expected to do the right thing.
The second happened late on Boxing Day. A man and his girlfriend were making their way home from the pub and got into an argument, as I imagine a lot of couples do this time of year. “You bought me socks AGAIN!” “You made me cook the turkey all by myself!” “You invited your horrible Aunt Betty!” (I’m hearing this in my head, of course I don’t really know what they were arguing about.) Exasperatedly, the woman pushed the man. Drunkenly, the man fell into the road. Along came a big, red, double decker bus. The driver didn’t see the man lying prostate on the tarmac. He only stopped when he heard the woman’s screams. By then, the man was trapped under the bus, tangled in the mechanism.
He was dead by the time we got to him. His girlfriend never got to say she was sorry. That’s one Christmas row that won’t be forgotten by New Year.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Urrrrrgggh………. Glad I wasn’t the crew for the eye job, don’t like eyes.
Very sad tale for boxing day, guess she won’t have to have horrible aunt betty around next year though…
All the best for 2007 Mark,
Nicenurse x
January 4th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Good God, what a ghastly time for you folks. We’ve been there, done that, got blood on the t-shirt. Happy New Year
January 5th, 2007 at 12:12 am
[...] Nee Naw [...]
January 5th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Interesting that both of these examples are female vs male violence. Maybe someone should tell the Government this, as all I hear from them are measures to protect women from violent men.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Somebody must have put something in the brandy butter this year, because I’ve sent to more stabbings running up to/including Christmas than I remember in the whole year. A few taken straight to theatre including a man who decided to stab his own brother in the stomach with a katana (samurai sword), front to back!
January 5th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Interesting point, Bingo. A police friend of mine says that there are nearly as many female on male domestic assaults as there are male on female, but it’s always the male on female ones we hear about. Male violence always seems to get taken more seriously, and people argue that males have the capacity to inflict more serious injury because they are stronger, yet these examples show that is not always the case.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Does this mean that the gf will get done for man slaughter or something. Surely you cant get away with something like that? Does anyone know what may have happened in this case?
January 5th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
We reckon she would be done for manslaughter - the person who phoned 999 said that the falling under a bus bit was an accident, but the pushing wasn’t.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
But you don’t reasonably expect someone to die because you gave them a push in exasperation. How many of us haven’t done this at some point, maybe not to a partner but to a friend or sibling when we were younger? I guess if you’re standing right next to a busy road it’s more dangerous, and adults should know better than to be shoving each other around like that…still it sounds more like a terrible accident than anything.
The plate thing obviously is different, throwing a plate at someone’s face is obviously violent and has a good chance of hurting them badly.
As for the male/female violence thing, you can’t generalise from two anecdotes! I don’t know the statistics either but I have heard that while women inflict a similar amount of violence, it tends to be much less serious violence and cause less injury compared to the male-on-female (or indeed male-on-male) violence. Not every violent incident is equivalent, so the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. But of course I agree that any particular incident of violence should be taken equally seriously, regardless of the genders involved.
January 5th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Cause and effect. Thing is, alcohol stops people recognising the relationship between the two. A close source of mine who is a London Paramedic told me that they went to a woman who had thrown herself out of her flat window in a fit of rage (beats storming out and slamming the door for originality, I suppose) while in the middle of a row with her partner over something pathetic This mother of two under 5’s is now paraplegic, and is unlikely to ever walk again.
Hmm. Slamming that door would have been better in the long run, bearing in mind she wasn’t in a ground floor flat.
January 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Im sure at the time she didnt anticipate him being run over by a bus. If it was a while before he was run over, then i would have said it was the bus drivers fault for not seeing him. If it was push and then bus, with no hope of getting up in time, its her fault. you dont reasonably expect someone to die from passive smoke, yet they do!
January 5th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
You’re right about NYE - I was in ICR (with one of the voluntary outfits - clue - not the black-and-white one :>) ) and at 4am, sectors were holding 450-odd calls. Stabbings, DV, psych, the lot.
