Messages

[If]

You would want to see them split then...

If your man is guilty of what they say he is then he needs to be locked up and shamed for what he is. If he's innocent he should be cleared too.

Splitting the trials may end up happening but it's completely undesirable to have the complainants to have to give evidence twice. Potentially not fair on the defendants either in terms of admissibility of evidence that may arise. It's quite complete

@David McKeown
If she's not fit to enter a plea, never mind stand trial, what happens to the charges against her??

A fact finding hearing where a jury will determine if she did the acts alleged. This is different to a trial and to a finding of guilt.

If she did the acts alleged she will be made subject to a hospital order.

How come ole Geoff trial cant go forward.If this was the common man would he get the same leeway?

Yes in fact this case is being advanced much more quickly than it would be if it were the common man.

Whilst I've no specific knowledge of the case other than what's in press report is it seems that Lady Donaldsons legal team have concerns over her fitness to either plead or stand trial. It's a prerequisite of the law that at all times throughout the criminal process a person must be fit.

As a result of these concerns the defence team have had Lady Donaldson examined by an RQIA appointed consultant. That consultant has obviously been satisfied that at present she isn't fit.

As a result the PPS have sought their own opinion. Again from an RQIA appointed consultant. It's not clear what they have determined.

Either way a second consultant is required by law for the defence.

Whilst it may appear to be slow it's not. These consultants are very limited in number. I recently tried 17 of them and only 2 see the defendant within 18 months.

Without all the reports it's difficult to know how the case will proceed. It could be she's found fit and the trial can commence soon, it's possible she's not and a fact finding here could be held. It's also possible that she's not fit now but could be after months of treatments. Ultimately the trials could be split but that's very very rare and highly unlikely

What conditions specifically could result in her being unfit to stand trial?

It's not a condition per se it's a test to be applied. A person is unfit if they fail to meet any of the following criteria

a person is unfit to plead if he/she is unable to do any one of the following:-

To understand the charges
To decide whether to plead guilty or not
To exercise their right to challenge jurors
To follow the course of proceedings
To give evidence in their own defence
To instruct their legal representatives

Unfitness is a very high bar to reach

 

How come ole Geoff trial cant go forward.If this was the common man would he get the same leeway?

Yes in fact this case is being advanced much more quickly than it would be if it were the common man.

Whilst I've no specific knowledge of the case other than what's in press report is it seems that Lady Donaldsons legal team have concerns over her fitness to either plead or stand trial. It's a prerequisite of the law that at all times throughout the criminal process a person must be fit.

As a result of these concerns the defence team have had Lady Donaldson examined by an RQIA appointed consultant. That consultant has obviously been satisfied that at present she isn't fit.

As a result the PPS have sought their own opinion. Again from an RQIA appointed consultant. It's not clear what they have determined.

Either way a second consultant is required by law for the defence.

Whilst it may appear to be slow it's not. These consultants are very limited in number. I recently tried 17 of them and only 2 see the defendant within 18 months.

Without all the reports it's difficult to know how the case will proceed. It could be she's found fit and the trial can commence soon, it's possible she's not and a fact finding here could be held. It's also possible that she's not fit now but could be after months of treatments. Ultimately the trials could be split but that's very very rare and highly unlikely

I see the red card was rescinded as whilst there was foul play it fell well short of the criteria for a red card.

I would like to apologise to all GM's in the league as yet more of my players get injured.

9 of the players I drafted or acquired have been put on IR this year and 4 more have missed at least a game. I think I truly am a curse.

Enjoying the league mind

That was a ridiculous call. He ran into FFS on a forward pass.

What was Byrne to do?  If he wraps he will get there too early. Byrne was onside and didn't move forward.

[Sickening is right.]

Government spent more than £4m on defence of Soldier F

There was never going to be any prosecution, absolutely sickening.

Sickening is right.

I agree but who do you think is paying for the legal representatives of the the victim's families?  All no doubt would be pensioners so highly likely all funded by legal aid therefore the Government is paying everyone's costs.  In the case of the Soldier F no doubt the Government through a lot of resources at it and from what I can see the Bloody Sunday families did not employ the service of some randomn Solicitor in Derry either.

While there is no certainty regarding justice / closure for anyone there is certainty re legal fees.

The quoted figure as I understand it is for all legal representation since the Saville enquiry and not just for this trial. There would have been some legal aid for the families during that time but not an awful lot. I can't see why they would have had for this trial.

World Series Game 3 goes 18 innings and only finished about 39 mins ago. Ohtani due to pitch tonight/tomorrow as well.

I was at the Astros Braves game in 05 that went 18 innings. Some madness in games like that.

With the news that Warner has dislocated his ankle that likely brings to 7 the number of players I drafted who have already been placed on IR. I've also had the Baltimore defence and two WR who have lost their QB.

