EDITORIAL: Kieran Williams’s Family deserve better than this. The verdict is a miscarriage of justice.
A year ago, 18 year old Kieran Williams was savagely killed.
Suffering 20 stab wounds, some of them in critical locations such as his neck. Kieran died.
An attempt was then made to burn his body, before placing it in a makeshift grave behind an Industrial Estate in Pallion.
The circumstances and manner in which these acts were conducted were monstrous. But apparently, as a verdict by the Jury found yesterday, this does not constitute “murder“.
While one suspect was acquitted, the other, Louis Hackett was convicted of “manslaughter”.
Manslaughter is described as: “the crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or in circumstances not amounting to murder.” In other words, when someone is killed, but the motivation is “unintentional”.
It is hard to believe given the established facts of what happened, that this can be described as “unintentional“.
When you stab someone that many times, what do you intend for the outcome to be? Do you think they will be okay?
It is no surprise that the reaction to this verdict is one of universal outrage and condemnation. It is seen as what it is, a colossal failure of the British Justice System.
Kieran’s family are serving a “life sentence” of heartache, pain and grief. The loss of their much loved 18 year old is agonizing beyond all comprehension.
The system has failed them, and this is not what justice looks like.
While everyone is entitled to the right of a fair trial, this defies all common sense and all reason.
That is because when you look at the publicly affirmed record of what was discussed in the trial, it’s clear cut. There’s no ambiguity, there’s no grey area.
For legal reasons we cannot speculate about who did what exactly. But what we can and must speak out is the fact that this is a miscarriage of justice. It would be wrong to remain silent.
We recommend that the public rally around his family to help them appeal this verdict immediately.
