A friend of mine, L., was a witness to a crime a little while ago. A fellow was attempting to burgle a house, and when the owner resisted, he chased the poor man down the street, brandishing a broken bottle, intent on cutting him up. My friend made a statement to the police when they showed up, and they asked him to be a witness when the case appeared in court.
He went to the Crown Court yesterday. As he waited in the witnesses' area, a court official sidled up to him and said that they had lost his statement. A little while later, the court official sidled up again, and said that the chief witness for the prosecution - the victim of the crime - hadn't shown up.
While my pal cooled his heels wondering what would happen next, a little fracas broke out. After much shouting and swearing, a fellow was seen being led back to the cells by a couple of burly cops. It turned out that that was the son of the alleged burglar, serving in the chokey for some other crime. Quite a family, what? As he had the same name as his father, he had been mistakenly brought forth into court. The court waited while he was returned to the cell and the father was brought in.
Presently, our man L. was allowed to leave. By this time, he was heartily sick of the whole affair and wondering why he had bothered to involve himself in it.
Today he got a text from the police that the main witness had left his residence nearly four months ago. Nobody bothered to inform them, I guess, and being swamped with other cases, they probably had had no time to follow up.
I wonder what will happen next. Will the burglar be released? The police were very keen to see him behind bars - he was a known villain. They must be gnashing their teeth in baffled fury.
Surely only us Third World types have to endure such glorious messes by the prosecution? I have to say - Great Britain at this rate will not too long remain very great.
3 comments:
Aha. More grist to the Third-Worlding of the West mill.
SB: I assure you, we're all in the third world now. Time to terraform Mars, do you think?
A mistaken arrest here, a mistaken hanging there....pfft, nothing's perfect.
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