Christopher Johnston, 17 years old, was stabbed in the leg by a 14-year-old boy on January 26 2008. His parents found him and he died in the hospital after he had lost a lot of blood. The killer assaulted also the best friend of Christopher, Keni Carmichael. The killer was drunk.
During a previous trial at the Crown Court, the killer had pleaded guilty to the murder of Christopher and the assault of Keni. He also admitted he had drunk eight pints and two vodkas in a pub. That’s why the complaint of ‘murder’ became a reduced charge of culpable homicide. The judge of the High Court, Lord Matthews, sentenced the killer a few days ago to imprisonment of five years. In addition, he ordered that the killer will be kept under supervision for the five years after he is released. The judge took the difficult youth of the killer into account.
I really agree with something the attorney of the killer said, namely that there are no excuses for what happened: neither the boy’s background nor his attention deficit disorder (ADD), nor the drinks.
When I read this article, it made me think of the blog of the murder of Rhys Jones, a teenage boy killed by an 18-years-old boy. After such pointless murders, there often starts a public discussion about the sale of guns, the sale of alcoholic beverages etc. In Belgium, it’s forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages to teens under 16 years old. I don’t know how this is regulated in the UK, but I support the Belgium system, well-knowing that teens who want to drink alcohol, get it somehow.
To avoid such pointless murders, prevention is very important for me: next to prohibiting selling alcohol under 16, a good working social net is necessary. It’s not surprising that teens who never got attention, who were neglected, develop a disturbed personality.
Source:
CRAMB, A., Teenage killer jailed for five years. Internet. The Telegraph, October 30 2008.
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3286607/Teenage-killer-jailed-for-five-years.html)
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Reaction by Ben Van Laere:
I think the punishment of 5 years imprisonment is not the right solution. I can understand that when a teenager has a bad youth, he has problems acting in public and in social situations. The fact that he was drunk when he killed Christopher is perhaps the consequence of the difficult youth he has.
The punishment of 5 years will not help the killer I think. The problem of such teenagers is that they can’t function in the society. When you put such people in jail, they will become more and more asocial. They have less contact with the world they live in. So maybe it’s better to take the killer to a centre where they can help him. Where they can help the teenager to pick up his life and where he can learn to get along with different people.
The brain is a very special thing and nobody can prodict what a human being is going to do.
This is an example of something, a rage, something unexpectable. Alcohol can indeed be no reason to kill somebody. There is absolutely no reason at all to kill somebody.
It is just a pitty that those things already happen with kids. Grownups are already so stupid somethimes to do such crazy things, but now kids.. They're just kids. Perhaps we should take it on a lot earlier and set no bad examples. The boy had a bad youth, he perhaps has seen some bad examples from his parents or family. Maybe we should start preventing cruel thoughts and bad acting in the family, in the education and try more than ever to teach the children when they are very young some normal moral and loving values. We have to teach them that there is more in life than fighting and drinking and so on.. A normal and peaceful life is even more pleasant for everybody.
(by Greet Heyse)
I also find that neither his background nor his ADD or the drinks are excuses for the action he did. The killer can’t rely on these facts as a reason for his behaviour. But the fact that there are no excuses for his act, doesn’t mean that we don’t have to put attention to it. His background, his ADD and maybe other reasons can unconscious played a role to his action and behaviour. It’s therefore very important that the boy who killed an assault two persons has a good support of professional people. I agree with Ben that an a punishment alone isn’t enough and would not help the boy. A long-term support and therapy is necessary. I find it good that the boy will have a long support both during ‘imprisonment’ as after it. You can influence a person who is 14 years old is more than a person of 30 years old. This means that ‘bad people’as well ‘good people’ who want to keep the boy to the straight and narrow can have a positive or negative effect.
Bieke said that a social network is very important and I totally agree. It’s very important to have people around you. There are many reasons why it’s really important, for help, support, to have a good model or to show how it should be or not be…
I also agree that prevention is important but we can’t overrate it.
(By Hanne Snoeck)
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