Autistic son to be sentenced later this month
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I did post a few months ago when my sons case was earlier in development (he was facing a trial for breaching his SHPO)
https://get-help.stopitnow.org.uk/family-and-friends/family-and-friends-forum/topic/7020
before reading any further it might be a good idea to read the original post so you can see what we've been dealing with.
The reason for the trial was that there was an argument for "reasonable excuse", according to the lawyers (see my original post above).
The final pretrial hearing occurred on 9th September 2024 called the "case management hearing" (all previous hearings had been held remotely with a video link to his home and support was arranged to be there with him). This was the first hearing that the court ordered him to attend in person, which was a very daunting process for him. Luckily the judge on the day was extremely sympathetic and made comments that included "this would be better off handled in the youth court" (which is legally not an option as my son is an adult but functions like a child) but the judge saying these words indicated a level of frustration with the system I suppose. He then went on to arrange special measures for the trial saying that my son would be better off attending the trial remotely from the vulnerable witness suite (still inside the court building) as that would relieve a lot of the stress of physically being sat inside the courtroom with 12 random strangers staring at him. It was also arranged for him to enter the court building via a side entrance away from the central corridor which is full of people after he had been checked by security.
These special measures were both cancelled on the morning of the trial as the judge who arranged them had apparently been told off for doing so by some court manager. At least that's what we were told. A conference room on the main corridor was, however, arranged for a video link but to get to it my son had to navigate his way down the busy main corridor. Of course this resulted in a meltdown as all the arrangements to make the process easier were all cancelled on the day and my son doesn't handle change well especially when the changes promised were there to help him but were cancelled. The reasoning given was that the vulnerable witness suite is not available to defendants (even if they are vulnerable themselves). The judge who made the special measures (which got cancelled) did comment about the lack of support available and mentioned "we need to figure out a way to stop him from coming back to us".
Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, on the trial day, which lasted 2 days, on the 26th and 27th September 2024 at the crown court these special measures were cancelled. This was a very daunting experience for my son who literally froze and had a meltdown outside the court building. Lots of passers by on the street, as well as other people attending court for their own purposes were staring at my son. Court security staff had to come out and, credit to them, they were extremely kind and understanding and my son had a representative from "Communicourt" there to support him as well. It took no less than 3 hours to entice my son into the court building delaying the start of his case.
Eventually they got him to calm down and sat him down in the conference room and the trial began. The prosecutor spoke on the first day and, honestly, I really don't know how these people sleep at night. I totally get that they must deal, sometimes, with some very bad cases but the way he portrays my son I feel is incredibly unfair and inaccurate. It's almost like they want him to sound like a monster when he very much isn't.
on the second day his defence team put forward their case, arguing reasonable excuse, and the jury took just 20 minutes to find my son guilty without a reasonable excuse. While we may disagree with the decision ultimately that's what they decided and now my son must be sentenced. Any credit for a guilty plea has now been lost.
the judge at the trial was different to the sympathetic judge at the pretrial hearing. At this point we have no idea how sympathetic she is, if at all. Her final remarks as she addressed my son were: "I must warn you, all options are available to me. I need to balance your interests with the protection of the public" as she ordered a presentence report. According to the solicitor who spoke to me after the trial: "the judge decided that his offending is so serious that a custodial sentence must be considered".
My son will not cope in a custodial environment. His breaches appear to be an act of frustration, for what he feels is a big injustice, and he feels like nobody cares any more. He finds it very difficult to trust people, is verbally mute, and if you've read my original post you'll see he's had a few run-ins with the law already, some of which where he has been a victim himself but has not received any support for that at all. I just want my son to receive help and support to live a safe and happy life where he isn't getting into any more trouble but at the same time is kept safe from inappropriate relationships.
the police however have applied for more restrictions to be placed onto his SHPO which will make it even easier for him to breach, and subsequently end up in more trouble, while failing to address the underlying issues that my son needs help with. They seem to be of the opinion that my son is such a high risk to society but fail to see or acknowledge the fact that he is, himself, very vulnerable and needs protecting. It feels like a very punitive system that seems to only have one aim...to punish my son as much as possible and to make it as difficult as possible for him to ever live a normal, happy life or get the support he so desperately needs. Since my last post we have had a further 3 referrals to various mental health teams rejected and social services have cut his hours so significantly that the probation officer writing his presentence report commented: "wow, is that all he's getting?". We have not yet seen the report but the officer writing it seemed very concerned with the lack of support in place and said "I completely understand why your son did what he did"...that's not to say she excused it but rather that she understood it. She acknowledged that my son needs a lot of help but was a bit unsure as to where he could get that help. One things for certain though...prison is not the place. And it's prison that they are currently considering.
