Setting a Young Man on Fire and Thus Causing His Death

Steve Simpson-- a gay college student with Aspergers, a seizure disorder, and a speech disorder-- had anti-gay slogans written on his body and after being doused with suntan spray was set on fire .  The accused and now convicted, one party crasher by the name of Jordan Sheard received only three and a half years in the lock-up for the death of Steve Simpson.  Sheard ran away instead of helping.  A neighbor Sean Banner doused the flames which makes him a true hero in my book.  Banner burned himself in the process.  Simpson's body was covered with the burns-- sixty percent of his body.  The judge, one Roger Keen, used the phrase "good-natured horseplay" to describe everything before the ignition of Simpson's groin.  

radical sapphoq says:  I don't know much about the U.K. and next to nothing about the legal process over there.  Perhaps the judge was correct within the laws over there.  I really do not know.  What I do know is that a young man lost his life.  There are no words to express the horror inherent in the circumstances surrounding the death of Steve Simpson.

And yes, Sean Banner, you are a hero.





http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/barnsley-teen-burned-to-death-on-his-18th-birthday-1-5521116

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-21887535

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297053/Yob-killed-autistic-gay-teenager-Steven-Simpson-setting-18th-birthday-party.html

Playing for Pay

http://www.dailytech.com/UK+Investigators+Claim+Ganglords+Used+PlayStations+to+Run+Businesses+from+Prison/article15141.htm

According to an agency in the U.K., some prisoners over there are utilizing interactive gaming tools to communicate with others on the outside. Bill Hughes of S.O.C.A. (Serious Organized Crime Agency) is quotes as saying this is happening and the Prison Service is concerned. The Prison Service denies same.

Seriously, I can envision a bunch of grown men hunched over consoles behind bars playing "Super Mario" (tm) or some other such game as a means of ordering hits or whatever.

Members of organized crime who are in jails and prisons have always found ways to communicate their directives to those on the outside. Whether it is via ultra-small handwriting in letters or elaborate hand signals, prisoners will continue to create code. I have to hand it to the fellows who figured out how to use gaming consoles to charge minutes to their cell phones-- very creative, guys.

radical sapphoq