I swear, when will people realize that it is the person who is responsible for the act, not the gun, knife, stick, spork, whatever. You just can't make this stuff up.
A British judge trying a knife-crime case stunned the court by pulling out a blade.
Campaign groups blasted Judge Roger Connor after he brandished a knife in front of a teenage defendant charged with wounding someone with a blade.
The 16-year-old?s lawyer asked Connor if he was committing an offense ? and was told it was acceptable because the blade was less than 3 inches long.
Connor got out the folding black-handled knife at Oxford Crown Court to show how it worked. The boy, who denies wounding with intent and assault, had admitted using a knife and claimed he needed only one hand to open it.
Connor asked: ?It happens I have a folding knife in my pocket. You need two hands to open it, don?t you??
Under English and Welsh law it is an offense to carry in public a blade longer than 3 inches without good reason.
Furious anti-knife crime campaigners called last night for the judge to be fired.
?He should lose his job. One teenager a week is being murdered on the streets of Britain and here he is brandishing a knife,? Lyn Costello, co-founder of the Mothers Against Murder and Aggression campaign group, said.
?Enough is enough ? we need to get tough on knives in this country and our judges should be handing out tough sentences, not brandishing their own.?
A British judge trying a knife-crime case stunned the court by pulling out a blade.
Campaign groups blasted Judge Roger Connor after he brandished a knife in front of a teenage defendant charged with wounding someone with a blade.
The 16-year-old?s lawyer asked Connor if he was committing an offense ? and was told it was acceptable because the blade was less than 3 inches long.
Connor got out the folding black-handled knife at Oxford Crown Court to show how it worked. The boy, who denies wounding with intent and assault, had admitted using a knife and claimed he needed only one hand to open it.
Connor asked: ?It happens I have a folding knife in my pocket. You need two hands to open it, don?t you??
Under English and Welsh law it is an offense to carry in public a blade longer than 3 inches without good reason.
Furious anti-knife crime campaigners called last night for the judge to be fired.
?He should lose his job. One teenager a week is being murdered on the streets of Britain and here he is brandishing a knife,? Lyn Costello, co-founder of the Mothers Against Murder and Aggression campaign group, said.
?Enough is enough ? we need to get tough on knives in this country and our judges should be handing out tough sentences, not brandishing their own.?