By alexh07 - 11 Aug 19 5:00 PM
Hi, I just received a conviction and I'm looking for ideas of which organisations I can share my story with?
I am a recent engineering graduate with a masters degree and autism. I basically received a conviction for harassing someone online even though they had done the same to me. There were not any warnings and the CJS took advantage of my disability (poor social awareness) to secure the conviction. All of the evidence showing me being harassed by the complainer was ignored, and all of my evidence proving my innocence was also ignored. The total cost of the case to taxpayers was estimated at around £90k. I started work not long after graduation but this case forced me out of work. I already struggled with anxiety and autism when looking for employment but now that I have a criminal record (and an employment gap) it's even harder to find work
Despite working hard on my education and originally planning to contribute to the economy, the experience of being screwed over means my views have now changed and it is highly unlikely that I will ever pay income tax or my £30k student loan back to the taxpayer. I now claim benefits instead and have been working on a form of online trading (which I will not go into detail) which falls into a tax-free bracket. The whole case was biased, unfair and disproportionate to the impact on the economy
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By JASB - 20 Apr 20 4:39 PM
+x+xThanks for sharing your story Alexh07, after reading through the whole story I can see there’s been a lot of frustration. Hopefully, now you can begin to put it all behind you. One thing that is important though with any crime is remorse, all the police see was that it was your choice to carry out what was asked of you, the crime, and upset those people (victims). So, if you take away all the storylines around the incident to do with her, you have to ask yourself if you feel remorseful for sending those messages, winding people up, ‘trolling’ whatever and upsetting those people. I say that because the CJS can look at things very simplistically, which law was broken, what’s the evidence, what are the guidelines, and then the judge throws in his or her comments and you come out the other end. If every crime, big or small, was forensically detailed, the ‘he said, she said’ stuff the courts would have Jeremy Kyle show chaos a on a daily basis and backlogged to the hilt. But the courts won’t see a crime go unpunished especially when you've admitted that you did it. (The gripe I have is the level of punishment but that’s a conversation for another day). Did she take advantage of you? Did she commit a crime? Did she intend for all of this to happen?... I'd like to think probably not. If she apologised, it’s up to you if want to accept that apology, it may help with closure on what’s been a traumatic time for you. Either way, you’ve come out of the other end and now you have the task of rebuilding and getting on with your life as best you can. No doubt you will have learned a lot and I have full confidence in you that you WILL be able to put your Master’s degree to use in the future. Try and focus on making that possible, in the meantime the distance between you and this story will get increase and will be easier to deal with.
I hope this helps. Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately although it's now 2020 and this happened in 2016 it cannot be put behind me yet as I am still being reminded of it on a weekly basis by the probation office and the criminal record won't be spent for years to come I am not being ignorant or just saying this in frustration but I do not feel any remorse as it was completely tit for tat, no worse than the average falling out between friends twisted into a campaign of harassment by the one-sided CJS in order to meet targets. How would you feel if someone went out of their way to annoy you and then you were dragged through the CJS for doing exactly the same back and at every stage you tried to fight it and were ignored whilst they walked away scot-free? I have certainly gained a lot of life experience from this and my views have changed so I do not plan to work again for many reasons but have adapted to the situation and I am quite content with my life I feel that some of the ways in which the CJS operates is a socio-economic disaster waiting to happen. A society which picks on someones poor social awareness disability and tries them as a criminal for a social related crime, shuns a skilled person for being silly on the internet at the beginning of their career and puts someone that started it first's feelings infront of all else is one that I no longer have any motivation to contribute towards
Hi
Please take my words as being honest and open but never offensive. In fact my way of writing is to support by suggesting what I would consider is a non bias view. This then hopefully allows you to move your focus onto yourself in a more understanding and focused perspective thus improving your quality of life. Your health will continue to suffer if you do not focus on improving yourself as a priority and so have a positive view on the things you can control and remove the anger from what you cannot.
First I have attached a document - wheel of life. There is info with it but basically this asks for you to be honest about your thoughts on different areas of your life: change the titles of a segment if you prefer. This allows you then to focus your attention on improving that area. You continue to update it even when you are happy with all areas so to maintain that feeling. Consider a tyre that is inflated and on a car. If a puncture happens then it is deflated and cannot perform fully until you repair it. This is the same with the quality of life.
Your words all show your emotional stress, resentment to the individual concerned and society; especially the Justice system. Also they show your refusal to accept your part in it. Yes you mention you had someone influencing you but as I well know from my own experience, this fact or ignorance of the law is not a defence. As I mentioned this is not being aggressive to you as we all do the same.
You state "I do not feel any remorse as it was completely tit for tat". I appreciate your mentioning a personal condition, but the remorse the authorities are looking for is important because if you are not allowing yourself to understand the impact of your - and the female you mention - actions then what is saying you will not do it again? Remember you have to look at the broader consequences and concerns.
You will never get the Justice system to condone you doing an action because someone did it to you, retaliation is a crime.
I would first suggest honestly looking at the actions you did and their consequences: " - She would ask me to edit her photos to change her appearance, message her sister in law to wind her up and she gave me her Facebook password and said I could go on it. In general she had fun annoying people online and encouraged me to do so.
Do you agree that this action by you created victims? Surely the people who were annoyed have feeling like you? Look at understanding why you allowed this influence to happen, then enhance your self controls to be able to recognize and thus stop it happening again.
Do you agree a person can remove permission?
- I also went on her Facebook with the password she had given me to try and find out what she was saying about me.
You did the above after she stopped speaking to you and therefore removed the permission - or this concept would be the expectation of the law. Look at understanding why you allowed this influence to happen, then enhance your self controls to be able to recognize and thus stop it happening again.
I am well aware of your viewing the actions of the Justice System as vindictive and possibly seeming like a conspiracy against you. I myself present hard factual evidence of blackmail to the police which was I think ignored. Though my evidence was proven out of court to be factual, I now think they just reassembled their evidence and the charge wording to focus on something I had admitted to thus get a conviction. However I understand your feeling but you must move on.
There is so much more you talk of and accordingly what I could say but you see what I am hoping you will now focus on; yourself and the positives of what is happening in your life - your new skill set and its work opportunities for example.
Know that ten years on, I am still being questioned on my yearly PPU visits in the same manner as my initial interview because of risk management and I am considered low risk. I know and will always know what actually occurred in my offence. In the end remember there is truth but also the perception of truth".
Any support I can offer in your journey to improve your quality of life please ask.
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