The August riots disappeared from the headlines long ago. The Ministry of Justice stopped reporting on the progress of the prosecutions a month ago. Perhaps people stopped caring, but the system still rumbles on. This week the BBC reported that Derek Heggie, a former boxer from Carlisle has decided to plead guilty, although it’s not clear from the report whether he has pleaded guilty to an offence under the Malicious Communications Act or a lesser offence. According to Cumbria Crack, Derek faced two charges. The first was that he “sent an electronic communication of an offensive nature”. This communication was “two YouTube videos which, court papers show, made reference to grooming gangs and also the prophet Muhammad”. The BBC reported that in a video Heggie said “young white girls are being raped by these grooming gangs”. The second charge was that he sent “grossly offensive electronic communications, via YouTube between the same dates, with intent to cause distress and anxiety”. These communications took place between August 2nd and 8th, and by the 9th Heggie was under arrest and up before a magistrate. Based on what’s been reported, I’m struggling to understand what offence has actually been committed.
You might think he wouldn’t have said he was guilty unless he was. But decisions on pleas aren’t made in a vacuum. Heggie has been remanded since his arrest in August. That means for the past four months he has been held in prison despite not being convicted. This seems peculiar. According to the Bail Act, defendants can be remanded if the courts believe they may not return for their trial, may commit another offence, attack someone, or seek to obstruct the course of justice. Prison isn’t pleasant for anyone, but it’s often particularly tough for inmates being held on remand. I spent the first half of my prison sentence at HMP Wandsworth, a jail with a very high remand population. I noticed that men awaiting trial or sentencing often struggled more with their mental health. An unknown future is often much harder than the certainty of a known sentence to serve.
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