It will be very interesting to see how this man's personality comes across in the interview - you can usually tell a lot.
So far we only know what he did, accompanied by the dodgy photo of him on TV and in newspapers.
I would certainly like to see whether he exudes an air of either :-
a) "I'm an hard b*****d who doesn't regret anything about this and I love my shotgun and would do it again if the same thing happened, and other people should do the same".
or..
b) "I really wish I could turn back the clock and not have killed the man if I could have possibly avoided it, but he gave me no choice.. people shouldn't kill others but when you're pushed it's so hard".
After the interview is finished, I'll post again to tell you which one I think it is... You see the difference between (a) and (b) is the following.
a) Implies that he used his shotgun very willingly and too easily when he could have used other means to scare the burglars off. To this extent he did deserve much of the punishment he got.
Although I should stress that the burglars themselves also deserved punishment and it was wrong for the burglar to be allowed to sue him
.
b) Implies that he was backed into a corner by the burglars and it turned him from being a normally peace loving individual into a killer just for a split second and it would never happen again. If this is the case he never deserved the amount of punishment he got.
Now... my initial guess that he is probably more (a) than (b)... BUT we will see. Will post again after having see the interview.
Well they had some similar incidents on last week.
Two burglars tried to steal a van from a man's office yard, so he stabbed (and killed) one of the men. He got let off.
Another farmer had his farm totally destroyed by vandals, so he set up a trap with a gun. A man got shot in the hand... aww diddums. He survived. The farmer got locked up.
I'm not saying I disagree, but what I will say is this: it is incredibly easy making sweeping statements such as "our justice system is terrible" when you don't know the ins and outs of the cases.
Well, it occured to me, having seen the photos of the state of his house, how he would ever know that he had been burgled. He could have been done over loads of times, a job for Kim and Aggie methinks.
In my view, I think that (a) was more applicable, as I thought.
At first I would agree, but you have to see things from his point of view. He was frightened and had to defend himself. Three burglars came into his house. Steps were missing, there were no lights, he had to be careful. I'd have been so frightened in his position.
I can totally understand why he doesn't feel sorry. He's very probably remorseful, but not sorry.
Also, retorically, I would say that, metaphorically speaking, Martin Bashir should be sacked for being totally useless.
