So…a 17 year old IS a child and DOES need an appropriate adult when arrested…says the court in another “landmark” decision…
Having dealt with 17 year olds that were pissed out of their faces, fighting hard enough to require 3 officers to control them…their vulnerabilities are often difficult to perceive…so it was with some amusement I read that a chap arrested was not given an appropriate adult…not that they make a lot of difference…a solicitor, yes…adult not really.
Anyway the ironies I refer to are:
They can decide if they want to have sex…
Work and be paid…
Drive…
They may even get the vote…
But they can’t decide if they need a brief?
The chap in question has missed the irony that after arrest he felt he needed an appropriate adult…but somehow managed to take a case to the high court to get a review of procedures?
Oh I know he had help…but the fact he was there suggests he was smart enough to know eh?
This all came about really because of another case agree a 17 year old was done for drink driving…parents of course blamed us for his subsequent suicide…failing to see that we may have prevented him killing some one else…our a family…anyone really…
They want his death to have a meaning…I guess I can see that as a parent…
What next I wonder…
Shijuro (nearer Go-juro though...) is not georgedixon's relatively honest Blog 
You arent going to like me for this but all youths should have the facility of a face to face conference with a solicitor at the police station. They are particularly vulnerable because they may be too keen to be interviewed and thus leave the police station rather than have to wait any longer. Also the Appropriate Adult should always be given the same level of disclosure that a brief would be given. In fact I will go one stage further and say that where there is no solicitor in a case then the suspect be it a youth or an adult should be given full disclosure. I am sure that if it was your son or daughter you would agree with me.
I don’t have a problem with this.
The parents of the lad who killed himself seem to think that if one of them acted as an appropriate adult for him in custody he’d still be alive. They may be wrong but then again they may be right.
Police are used to dealing with persistent scumbags who have no regards for the consequences of their actions. Clearly he was not one of them. Obviously drink driving is wrong but it seems – at least in the end – he realised the gravity of the situation he was in.
I’m not bothered either way as it won’t change what I do…our how I do it… but it’s the irony I smile at…
For most of them an “appropriate” adult is someone willing to buy them booze from the off-licence.
” Clearly he was not one of them. “
Would that have mattered to the person he could have run over?
I don’t have a problem with it really. 17, 18, 15, 13. They can all go and get pissed up and have a fight with the cops. If anything it removes what I always felt was an anomoly in the various ages. At 17 some people are very worldly wise but many are not.
The kid who committed suicide after being done for drink dtive is tragic. I hope his parents realise that maybe his arrest did prevent a greater tragedy and I really hope they are better than simply blaming his subsequent death on the police or the system.
I hope so…but I suspect not…
Compare and contrast that with the suicide of an African Student at a Londn Uni. Why did he kill himself? His village had sponsored him to come to England to get a degree. He got a degree a 2:1but he could not face them back home without a 1st class honours degree. Tragic.
Come to Scotland! 16 and overs are treated as adults by the police and by the courts. Plus we aren’t implementing Winsor, we haven’t had increment and benefit freezes, and we’re constantly recruiting more and more officers. Happy days.
Although our pensions are still doomed, but apparently Westminster is to blame for that.