I am at a loss as to what to do any more, my son has tried to kill himself twice in the last month and it just feels like a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it for everyone involved, especially him. My son is not a monster. He needs help!
https://get-help.stopitnow.org.uk/family-and-friends/family-and-friends-forum/topic/7020
before reading any further it might be a good idea to read the original post so you can see what we've been dealing with.
The reason for the trial was that there was an argument for "reasonable excuse", according to the lawyers (see my original post above).
The final pretrial hearing occurred on 9th September 2024 called the "case management hearing" (all previous hearings had been held remotely with a video link to his home and support was arranged to be there with him). This was the first hearing that the court ordered him to attend in person, which was a very daunting process for him. Luckily the judge on the day was extremely sympathetic and made comments that included "this would be better off handled in the youth court" (which is legally not an option as my son is an adult but functions like a child) but the judge saying these words indicated a level of frustration with the system I suppose. He then went on to arrange special measures for the trial saying that my son would be better off attending the trial remotely from the vulnerable witness suite (still inside the court building) as that would relieve a lot of the stress of physically being sat inside the courtroom with 12 random strangers staring at him. It was also arranged for him to enter the court building via a side entrance away from the central corridor which is full of people after he had been checked by security.
These special measures were both cancelled on the morning of the trial as the judge who arranged them had apparently been told off for doing so by some court manager. At least that's what we were told. A conference room on the main corridor was, however, arranged for a video link but to get to it my son had to navigate his way down the busy main corridor. Of course this resulted in a meltdown as all the arrangements to make the process easier were all cancelled on the day and my son doesn't handle change well especially when the changes promised were there to help him but were cancelled. The reasoning given was that the vulnerable witness suite is not available to defendants (even if they are vulnerable themselves). The judge who made the special measures (which got cancelled) did comment about the lack of support available and mentioned "we need to figure out a way to stop him from coming back to us".
Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, on the trial day, which lasted 2 days, on the 26th and 27th September 2024 at the crown court these special measures were cancelled. This was a very daunting experience for my son who literally froze and had a meltdown outside the court building. Lots of passers by on the street, as well as other people attending court for their own purposes were staring at my son. Court security staff had to come out and, credit to them, they were extremely kind and understanding and my son had a representative from "Communicourt" there to support him as well. It took no less than 3 hours to entice my son into the court building delaying the start of his case.
Eventually they got him to calm down and sat him down in the conference room and the trial began. The prosecutor spoke on the first day and, honestly, I really don't know how these people sleep at night. I totally get that they must deal, sometimes, with some very bad cases but the way he portrays my son I feel is incredibly unfair and inaccurate. It's almost like they want him to sound like a monster when he very much isn't.
on the second day his defence team put forward their case, arguing reasonable excuse, and the jury took just 20 minutes to find my son guilty without a reasonable excuse. While we may disagree with the decision ultimately that's what they decided and now my son must be sentenced. Any credit for a guilty plea has now been lost.
the judge at the trial was different to the sympathetic judge at the pretrial hearing. At this point we have no idea how sympathetic she is, if at all. Her final remarks as she addressed my son were: "I must warn you, all options are available to me. I need to balance your interests with the protection of the public" as she ordered a presentence report. According to the solicitor who spoke to me after the trial: "the judge decided that his offending is so serious that a custodial sentence must be considered".
