Editor: This article is about any ‘remorse’ felt and or displayed by defendants whilst appearing at court and is a generalisation of this.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewgj1p79j4o
In this case, the article refers to a defendant driving a vehicle and failing to stop for police whereupon a police pursuit ensued, which eventually resulted in a multi-vehicle collision involving the defendant’s vehicle, several police cars and serious injuries. We wish all of those involved a successful recovery.
It is clear that the full circumstances of the collision are not known and that a complex investigation is under way. Red Brick will not be speculating about the investigation or its possible outcomes.
Nor will we be adding any condemnation of the defendant’s actions because we will leave the redress to the courts, however, it is fair to say we do not agree with his decision not to stop for the police on the night in question.
This article is written by our reporter who identifies as our ‘Resident Cynic’ (RC), who provides his or her own view of events and other happenings from around the world, however, today he, or she, is reporting from our Newcastle upon Tyne office based in the centre of the famous Bigg Market, which is well known for its nightlife, kebabs and weekend cage-fighting within the taxi ranks. Over to you bad boy, or girl?!
Thanks Ed. I read this article written in the Independent and I can tell you this for nothing, I am sick of hearing all this generic shite about remorse when some ‘perp’ is caught ‘bang to rights,’ and all of a sudden is remorseful about their actions without any evidence of the remorse being presented,
It would be nice if a Magistrate or Judge upon hearing this generic phrase….”My client is deeply remorseful for his actions” ….bla feckity bla, and asked the person making the statement, “Go on then, prove it and show us the evidence of your client’s remorse.” I doubt this will ever be the case, but it would be nice to hear it once in a while.
I’m now going to address some of the circumstances surrounding this article and in Article 2, I will give my own highly cynical view of what I think might sound like genuine remorse from any person appearing before a court following a guilty plea or pleas relating to a serious offence, which should warrant a high degree of remorse from someone attempting to mitigate an imminent judicial sentence where imprisonment is ‘on the table!’ Anyways, this is the script:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-car-pileup-driver-mazyar-azarbonyad-b2736086.html
It is amazing that no one was actually killed as a result of this collision and we can all be thankful for that, and regardless of the circumstances it all comes down to this one simple fact: When you are signalled to stop by the police it is not an optional extra whether you do so or not, and if you make a conscious deliberate decision not to, which of course the driver of the BMW did, then that is when it all begins to get messy, very, very messy.
The above headline is the beginning of an excellent article written by Amy-Clare Martin, Crime Correspondent for the Independent who reported: ‘Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop twice and having no licence and no insurance during the crash on 9 April, which left five police vehicles damaged and seven officers in hospital.’
‘Mazyar Azarbonyad who is a personal trainer was taking a woman out on a first date has admitted to dangerous driving after a chase which ended in a devastating crash involving five police cars.’‘He further admitted to getting back behind the wheel to go to work while on police bail following the pile-up, despite having no licence and no insurance.’
‘He was granted conditional bail after entering the guilty pleas at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. He is due to be sentenced next month during May.’
Back to me again, so there you have it, however, this is the best bit, the bit where the defendant’s representative stood up and spoke to the court uttering that well-known and overused phrase….”The article does not make it clear in what form the defendant’s remorse manifested itself, if at all, but if that is what the defendant has instructed his representative to say, then that is what the court is told.
Now, I am not for one moment suggesting that the defendant’s representative was misleading the court when it was said that ’the defendant had shown genuine remorse for his actions, because this is what representatives do; they represent the words of their client regardless of their own thoughts and feelings unless there is absolute evidence or facts to say that their client is wrong and or telling them ‘porkies’ (terminological in-exactitudes), you people dig?! However, where the lawyer is reported to have said and, quite correctly in my opinion that his client had been, “very foolish” to get back behind the wheel,” it made me wonder where and when the defendant’s remorse ‘kicked in,’ because I am struggling a bit here:
- Was it after the multiple collision but before he drove whilst on police bail?
Nah, couldn’t have been because he continued to drive by his own admission, so I can cross that one out. .
- Might it have been after his final drive but before appearing at court.
Perhaps he had a sudden realisation such as “What have I done,” having been hit with a tidal wave of remorse; m’mm, possibly, but that theory doesn’t really ‘hold water’ for me, however the next theory falls within the brackets of speculative reasoning:
- Following a consultation with his representative at court but shortly before entering a guilty plea, it dawned upon the defendant that the consequences of his actions might result in him being sentenced to a ‘stretch at His Majesty’s pleasure, it was at this point that the remorse kicked in.
Despite me leaning towards this theory as an explanation of the facts, one of those facts being that he continued to drive following the collision without a licence and whilst on police bail, too, so my cynical nature leaves me wondering when the court will be shown genuine evidence of his remorse, which he has the opportunity to show the court and not just through mere words, but through his actions. Circling back for a moment and speaking of stretches, I did notice that on the defendant’s first appearance at Magistrates Court that he was carrying what appeared to be a ‘grab bag’ of sorts in his right hand, which I am suspecting might have contained a toothbrush, Jim-jams and slippers, the sort of items one might take to court knowing that they are going to plead guilty on the day, expecting to be immediately sentenced where the outcome is likely to be a custodial one
There is a list of endless possibilities including that any remorse from his time in police custody up until his day at court, was being ‘drip fed’ from his subconsciousness in to his conscious self, resulting in a seismic explosion of remorse volcanic in its proportions, that on the day and immediately before sentencing his representative could jump to his feet, raising both hands in the air and at the top of their lungs shout “Hallelujah, my client truly feels the remorse!”
Well, whatever it was and however the court received and viewed the information, it’s all well and good saying a person feels remorse as a way to ‘big up’ the hope that someone sitting in judgement is actually taking the words seriously, but with so many police officers injured, some seriously and notwithstanding the six figured value of the damage to property, looking at the aftermath of the collision it was a miracle that no one was killed, so any remorse will have to be convincing. Now, like I have already said whether the court will pay credence to the defendant’s ‘remorse’ is entirely another matter, however, for me and like so many people up and down the UK, we view the judicial system as a lottery, an almost postcode lottery when it comes down to custodial sentencing, therefore it might just come down to what ‘prison spaces’ are available on the day.
It was further reported that: Chairman of the Bench Philip Hutchinson granted Azarbonyad bail on condition that he does not get behind the wheel of any vehicle and that he abides by a 10pm – 8am curfew to stay at his address. So the defendant was further bailed by the magistrates, which was most likely due to them deciding that they did not have the appropriate sentencing powers, despite the defendant’s early guilty plea in this instance and bounced the whole lot up the food chain to the Crown Court.
Here is where a judge has greater array of sentencing powers and gets to have the final say. In fact, the last words a defendant will hear from a judge if awarded a custodial sentence will be: ‘’Take Him or Her Down.’ However, I have to say a custodial sentence is highly likely in this case and to accept that the defendant’s remorse is genuine, seems a bit of a ‘stretch’ to me even though it gets ten out of ten for effort. I’ll see you in article 2 when we examine the outcome of the defendant’s appearance at Newcastle Crown Court, as well as my own cynical view of what remorse should look or sound like generally, and not just relating to this case, but all cases where there are victims. ‘Resident Cynic’ (RC) for the Red Brick International Media News Group.