Today, the Court of Appeal, quashed the conviction of Peter Sutcliffe known as the Yorkshire Ripper. The Lord Chief Justice quashed his convictions for the murder of alleged prostitutes in South Yorkshire in the 1980s when the significance of a piece of evidence was finally revealed.
Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice explained that the Police had seized a newspaper from the car of Sutcliffe when he was arrested but had not revealed its existence to the defence at time of the trial. The judge accepted that this newspaper - which he presumably bought - was conclusive proof that Sutcliffe had supported the freedom of the press and therefore the principle of freedom of speech. This discovery, applying the legal principle of wiki non rapeo, meant that he could not have done anything wrong to the women as the prosecution had alleged.
Lord Judge stated: It can confidently be stated that wiki non rapeo is as relevant today as it was when first applied in the 18th century when raised by printers.
There it was held that printers were deemed only to use their body parts (particularly their hands) for printing and could not therefore sexually molest others. Translating the principle into the modern world meant that those using keyboards or similar devices were equally protected by the legal principle.
Whilst the prosecution sought to argue about the human rights of the alleged victims, the Court observed that those "so-called rights" were as nothing compared to the principle of freedom of speech and there was nothing to even put into the balance.
Mr Sutcliffe was released with an apology from the Court.
Jemima Khan and Ken Loach were said to be delighted with the result for which they had campaigned for many years; they rejected the suggestion that they had simply jumped onto a bandwagon which only revealed their limitless ignorance.
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Peter Sutcliffe - the Yorkshire Ripper - released by the Court of Appeal
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Poecheng
offlineMemberPosted 2 years ago #
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