The Chronicle reported that a 42 year old man pled guilty to guilty to stealing, common assault and contravention of a domestic violence order. He was sentenced to six months in jail, with an immediate parole release date.
This headline seems to imply some poor lambkin was locked up for months because he broke up with a woman.
If that were the case, it would definitely be news and I’d be more than happy to lead the protest against weird police powers and general idiocy in the courts. But of course, that is not at all what happened. It’s just another misleading headline minimising men’s violence against women.
I think (but I can’t be sure) The Chronicle is getting a bit confused between being jailed for a crime and being held in custody while awaiting trial (ie, being denied bail).
The man was arrested in March after the assault (I think this is right but the article is very unclear) and there were other arrests in January this year and November last year, relating to him stealing his parter’s phone. There is also a mention of another unrelated arrest (maybe? again, very unclear). It seems likely these issues might have been a factor in the man being denied bail, but it’s impossible to know for sure just by reading the article.
What is crystal clear, however, is that he was NOT jailed over a break up. He wasn’t even jailed over the crimes he admitted to. He was denied bail (again, we don’t know why) for charges of assaulting his former partner. Four months later his case was heard, he pled guilty to the assault and the other charges of stealing and breaching a DVO, and was given immediate parole.
Facts matter and should bear at least some small resemblance to the headline.
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