Posted by
carmine
15 yrs ago
Just saw the news, no comment on the verdict, just feel that at least now there is closure on both sides.
What I do want to comment is that I think the website the parents put up claiming innocence and asking for donations and so forth backfired.They made it sound like their son was stuck in a thail or indonesian jail.
bringkelseyhome.com
Anyways, how long do you think he will serve, I say less then a year.
Please support our advertisers:
has he ever explained why he took off in the already smashed taxi as paramedics were treating him? (this was caught in news camera footage so is undeniable...)
Please support our advertisers:
What Assie?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=assie
Please support our advertisers:
Nice one mrsmith! However long he serves won't be enough for the victim's family- hey, we've all done dumb things when drunk but this was way beyond dumb. Haven't looked at the parents' web site, I suspect I will make me really mad. You break the law, you pay the price, though the OP could be right, he'll be out in no time.
Please support our advertisers:
"However long he serves won't be enough for the victim's family"
Correct. No sentence will bring him back but what I found appalling, was a report that Mr. Mudd was basically blaming the victim and even ambulance crew for not preventing him from committing crimes. No remorse at all. Perhaps he should spend a little time thinking his own responsibilities.
Please support our advertisers:
Why so surprised? I'm sure some of the local boys will take good care of him in big yard.
Please support our advertisers:
and now his family has started a website seeking donations and support for their criminal son... How sick is that?
http://www.bringkelseyhome.com/
Please support our advertisers:
That "bring Kelsey home" makes it sound like he was rottening in some forgotten POW camp instead of being convicted in a court for his own crimes.
Please support our advertisers:
Tune
15 yrs ago
As a parent myself, I feel for his parents, as I would never abandon my own son. Yet, what he did, albeit out of stupidity, has caused misery to the dead man's family for the rest of their lives, dreadful. It was reported that he has shown no remorse, Why?
Please support our advertisers:
Just click on the link..Says "I'm a californian student.."
Please support our advertisers:
I think that website was setup by his Girl friend or (maybe EX girlfriend). Glad he got convicted but as the cabbie's brother said he got off lightly for an AVOIDABLE incident. try DUI in USA / UK and KILL SOMEONE there. You may end up doing 10 yrs.
Please support our advertisers:
190k
15 yrs ago
Look at all the traffic convictions for causing death by dangerous driving. The max is 10 years but rarely do they get more than 2 years. The courts still think traffic matters are minor offences. Traffic accidents kill and injure more people than murder and assaults but it is only a monor traffic matter. The courts and the legal profession needs to get serious about traffic or the death and injury rate will climb, there is no deterrent for traffic offences.
Please support our advertisers:
the fact that he was drunk shouldn't be seen as an extenuating circumstance.
He should take full responsibility for his actions, instead of trying to shift them on the poor taxi driver who had been working at night. What respect for human life has this brat got? He kept finding excuses, and lied to the police. He, and his parents, even think that he is "too good to be put in jail". What an arrogant prick he is. Jail will teach him some humility, and he might feel a bit less privileged when he is treated like everybody else by the prison guards
I hope he will serve his full sentence, because a man died due to his irresponsible and reckless behaviour. In jail he will have time to ponder on his life and hopefully in the future he will contribute something better to society than drinking all night in LKF and driving on the wrong side of the road because too pissed to tell the difference. He could have killed more than one person that night if the taxi had crashed against other cars or run over people passing by.
Killing someone because you are drunk can never be justified. I believe that longer jail terms should be served by drunken drivers who cause serious injury or death.
His sentence is far too lenient.
Please support our advertisers:
"You can't blame him. It was the legal strategy that failed. I am sure that guy will feel terrible foe the rest of his life. "
Of course you can blame him. The evidence was so conclusive - video accounts, eyewitness accounts - his lawyer should have been beggng for mercy from the courts. On the other hand - he only got 4 years for killing someone so maybe his strategy worked. I'm sure his first day in jail will make him regret.