I only do dispatch at static duties and major incidents - I have a huge amount of respect for those who do it full time, who are often forgotten in the melee.
Happy and safe New Year, all.
January 5th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
I guess if her actions directly led to his death, then manslaughter is fair enough. The bus thing just seemed especially horrifying to me as the woman’s actions were within the realm of things I could imagine myself doing, unlike stabbing someone or smashing a plate in their face, for example, which I am sure I could never do.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I would be telling fibs if I said there were not people out there who I fantasize about pushing under a bus. I never will though, I’d get caught.
Sounds like a stupid accident thing to me. Poor bloke and she’ll have to wake up every day for the rest of her life knowing that she seti n motion the events that killed him.
Luckily I was on holiday and didn’t have any eyes to contend with. Dont like dealing with eyes - I tend to vomit which don’t look too good.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Dullahan said: a man who decided to stab his own brother in the stomach with a katana (samurai sword), front to back!
People who buy samurai swords oughta be immediately arrested on the grounds that they are dickheads. Public safety issue.
January 6th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Via PooterGeek
http://londoncokehead.blogspot.com/2006/12/transported.html
I suspect this is not a coincidence.
January 6th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
How bizarre!
January 7th, 2007 at 2:39 am
On the basis of the info posted here the girlfriend should be dealt ith for murder - he could have had a thin skull, hit his head and died of that. Her action were intended to cause really serous harm. She may be able to plead provocation and reduce the charge to manslaughter, but initial charge should be “For that you on day date time and place, within the juridiction of the Central Criminal Court (or location) did murder xxxx contrary to common law.”
The law school example was Mum and Dad fighting, Mum stabs Dad after years of provocation and Dad placing her hand on lit cooker. Neighbour throws brick through kitchen window (thinking it would be safe as they normally argued in Living Room), hits son on head. Son taking to hospital and as parents are not available is injected with drug to which he is allergic and dies. State offences.
January 8th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
My reasoning for thinking she would be done for manslaughter was that there was no evidence that she intended to kill him or even injure him. I thought that for murder, you had to prove intent. But I have no legal experience so could well be wrong!
January 8th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I don’t know how you can prove that a shove was meant to cause “really serious harm” - unlike stabbing someone in the stomach. And of course if he wasn’t so drunk the shove wouldn’t have left him prostrate on the road. I’m presuming that she also would have been too drunk to think “If I push him he’ll end up flat in the road cos he’s so drunk, and then he will get run over and die”.
I’m curious to know how long it was before the bus came along, because although the driver didn’t see him lying on the ground, surely he would have seen him falling into the road?
January 9th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Spike said: People who buy samurai swords oughta be immediately arrested on the grounds that they are dickheads. Public safety issue.
I’d take issue with that one, sorry. I own a couple - one very blunt, decorative purposes only. The other is just made of wood, for kendo training. While you probably couldn’t run someone through with it unless you were really determined, you could certainly kill someone. I’ve seen someone misjudge slightly in training and get the skin over their eye cut open from it - and it’s wood. But we’d never dream of wielding them in public. Less a public safety issue than an “idiot at the wheel” issue, I think.
Back on topic, I can handle eyes, but the bus one left me shaken. What a horrible way to start a new year.
January 9th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Her actions in pushing him into the road were intended to cause serious harm because a mythical reasonable person (i.e. sober) watching would foresee that pushing someone into a road is likely to result in them being hit by traffic, or suffering injury such as a cut (wounding - s20 Offences Against Person Act 1861, or broken limb GBH - s18) when striking the hard surface of the road. The assailant takes the victim as they find them and the fact that a sober victim may have not fallen into the road is irrelevant. She forms the necessary intent at the moment of pushing or before. The prosecution do not have to prove that she left her house with the intent to harm, but at the moment of carrying out the action she did intend serious harm. That is the mens rea (the guilty intent). The actus rheus (the guilty action) is the shove into the road and through an unbroken chain of events (ie a third party didn’t move him into the buses path) she unlawfully caused his death.