I even managed to lose my kicker

Someone supposedly hit my car last year in a car park (no visible damage, was a shit box runaround I was using at the time while my actual car was in being fixed so I didn't care either way). They left a note and I text them saying not to worry there was no damage etc.

Fast forward to today as I shop around as my renewal date is soon. Saw a quote for £200 less than what I paid last time. Couldn't go through with the purchase so I went through the online chat. That f**king cnut declared the "incident" to his insurance company and just like that my quote increased by £111! Absolute racket!

Had a similar experience in the recent past. A lot of suspect stuff goes on with insurance but you wonder how stuff like this is actually allowed when no claim has been made. It is legalised robbery.

I'm not sure what I am annoyed at more:

The guy for hitting the car in the first place

The guy for informing his insurance company (after me contacting him and telling him not to) who then informed my insurance company

Or Admiral for slapping an extra £100 on for an incident where nothing happened.

I was involved in a pretty bad accident in 2018. Completely blameless. Claims had to be made as my car was written off and I was badly injured and off work for a while.

I remember when my renewal came through asking my broker about the price increase and her saying oh it was because I had been in accident. So even though I wasn't at fault and there could be no correlation between 1 accident and a future one my premiums were increasing.

I got my broker to work out the additional cost to me over the next few years and we predicted it was over £900

I remember claiming for it as part of my heads of claim and the other lawyers suggesting they'd never heard of it but to be fair the other insurance company paid it.

Made a difference on other policies were I was a named driver too. Scandalous.

[The guy for informing his insurance company (after me contacting him and telling him not to) who then informed my insurance company]

Someone supposedly hit my car last year in a car park (no visible damage, was a shit box runaround I was using at the time while my actual car was in being fixed so I didn't care either way). They left a note and I text them saying not to worry there was no damage etc.

Fast forward to today as I shop around as my renewal date is soon. Saw a quote for £200 less than what I paid last time. Couldn't go through with the purchase so I went through the online chat. That f**king cnut declared the "incident" to his insurance company and just like that my quote increased by £111! Absolute racket!

Had a similar experience in the recent past. A lot of suspect stuff goes on with insurance but you wonder how stuff like this is actually allowed when no claim has been made. It is legalised robbery.

I'm not sure what I am annoyed at more:

The guy for hitting the car in the first place

The guy for informing his insurance company (after me contacting him and telling him not to) who then informed my insurance company

Or Admiral for slapping an extra £100 on for an incident where nothing happened.

Not really your call tbh. In almost all situations he's contractually obliged to inform his company of any incident.

Anyone with half a brain cell wouldn't be stupid enough to go to their insurance company in that scenario - maybe it's a Belfast thing.

A woman drove into me in Slieve Gullion car park one afternoon and we exchanged details and sorted things out off the books.

I've heard of people being caught out before in that situation. They get into another accident on a different part of the car a while later. Go to an insurance approved repair shop who dobbs them in when they find the original damage.

Jasus lads don't even get me started about car insurance...took out a policy with admiral (£1500) for the young lad and me as second driver with a black box and after a month they cancelled the insurance as he was driving too much late at night.
Got another policy with Hastings Direct (£1900) same policy as above and low and behold the young fella had a smash in the car...they emailed us 2 weeks after the accident to say they're cancelling the policy as his driving score was low. I asked for the dates and they came back with 23rd August, I looked on the phone APP and the driving score for that day was perfect and the congratulated us on a perfect drive. I screen shotted that and sent it to them and they changed the date to 28th august (the day of the accident), I said yeah an accident would have an impact on the driving score and also said the repair company took the car away that day too so I don't know what way they drove the car to their depot. They then sent an email looking £600 for 3pts on my licence that I didn't tell them about, I asked them did they give me the 3pts as I don't have any from the Police etc and my licence is clear.
They then changed the date of the driving score to 23rd of August and told us if we didn't cancel the insurance they were and that it would effect us trying for other insurnace in the future. They deleted the APP information from our phones and we can't check the score for that day, now the insurance is cancelled they won't refund any of the £1900 as in the small print on page 18 if you have an accident you don't get a refund...Biggest pile of wankers i've ever met or dealt with.
I made an offical complaint and I might as well have stuck my head in the oven ffs.

Is it worth taking this to the finanical ombudsman?. Have I a chance?. The more I have researched this the more I have found out they have done this to so many other people.

Yes although I find the ombudsman to be inconsistent. The power insurance companies have these days is unreal. The amount police and even PPS listen to them and get the law wrong leading to unlawful legal sanction is unreal.

I've had to sue Hastings over the way they have dealt with my sister in law and they keep dragging their heels. Fortunate enough it's not costing me anything and out of principle I won't let it drop but I'm sure plenty would let them away with it. 

Gavin f**king Robinson posting para insignia pictures on twitter.

Bitter bastard. Expect nothing less.

Very insensitive I thought.

As I thought no way to a safe conviction.