As for media reports - many news sources including those in California and Australia referred to him as an Aussie, not only the HK SCMP/Standard. Sorry, just because you were born here, went to international school for a few years and left at 8 yrs does not make you a local - Chinese or otherwise - given he spent the majority of his life overseas.
Please support our advertisers:
Incidentally I do not understand why they have been asking for money and donations. The father (I am sure it was the same person) was infamously involved in a serious car crash in China where he wrote off a Ferrari and then sued the HK dealers for compensation . Don't know what he got in compensation but assume he is well and truly capable of getting good lawyers without donations. He probably did get good defence as 4 and a half years for killing someone is a joke. The Victorian Police in Australia has recently relaunched their 20 yr old campaign about Drink Driving and it makes you think really hard. If I was this kid's father, I would have done what another contributor has said here. Asked for leniency from the judge the front door rather than blame the cabbie and also educated the kid / devoting his time in educating others about drink driving and how it ruins so many families. Its a universal problem.
We need to learn from the US in terms of ZERO tolerance . They frequently throw celebrities in prison for DUI irrespective of your clout. In HK you are sadly doomed if you were involved in a similar case and grew up in a housing estate in ShamshuiPo. Nicholas Tse, Ms Bokhary, Rosemary Vandenbourke are classic examples of the legal system gone wrong here.
Please support our advertisers:
Seems to be the fashion, nowadays, setting up websites swearing black is white.
Suppose its inevitable. but doesnt change the law and truth of the matter.
Please support our advertisers:
Madtown - I have never gotten behind the wheel after having more than one drink. The law is the law, it is up to the individual to follow the law. and if you break it, you pay the price (unfortunately the victim always pays the bigger price). If it takes a couple of drinks to go over then don't have a couple of drinks or better yet don't drive. People are saying zero tolerance in the bully thread, then it should be zero tolerance for DND.
Please support our advertisers:
10 years for driving drunk?
No.
10 years for getting drunk, then killing a cab driver while trying to take control of his cab, by USING THE CAB to crush him against a railing?
Absolutely.
Madtown, you're comparing apples and oranges. Yes, I've driven drunk (and been caught for it), but luckily haven't killed anyone (or myself). That doesn't mean I've commited the same crime as someone who has killed...
To use your logic, if I punch someone in the face, I've committed the same crime as someone who beats another person to death...I was just lucky not to land a fatal blow...
The issue is not should all drunk drivers, regardless of ANY circumstances, be given equal sentences. The issue IN THIS CASE is, was the sentence given for killing someone while drunk too lenient.
Please support our advertisers:
Sorry, I don't see where I am being closed minded. I don't think you should drink and drive, full stop. Of course the sentence should follow the crime. In this case it was not merely the DND. That kid took control of a cab and continued to use it to crush the cabbie against the concrete barriers. With the cabbie lying on the road he then drove the cab further along before smashing into some other cars. When the paramedics came, and one tried to attend to him through the open window, he drove off again into opposite traffic and smashng head on into another cab.
Some of the claims from the family were outlandished to say the least:
1. The cabbie had a heart attack and crashed the cab - forensics showed the cause of death was the injuries caused by heavy force (like being crushed against something hard). Autopsy did not indicate any other physical conditions.
2. The cab engaged gears because it was an automatic and defendant was trying to stop the cab - actually the cab went up a slight incline (ie someone needs to add gas for a rolling car to make it uphill). From the video evidence one can hear a sound like when you accelerate (ie engine turning over) - if the cab just took off then the engine sound would be constant.
3. The paramedic engaged the gear when he leaned in - the gear lever is behind the steering wheel on the left - therefore it would be difficult for the paramedic who is coming in from the right to engage the lever since the wheel would be in the way. Also there was the paramedic account that the kid drove the car away while he was stuck in the side window. If the car took off by itself and the kid was sitting in the passenger seat without doing anything i am sure the paramedic would have noticed this.
