Originally Posted by BristolUK

This is the kind of news item that makes people think the country is going to the dogs.

Jail for ex-soldier who urinated on dying disabled woman


Martin Wainwright
Saturday October 27, 2007
The Guardian


A drunken former soldier who urinated on a disabled neighbour as she lay dying after a fall in the street was jailed for three years yesterday and told that he and his friends had shamed a town. Anthony Anderson, 27, and a group of friends who filmed the humiliation of Christine Lakinski on a mobile phone, have been cold-shouldered in Hartlepool and turned away from shops and neighbours' homes.
They were castigated by a judge and police at a brief court hearing which was told that their "almost unbelievable" behaviour had turned the lesson of the Good Samaritan on its head. Ms Lakinski, a 50-year-old bent by a spine deformity and bullied for most of her life, had also been covered in shaving foam and kicked to "make her wake up".

During the episode in July, which lasted almost half an hour, none of the group called an ambulance to help Ms Lakinski, who had collapsed while carrying shopping home and hit her head. Only 20 minutes later, when Anderson, the phone-filmer Simon Whitehead and several others had dressed to go out to a nightclub, was a 999 call finally made. Paramedics were unable to revive Ms Lakinski, but the call enabled police to trace one of the group, Scott Clement, which led to Anderson's arrest at a local club within hours.
He admitted outraging public decency and apologised through his barrister at Teesside crown court for actions which he said he still could not explain.

The court heard that Ms Lakinski lived opposite a house in Raby Road which Anderson shared with another man, who had been smoking cannabis and drinking heavily with him all afternoon. Anderson went out in shorts with a towel round his waist when he saw Ms Lakinski slumped on the pavement.

Sue Jacobs, prosecuting, said Anderson first kicked the helpless woman and when she groaned but failed to move or open her eyes, fetched a bowl of water and threw it over her. "Apparently urged on by the fact that Scott Clement and Simon Whitehead found this amusing, you then stated that you were going to urinate on her. Simon Whitehead cleared space on his mobile and recorded Anderson urinating all over Christine's body." One of the group shouted: 'This is YouTube material.'"

Judge Peter Fox, the recorder of Middlesbrough, told Anderson he had plumbed the depths of degradation and brought shame on the people of Hartlepool. He said: "This court can do nothing to repair what you did, only pass a sentence that is right in all the circumstances - three years imprisonment."

Anderson, unemployed after brief army service, has previous convictions for illegally importing cigarettes, obstructing a police officer and driving offences.

Originally Posted by David Brent

In my opinion, no other country on Earth has the diversity of landscapes and attractions that is crammed into such a compact land mass as Britain.
Dave.

Originally Posted by Marky B

Well said,sir.
Ta Ta
Marky B

Originally Posted by batman

We were spared the 'tidal surge' .... but it was bloody cold and very, very windy. Some people in Gt Yarmouth and nearby Caister were moved from their homes as a precaution because the sea levels were very high. No serious damage was done and, thankfully, no one was hurt.

Bats.

Originally Posted by Fellwanderer

The sea was pretty spectacular up at Scarborough on Friday afternoon - so a certain lady told me.

Originally Posted by Aaryk Noctivagus

I'd move to New Zealand if I could.

Originally Posted by torinfan

I would love to visit Britain one day, where I live here in Arizona, I work part time at Old Tucson Studios (an active movie studio) we get quite a few guests from across the pond and they do come for the film history of the park. It's always a delight to see folks from Britain visit down here. :)

Originally Posted by samkydd

If I ever visit the US I'd really like to go to one of those little towns in the middle of nowhere called Prairie Shit, Nevada or something similar, like in many many films, where there's a solitary gas station on the edge of town run by a rickety ex-prospector who looks and sounds like that old timer in the John Wayne cowboy movies, and an old Coke machine on the veranda, tumbleweed blowing down the main street, an old motel with peeling paint and the door screen banging in the wind run by an attractive widow with history, and a big fat redneck doughnut-eating sheriff called Bubba who could be Slim Pickens, parked in the dust next to the highway just waiting for someone to drive past a bit too quickly! Heaven!

Originally Posted by samkydd

Was that lady a film star? Does her back catalogue include Logan's Swim, Bob About and the The Eagle Has Drowned?