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Lv 6
,, asked in News & EventsCurrent Events · 1 decade ago

Should this idiot get jail time?

The drunken fool Phil Laing,19, who urinated over wreaths at a war memorial in Sheffield has been warned he may face prison time.

He has expressed remorse and blamed the fact that he was ''very very drunk''.

What are your thoughts?

Should he go to jail therefore likely ruining any chances he has of a good career or should his apology be accepted and it put down to him being no different that any other blocked person who pees in the street?

Update:

I dont think he should jail time however I do agree with Oms and Haz in that he would not have expressed remorse had he not been caught.

It really was a dispicable act and I can totally understand the ex--soldier Helen talks of being so angry.

I wonder if the college where he takes his sports tech. course will suspend him?

32 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Oh he should go to jail alright.

    Make it clear that drunkeness is no excuse whatsoever for defacing something so important to history, and the deceased relatives of people still alive to witness his actions. It made me so angry when I saw the original reports.

    Sorry - should anyone care if he has a 'good career'????

    I have been drunk. I have been drunk to the point of not being able to get up. But I know damn well that if someone said 'Hey, let's urinate on a war memorial' I would never be drunk enough to go along with it.

    Don't be sucked in. Do you think he would be expressing remorse if he never got caught? The little turd would be boasting about it. He is only 'remorseful' because people are baying for his blood for causing such a disgrace.

    *******

    Clearly few morons here have relatives who died in the war. They died for the bloody country - and you have this effing scrote effectively urinating on their graves!!!!!! Would jail not send a message that it is NOT ok to do something this repulsive, then say 'Oops, I was drunk'?????

    Scumbag!!!!!

    *******

    What really makes me laugh here is the amount of people answering who I know have moaned about the lack of severity in punishing criminals. I do wonder how many of you would demand jail if a hooded youth from Newcastle or London had done this, and not some middle-class University student. Such hypocrisy!!!!!!!

    *******

    Sorry to extend the rant, but just a subtle point here - whether he goes to jail or not, he will still have a criminal record.

    *******

    Fred - 20 years ago, I would wager people at the age of 19 would have more respect for war veterans than this.

  • ULAM
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    I think that jail time might be excessive, but only because we need to keep prison space open for criminals that pose a threat to the community. The notion that anyone would deface anything related to war veterans is disgusting (we had an incident here in Canada a couple of years ago), and he needs to be punished. I think the idea of a long community service sentence is probably better suited for this guy. It would be even more fitting if he could be forced to perform his service for troops in an active theatre, but I doubt that any government would allow that strict a sentence. At least he'd get a first hand look at what his nation's soldiers do for him and his country.

    This "I was too drunk to know what I was doing" excuse has to go. It's an insult to every responsible adult in society.

  • 1 decade ago

    Hi Jess

    The grandson of a WW11 veteran has said that we all do daft things when we are young and drunk. If the lad had done this when he was sober then that would be a different story.

    I want to look at the organisers of the event that encourages our young people who are away from home for the first time to go on these drinking binges. It is totally mindless. What are the universities and colleges doing about these organisations.

    No doubt this incident will haunt the lad for the rest of his life. Punishment enough don't you think?

    Source(s): My opinion.
  • 1 decade ago

    Hi Jess.

    For a first offence? No.

    They should make him do volunteer work with disabled veterans or in a hospital for recovering wounded, make the t**t understand what he did.

    It is NOT the same as the dirty pigs who pee in alleys, they are disgustoids who should be fined if caught. His act was way more offensive and if "I was drunk" is a defence, then we could let all the drunk drivers go too.

    No, he chose to drink and thought it was funny to offend people.

    he deserves what is coming.

    Cheers, Steve.

    PS unless we can bring back the birch and thrash the bare **** of this no-account, good-for-nothing loser at the same memorial on poppy Day, while people who have suffered and struggled for their country cheer.

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  • Faith
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Yes Jess, he should go to jail...for a long time.

    What that young man needs is discipline which he obviously doesn't get in the normal life. He didn't just wee in the street (which is almost as terrible...but not as) he defiled something sacred which people have given their lives for...in doing so he not only insulted his country & her martyrs but his family & everything good & decent that valour stands for.

    Apart from teaching him the lesson of his young life, it will be a good deterrent to the many who think getting drunk & engaing in "pub crawls" is a way of life...a harmless bit of fun. Its not.

    It reminds me of one of my favourite sayings, "If you can't be a good example, then you'll end up as a terrible warning...!"

    x

  • 1 decade ago

    I think it's interesting, actually, and reflects a certain change in attitudes. 20 years ago, I don't think anyone would care if a drunken student urinated on a memorial. It would just be accepted that he was drunk and that was it. As a society, we seem a lot more twitchy and judgemental and more inclined to take offence. I'm not really sure what it means. Since he obviously did not intend to insult anyone's memory, I think it seems a bit over the top to send him to jail. I doubt he'll do it again.

  • 1 decade ago

    I don't think he should face criminal charges but what he did was immoral and he shouldn't have to pay all his life for the act of stupidity.

    However; a punishment more fitting of the act would be to assign him about two hundred hours of community service for the veterans of the wars your country fought.

    Perhaps the next time (drunk and disorderly or not) he will think twice about p*ssing on the memory of the dead soldiers.

    But prison time is disproportionate punishment.

  • Haz
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    I actually agree with Oms on this 100%.

    I think prison on the whole doesn't work for anyone so I don't think that argument holds up - plus being 'very very' drunk magnifies your emotions. makes you lose inhibitions..it doesn't make you no longer understand heinous contempt for those who sacrificed their lives. It doesn't make you lose understanding of what a war memorial is.

    I think he should go to prison not so much that it will do him either good or whatever just that a message gets sent out thst this level of disrespect is a total no no.

    I felt utterly frigging murderous when i saw that photo , infact I can't remember the last time I felt that strongly over a photo.

    He deliberately pissed on the monument..it wasn't a shop doorway and he knew that. That attitude was there to begin with - he's worthy of no ones compassion.

  • 1 decade ago

    No, he shouldn't go to jail, that really wouldn't do anything other than to criminalise him. On Sunday night we were at the Remembrance Service in the Theatre Royal, York and some of the old soldiers were discussing this. One was so angry he could barely speak and wanted him horse whipped but the others thought that he ought to do community service and that his University should take him back, he's learnt a very hard lesson and this will be with him for the rest of his life. I agree with them.

  • Doug
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    No, it doesn't deserve a sentence; a fine yes but not prison. He did a disgusting thing when he was drunk, it was caught on camera and shown to the nation. I imagine he's pretty sorry for it by now. As long as he's grown up a bit and learnt his lesson in that being drunk is not an excuse he should be left to get on with his life.

  • Dexter
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    Not for that no. It was a bad thing to do but it wasn't a violent crime against a person, and we haven't got enough prison places as it is to keep dangerous criminals in jail (which is why so many get released early)

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