Happy slapping?

Yorkshire Gurlie â™¥

Im 16, and I think that people who hit other people for the fun of it AND RECORD IT are SICK!! They are old enough to know what they are doing and should be charged with murder!!

dosey-rosey

agreed... there was intent to harm and if they went too far that's their problem

Eddie

Manslaughter is getting in a car drunk and killing someone with bad driving. Didn't intend to kill someone, but you clearly made choices that led to the death.

The assault you've mentioned sure looks like a murder...

jhowie1987

Yea they should definately be charged with murder, but the courts always sympathise with young people/teenagers.

Mr Sceptic

I don't know the law well enough to understand the fine differences between murder and manslaughter - but I struggle to see how this was not a murder.

I am an oap and I am well armed when I go out just in case some bit of **** wants to make my day.

BrilliantPomegranate

The UK legal system is a joke. Murderers are let out early, and the criminal is always protected. The judges don't have as much power as they used to. This country's going down the pan.
We've got yobs on the street drinking etc and making people afraid to leave their houses at night, and they seem to get only an ASBO, which most people think is just a rewards badge.
But, as much as I hate to say this - it isn't only the government's fault - the parents are always to blame.
If they don't teach their kids morals, and show them how to treat others, then we wouldn't be in this mess.

rickinnocal

Murder is unlawfully killing someone either:
(a) Intentionally - you acted with the *intent* that the person die - or
(b) Willfully - you acted with the knowledge that your actions would *almost certainly* result in someone's death.

Manslaughter is killing someone either:
(a) Recklessly - you acted with the knowledge that your actions *might* result in someone's death, or
(b) Negligently - you acted without any thought as to whether your actions would result in someone's death or not.

When the thugs engaged in their assault of the victim, they clearly did not INTEND to kill, nor did they believe that the result of the assault would *almost certainly* be his death. Murder charges, therefore, simply don't apply.

Beating someone, however, *might* result in that persons death, so a charge of Manslaughter does apply. You don't name your country, but in - for example - the US, the charge would be 1st degree felony manslaughter - which carries a possible life term in most States.

I understand the desire to press for the most severe charge possible, but you can't twist the law away from what it actually is.

Richard

crazy_crats

The "happy slap" people should all be treated as terrorists.

Why do law abiding individuals have to put up with this at all?

Gary F

thats not happy slapping!

a happy slap is when u just randomly slap someone you dont kick the living s**t out of them til they die.

jimmyroamer

For a murder charge to hold you must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the person or persons committing the attack actually intended to kill the person. Manslaughter applies where the individuals kill someone but there is no means to prove that there was an intent to kill. If they had not been charges with manslaughter then they could only have been charged with a lesser assault charge.

Just because you attack someone does not mean you intend to kill them. The other thing to bear in mind is that the maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment (the same as for murder) and the probability is that the two blokes will receive a sentence commensurate with what they would have received for murder.

Phisoe 2008

I reckon they are getting charged with manslaughter as they never meant to kill the person. They never intended to kill the person so they are not going to charge them with murder as it was not premeditated. They had the intention of hurting someone but not killing them. As it happens the person ended up dying and so they should be charged with murder as justice for the victims family and to prevent other idiots from happy slapping, and to show the consequences of it.

willy wom bat

i am with you one hundred percent. the law in this country is crackers. and am not alone. i myself would bring back hanging. the Birch. the cat o nine tails. i no i will get slated by some do go odder. but i don't give a dam.

Di Mack

Minimum 26 years with no parole is the least they deserve

Hook'em Horns

It isn't the country that is at fault, but those who made the laws. Basically, every crime is made up corpus delicti, or certain components required from someone to be convicted of a crime. Generally, murder requires that the premeditation be in the form of intending to kill that person. You end up with manslaughter when, for example, two men get into a fight, and one of them gets killed. Neither party likely wanted to kill the other person, but one person died.

So, the problem lies within the requirements, or corpus delicti.

LondonGuy

The courts and government need to change the attitudes of people who think that casual crime is okay. So these types of penalties are a good deterent.

The type of person that does that I wouldn't like free on the streets.

However, the courts should have taken into account that she may have also felt pressured into that.

Wendy H

Sorry would you mind putting a link to the report to help others see what your talking about.

I dont agree as the definition of murder is very clear and hitting someone as horrendous as it is is manslaughter.

I do think we need to look at the laws and change them like they have in the US

1st degree murder

2nd degree murder

as they are old laws we are using and murder/manslaughter laws are not upto date.

Furthermore sentencing is not harsh enough either.

Although in a happy slapping attack they clearly meant to hurt a victim, judges should not treat the outcome as accidental, as it sends the wrong message to the public. We can only work with the laws we have, and they would have lost a murder charge as they would not have been able to prove their case.

A manslaughter charge would be easier to prove.

Until the law changes we have to grit our teeth and bare it.

Jason W

It was not manslaughter it was murder, the sooner we the death penalty back the better call this link and petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/hangthem

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