According to the Scotsman, a convicted criminal is taking the Executive to court over the message played before phone calls are accepted on outgoing calls.
The message is as follows:
"This call originates from a Scottish prison. It will be logged and may be recorded and/or monitored. If you do not wish to accept this call, please hang up."
You have to feel sorry for the poor guy whose only crime, this time, involved holding a knife at the throat of a shop manageress and is serving a minor sentence of 21 years at the moment.
Not only is he being allowed to take this to court, but You and I are paying for it.
After a lengthy battle to secure thousands of pounds in legal aid, Stewart Potter, 43, has taken a case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, claiming the phone message "is an ... embarrassing reminder to his family" that he is calling from prison.
He has served previous sentences of four, six and eight years and was given a nine-year term in 2001 for armed robbery.
In 2002, he stood trial for another robbery, committed just before the nine-year sentence had been imposed. In that case, he threatened the manageress of a Glasgow off- licence with a knife, then ordered her and a customer into a toilet. He fled with £292 but was arrested after police used CS spray to disarm him.
He was jailed for 12 years, to begin at the end of the nine-year sentence.
You must have some thoughts.
n.b. Mercilessly nicked (sic) from my ickle bruvver - ta loon.
You've dashed my hopes that the land of whisky was immune from the ludicrousnous that pervades the justice system of England.
ReplyDeleteHa I presume he's going under article whatever it is of ECHR.... prohibition of torture. More likely it'll be the "degrading treatment" part he'll be arguing- it makes him feel humiliated. If he wins, it'll be another case of the criminal having more rights than the victim
ReplyDeleteIt's not him being humiliated, Sergeant, it's his family; imagine how you'd feel if you heard that message every time you got a phone call from one of your kids. I very much doubt Stewart Potter rings his dear old mum every week, but if this case goes through it's liable to benefit the inmates who've got some chance of learning from their mistakes and going on to do something useful with their lives after they're released.
ReplyDeleteBesides, if he loses he'll have to find the money himself.
Maybe his family are reminded of his life of crime by the stash of stolen stereo's, booze, fags and the compliment of snub nosed shot guns that are gathering dust in the spare room!
ReplyDeleteWell, as he's been in and out of prison (mostly in)for so many years, he should be used to hearing that message every time he makes a phone call.
ReplyDeleteI too posted this story from north of the border, it just struck a nerve! When is the criminal justice system going to start telling these w***ers to **** off. Every time they try and pull this crap they should pay for the solicitor then and see if they still want to go ahead. Or just say NOOOOOOOO.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of taxpayers money TWICE!
Nurse, we need a spine please for the CJS!
Good Blog just linked you.