BristolUK

Oh, of course.

But tell me, how did they find him? Just by looking up QCs and persuading him to do it?

BristolUK

More googling.

Attended £16000 a year private school in Milan.

Lives in Italy. Do non UK residents qualify for legal aid?

Almost Canadian

Having never had anything to do with criminal legal aid, I don't know.

Do you believe that foreign students studying in the UK should be denied legal aid if accused of a crime?

Do you believe the Judge made an incorrect decision?

Almost Canadian

When I was in England, one could only instruct a barrister through one's solicitor. It wasn't possible to directly retain a barrister. I believe that that has now changed.

dave_j

So.. we have a young, white, attractive, 24 year old Oxford female student who drinks, takes drugs and attacks people with a knives and other household items.

As part of her defence, we are told she is intelligent and has a promising career as a surgeon and that this should influence her sentence, one that would normally carry a custodial sentence.

Imagine if this woman had been poor, black, unemployed on benefits and had stabbed her black boyfriend.

I doubt that the 'smart and future expectation' argument would hold much water in the latter case and yet we don't know how the latter's life would have evolved.

Society would have us believe that the law is blind but apparently it isn't deaf or as blind as it should be. The government is clamping down on knife crime in general, but apparently some knives aren't quite so dangerous as others. A sharp scalpel in the hands of this woman might make a cut too far.

Shard

Surely it's a just a drunken row that got out of hand. If the guy didn't sustain serious injury then the judge's decision to wait and see makes some sense.

Almost Canadian

She admitted the crime so there was no defence.

Her lawyer made submissions in mitigation of the sentence and there is no suggestion that she won't receive a custodial sentence.

The Judge simply deferred his final sentencing to a later date and, as you will have noted, has imposed interim conditions upon her.

What is not sensible about that?

dbd33

Were she not posh I doubt she'd be called Lavinia. Nonetheless, non-posh, non-custodials:

Suspended sentence for woman who stabbed partner in the chest with a steak knife after drunken row | Burton Mail

Thornton Heath man who repeatedly beat his girlfriend given suspended prison sentence | Croydon Advertiser

dave_j

Points taken. We wait and see.

bats

Posh people look different. The way they hold their head, sit. She's definitely posh.

Shirtback

I'm having a déj� vu/plus ça change sort of moment over this one...

BristolUK

Irrelevant to the topic.

But everyone ishould get defence and fair trials. Not everyone gets a top QC.

He hasn't made one.


ETA....damn...you successfully distracted me from the bit about her being posh. Well done.

Almost Canadian

What topic is that? You were the one that pointed out that she lived in Italy. I simply asked whether, in light of that comment, you believed she should not be entitled to legal aid (I have no idea whether she did or not).

Do you understand what a QC is? How does one become a "top QC", as opposed to just a QC?

Do you agree with his decision to defer the sentencing?

Shard

And vice versa.

BristolUK

Yes I did. I'm quite surprised you appear to have missed the relevance of it.

You are always so careful with your own words yet you seem slapdash with those of other people.

The original topic was that of alleged double standards in the guardian.

It then moved to whether she was posh and you disputed that suggesting she may have been a legal aid recipient - last I knew that included an assessment of one's inability to pay, so mention of her private school fees of £16000 and living with mummy in Italy made legal aid doubtful on both residency and income grounds.

Family wealth and connections.