Police Arrest Peter And Neil Flanagan For Killing Burglar Who Broke Into Their Pendlebury Home
PETER Flanagan, 59, and his son and Neil Flanagan, 27, have been arrested for knifing to death the alleged burglar who broke into their home on Ethel Avenue, Pendlebury, Salford. Also arrested is Neil Flanagan’s girlfriend, 21.
The victim, 26, was not alone. He was three other men. The gans broke into just before midnight last night.
When the man was knifed, they dragged him outside. Then they ran off. The homeowner dialled 999.
How will this one play out.?
David Cameron has taken a view. He told the BBC1 Politics Show:
“It’s to make sure that fewer cases, frankly, are taken to court, that fewer people are arrested for doing what I think is perfectly legitimate, which is to defend yourself in your own home. The moment a burglar steps over your threshold and invades your property, with all the threat that gives to you, your family and your livelihood, I think they leave their human rights outside.”
A homeowner can employ “reasonable force”. How is that defined? Well, it is not “grossly disproportionate” force. How is that defined? Well, in January 2010, we reported:
Munir Hussain is back at his home in Desborough Park Road, High Wycombe, after being freed from Bullingdon Prison in Oxfordshire. Hussain, 53, had his sentence reduced at the Court of Appeal in London. Mr Hussain and his brother Tokeer attacked Walid Salem, one of a gang of burglars who had broken into his family home and threatened to kill them. He hit the man with a cricket bat.
The Judge ruled:
“The plain, simple reality is that Munir Hussain was acting under the continuing influence of extreme provocation. Involvement in this serious violence can only be understood as a response to the dreadful and terrifying ordeal and the emotional anguish which he had undergone. His family had effectively been kidnapped in their own home. He feared for their lives and the honour of his wife and daughter.”
The case will hinge on whether the homeowners acted with any premeditation – did they pursue the victim?
Posted: 23rd, June 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (22) | TrackBack | Permalink
