Manchester Crown Court - mistakes were made
It’s terrible what happened to Sean Ruddeforth, a vulnerable man with learning disabilities. He was tied to a lamppost for four hours and had paint, food and nail varnish put on him by three drunk people.
The court made a mistake and didn’t tell the judge to treat it as a disability hate crime and the bullies only got suspended sentences.
If they had been prosecuted under the Criminal Justice Act 146 with a disability hate crime then they would have been given heavier sentences for what they did to Mr Ruddeforth.
From Left: Maggie Bowden, Anthony Connolly and Rebecca Willis. All three walked free from court after torturing Sean Rudderforth for hours
The Crown Prosecution Service is going to look into what went wrong. There are also claims that Greater Manchester Police did not deal correctly with two calls from witnesses.
Steven Brookes who is co-ordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network said,
“I am deeply dismayed that the whole criminal justice system failed this person”.
