Today will go down in history as the day
- Thread starter Dana Dane
- Start date
MEANWHILE IN ENGLAND
A man weighing more than 100kg has been cleared of unlawful killing after he sat on a man who was trying to steal a car.
Brian Machin restrained Bernard Doherty as he tried to steal a Mitsubishi Shogun outside Machin's house in Staffordshire, England, in January last year, reports the UK Telegraph newspaper.
Machin, 53, used his knee to hold Doherty to the ground while his cousin, William Jones, who owned the Mitsubishi, lay across his legs.
An inquest has heard that the pair held the 24-year-old down while waiting for police to arrive.
When the police arrived, Doherty was unconscious but was still being restrained, the inquest was told.
He was pronounced dead after reaching hospital.
A post-mortem found that Doherty, who had a partner and a four-year-old daughter, died from asphyxia due to an object pressing on his chest.
The cousins said they "showed no malice" towards him.
Prosecutors took six months to decide whether the pair would be charged with unlawful killing but the case was eventually dropped because prosecutors could not "establish that the force used was excessive."
Machin told police that he wasn't aware that he was hurting Doherty.
"We weren't restricting his breathing as far as we were aware," he was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.
"We didn't want to hurt him, we just wanted to let the police have him."
According to reports, Mr Machin had to move out of his home "for his own protection" after the death.
A verdict of accidental death was recorded yesterday.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/7943348/overweight-man-sits-on-thief-accidentally-kills-him
A man weighing more than 100kg has been cleared of unlawful killing after he sat on a man who was trying to steal a car.
Brian Machin restrained Bernard Doherty as he tried to steal a Mitsubishi Shogun outside Machin's house in Staffordshire, England, in January last year, reports the UK Telegraph newspaper.
Machin, 53, used his knee to hold Doherty to the ground while his cousin, William Jones, who owned the Mitsubishi, lay across his legs.
An inquest has heard that the pair held the 24-year-old down while waiting for police to arrive.
When the police arrived, Doherty was unconscious but was still being restrained, the inquest was told.
He was pronounced dead after reaching hospital.
A post-mortem found that Doherty, who had a partner and a four-year-old daughter, died from asphyxia due to an object pressing on his chest.
The cousins said they "showed no malice" towards him.
Prosecutors took six months to decide whether the pair would be charged with unlawful killing but the case was eventually dropped because prosecutors could not "establish that the force used was excessive."
Machin told police that he wasn't aware that he was hurting Doherty.
"We weren't restricting his breathing as far as we were aware," he was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.
"We didn't want to hurt him, we just wanted to let the police have him."
According to reports, Mr Machin had to move out of his home "for his own protection" after the death.
A verdict of accidental death was recorded yesterday.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/7943348/overweight-man-sits-on-thief-accidentally-kills-him