Her options are plead guilty - mandatory life sentence
Plead provocation - he did something to her which caused a temporary loss of control which any reasonable person would due, this must be accepted by the prosecution at the start of the trial - variable sentence from absolute discharge to life
Plead not guilty - I didn’t push him
Plead not guilty - self defence - he attacked me, or I held a genuine beilief in all the circumstances that he was about to attack me.
Just to muddy the waters a bit more - if the driving of the bus driver fell far below that of a careful and competent driver then he could also be charged with causing death by dangerous driving. This requires no intent to kill or harm just a very poor standard of driving (generally taken to mean that a driving test would be stopped, rather than failed at the end).
As I imagine most people are thinking - “there but for the grace of god” and can easily imagine themselves in this situation. One second before she didn’t want to kill him (we assume), but didn’t want to be with him,one second later it was too late. Murder can be all about what happens in that middle second and decisions that are made instantaneously. It is “the unlawful killing of a reasonable being under the Queen’s peace” Later, when evidence is gathered, statements made and a trial takes place then the arguments over the legality of otherwise will be resolved, but until that occurs the charge should be Murder contrary to Common Law. It is for the Jury, as directed by the Judge on matters of law, to adduce from the evidence whether the prosecution has proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that the victim was murdered, or whether defences have been made out which can reduce the verdict to one of manslaughter.
January 9th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Forgot to explain that if accepted - provocation will reduce the verdit to manslaughter
January 9th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Thanks for explaining that, ex-law student! Crikey, I kind of feel sorry for that woman now. I’m sure we’ve all had split seconds when we’ve felt like giving our partner a good shove, irrespective of oncoming buses or whatever. You’d think the fact that she has lost her partner and has to live the rest of her live in the knowledge that she killed him is punishment enough.
January 9th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Well, another story equally as disturbing, if not more so happened this summer.
Some friends of mine were in a bar in South East London- they went in fancy dress as it was our colleges rag week type thing/piss up. They were drunk. They were typical college boys- there had been a lot of alcohol. However, I don’t think this was the problem with what happened next.
My friend was dressed as a mummy (ie. Wrapped up in Toilet paper over his torso/upper body/ arms- but thankfully not round his head- how would he drink!).
Anyway, he went to to toilets, and a girl followed him. She was not one of our regular friends, just a random girl who was in the pub. She took a lighter to part of the toilet paper he was wrapped up in- he went up like a firecracker!
And his shirt, was not made of cotton, so it stuck to him. He had serious burns all over his torso and his hands where he had tried to pull it off. Ambo took him to a local hospital, and then later he was taken to Chelsea. He nearly died- but thankfully, he didn’t.
This “girl”, I have no idea what happened to her. I do believe the police were in attendance very quickly and she was arrested.
Who, in their right mind would do that to someone?
She may not have realised what her actions would cause- but i think her stupidity is reason enough for her to go to prison.
My god!
January 9th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
but think about the pore bus driver. I bet it spoiled his Christmas!
January 10th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Faith - that story sounds oddly familiar!
January 10th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Freakily enough though- its not the same one!
There must have been a spate of freaks setting alight to each other in London!
Mark- I need to ask you a few questions if thats ok- expect an email.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Actually, re-reading that. It is freakily familiar- have you possibly changed some details there?
January 10th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Wow, I just read the link to the other story Mark, and loads of people commented with similar stories! What’s wrong with people?
Yes, I realise that when you see a man in a film wearing a grass skirt that’s on fire it’s really funny, but it’s not real. When is it ever funny to set fire to someones clothing whatever they are wearing?
Oh, and thanks ex law student, that answered a lot of questions for me.
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:38 am
The bus incident sounds like the one referred to by Simon Hoggart in his Guardian column on Saturday.