4. The kid might have been drugged in the club since there were incidents of this - then how come his defense did not present evidence of drugs in his body to explain this.
5. The police should have turned off the car - when the police arrived at the scene it looked like a traffic accident as opposed to a deliberate attempt to run someone over. Therefore, there was little reason to slap the cuffs on him and they were more worried about attending to the injured. I agree that at the end when he drove off and then they caught up with him, they should have put him to ground and cuffed him then instead of putting him in the back seat.
I think the police were a little too lenient in this case. They had guns yet did not pull them on this kid.
I can see the courts giving mercy since this was a first offense, the kid was here on a charity assignment, he's young and has a good chance at rehab - but to get mercy he has to show remorse, has to volunteer for alcohol programs, has to admit fault. He did none of this, plus his parents (Dad really) were confrontational, his facebook did not paint a picture of a choirboy (which if i were his lawyer I would be painting from day1), etc. On top of that he got a 5 year driving ban - I hope this is at least starting when he gets out of jail and not from Day 1 - the sentence is too little.
Please support our advertisers:
Tune
15 yrs ago
"[O]n the other hand who amongst us have never gotten behind the wheel of a car after a few drinks. Most, I bet."
...as I used to do; however, nowadays...
[t]he law is the law, it is up to the individual to follow the law. and if you break it, you pay the price.
Therefore, for all the right reasons I, and many like me, have mended my/their evil ways.
Please support our advertisers:
Tune
15 yrs ago
"[O]n the other hand who amongst us have never gotten behind the wheel of a car after a few drinks. Most, I bet."
...as I used to do; however, nowadays...
[t]he law is the law, it is up to the individual to follow the law. and if you break it, you pay the price.
Therefore, for all the right reasons I, and many like me, have mended my/their evil ways.
Please support our advertisers:
190k
15 yrs ago
The sentence of 10 years is for Dangerous Driving Causing death. drink driving is an aggravating factor so to is a lack of remorse and trying to blame the deceased. For you legal types check out Cooksley Attorney General's Reference (No 152/2002) UK. The brat was convicted of Manslaughter which has a max of life.
read the paper today a truck driver fell asleep and killed tow people he only got 15 months. That should have been 4-5 years start and 1/3 discount for plea. That should be 32 months, very lenient courts here
Please support our advertisers:
actually I (and pretty much everyone else in this thread but you) are talking about the case mentioned in the first post (and maybe you should re-read the title of the thread to get an idea of what its about, if you still don't know)...you proclaim what you utter to be 'the issue' when it's not at all what we are discussing here...
feel free to start your own thread on the harshness or lack of in drunk driving cases...but try to stick to the point in this thread...again, everyone else has.
Please support our advertisers:
MBD
15 yrs ago
anyway, I think he's American, not Australian
Please support our advertisers:
He only got a 5 year driving ban? Are you serious? Ban the idiot for life. Zero tolerance please.
Please support our advertisers:
His nationality is quite complicated. Mother is US and Canadian. Father is Australian and British. Place of birth is HK. He went to school in the US so "HK born American student " would be the best description. But I think they referred to him as Australian because he entered HK with his Aussie passport.
Please support our advertisers:
Well Carmine, I've never been arrested or stuck in Jail, here or anywhere. I suppose it's not pleasant. Are you saying you spent time in a HK Jail & found it OK ? perhaps a free vacation at the government's expense, save on rent, etc.
The case is not about drink driving. The police said he took control of the taxi and ran the taxi driver over - true or not, I have no idea - but one man is dead, and the Jury found him guilty. I'd like to know what happened before that ? That's what I can't work out - Was it another attempted robbery of a drunk passenger that so engraged this guy, he "lost it" and went to to kill the driver ?
Please support our advertisers:
You must be logged in to be able to reply.
Login now
Copy Link
Facebook
Gmail
Mail