My son will not cope in a custodial environment. His breaches appear to be an act of frustration, for what he feels is a big injustice, and he feels like nobody cares any more. He finds it very difficult to trust people, is verbally mute, and if you've read my original post you'll see he's had a few run-ins with the law already, some of which where he has been a victim himself but has not received any support for that at all. I just want my son to receive help and support to live a safe and happy life where he isn't getting into any more trouble but at the same time is kept safe from inappropriate relationships.
the police however have applied for more restrictions to be placed onto his SHPO which will make it even easier for him to breach, and subsequently end up in more trouble, while failing to address the underlying issues that my son needs help with. They seem to be of the opinion that my son is such a high risk to society but fail to see or acknowledge the fact that he is, himself, very vulnerable and needs protecting. It feels like a very punitive system that seems to only have one aim...to punish my son as much as possible and to make it as difficult as possible for him to ever live a normal, happy life or get the support he so desperately needs. Since my last post we have had a further 3 referrals to various mental health teams rejected and social services have cut his hours so significantly that the probation officer writing his presentence report commented: "wow, is that all he's getting?". We have not yet seen the report but the officer writing it seemed very concerned with the lack of support in place and said "I completely understand why your son did what he did"...that's not to say she excused it but rather that she understood it. She acknowledged that my son needs a lot of help but was a bit unsure as to where he could get that help. One things for certain though...prison is not the place. And it's prison that they are currently considering.
I am at a loss as to what to do any more, my son has tried to kill himself twice in the last month and it just feels like a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it for everyone involved, especially him. My son is not a monster. He needs help!
Having 2 adult kids on the autistic spectrum, I just wanted to comment that I fully understand your frustrations. So many budget cuts to services, which should be there to help.
For them, trying to understand numbers, letters, words and social situations, is difficult enough. Sex and relationships is hard to explain to them.
For them, trying to understand numbers, letters, words and social situations, is difficult enough. Sex and relationships is hard to explain to them.
It is! And I feel very confident when I say this...my son does not want to hurt anybody. He feels a lot of confusion about relationships and trusting people and part of that is due probably to me shielding him from the world growing up which I now very much regret. But I think a lot of it is due to recent life events, some of which I have detailed in my original post (not sure if you've read that or not).
I notice that the link to the original post does not work for some reason (I wonder if a site staff member can fix that?) but in the meantime copying and pasting the full link URL text into a new tab instead of clicking on it or copying the link itself will open the article. Not sure what's happened there...perhaps site staff can fix it?
I am desperate for my son to receive more support and to be treated as a vulnerable person himself. I do accept his behaviour needs to be addressed but it needs to be done in the right way! The way the system is going about things is almost cruel.
I notice that the link to the original post does not work for some reason (I wonder if a site staff member can fix that?) but in the meantime copying and pasting the full link URL text into a new tab instead of clicking on it or copying the link itself will open the article. Not sure what's happened there...perhaps site staff can fix it?
I am desperate for my son to receive more support and to be treated as a vulnerable person himself. I do accept his behaviour needs to be addressed but it needs to be done in the right way! The way the system is going about things is almost cruel.
Was going to PM you, but it won't let me.
Hi Marvel,
yes it says the same for me. It says I need to post on the community first (bit odd since I first posted back in April and have since posted again now). Each post has to be manually approved by site staff, which is a good thing as it avoids trolls who I'm sure would love to pollute a community like this. What was it you wanted to say?
Just to add by the way for anyone reading my son is due to be sentenced on 26th November, a day everyone is dreading not just him. We can only hope that the judge reads the very detailed psychology report and is empathetic but the CPS have been brutal throughout this entire process, as have the police.
yes it says the same for me. It says I need to post on the community first (bit odd since I first posted back in April and have since posted again now). Each post has to be manually approved by site staff, which is a good thing as it avoids trolls who I'm sure would love to pollute a community like this. What was it you wanted to say?
Just to add by the way for anyone reading my son is due to be sentenced on 26th November, a day everyone is dreading not just him. We can only hope that the judge reads the very detailed psychology report and is empathetic but the CPS have been brutal throughout this entire process, as have the police.
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We understand that some of you may be unsure about how to enable the Direct Messaging feature, so we wanted to contribute to this thread to offer some information about this.
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If you cannot see the messages option or are unable to enable private messages, this usually means that your account is still under moderation. Accounts are kept on moderation for various reasons, most often when moderators need additional information to ensure that the user is suitable for the forum.
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