The reason given to police for defecating on dead hedgehog in street
Victor Ford after leaving Spalding Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
A MAN who defecated on a dead hedgehog in the street in the middle of the day coolly gave the arresting officer his reason.
“When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go,” said Victor Ford.
The 34-year-old was squatting over the grass verge with his jeans around his knees when a police officer drove along Balmoral Avenue, Spalding, at 1.20pm on July 3.
Deborah Cartwright, prosecuting at court, said the officer stopped his patrol car and walked over to Ford, who was standing up and pulling up his jeans.
The officer looked at the ground where Ford had been squatting and saw “fresh human faeces on top of a dead hedgehog”.
Miss Cartwright said the officer saw a woman at the window in a house nearby, who would have had a clear view, and a woman walking towards him pushing a child in a pram and she would also have been in a position to see.
Ford, formerly of Spalding’s Gamlyn Close, pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing to a charge of outraging public decency by defecating in the street. But he changed his plea to guilty on Thursday when the Crown Prosecution Service offered a lesser public order charge.
Solicitor Anita Toal, mitigating, told the court: “He doesn’t have any recollection of events on that day due to the amount he had been drinking.”
She said Ford had significant problems with alcohol, significant problems with his mental health and described him as a paranoid schizophrenic.
She said Ford was on income support and disability living allowance.
Mrs Toal said Ford is subject to a suspended prison sentence but it would be “wholly inappropriate” to activate it for this latest offence.
District Judge John Stobart fined Ford £100 and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
He told Ford: “If you ever find yourself in this situation again you go out of sight.”
Mr Stobart said the charge was brought because the incident happened in an open public space.
He said: “If there is any more behaviour like this, the courts won’t treat it as an oddity – they will treat it as very serious.”
Rather than activate Ford’s suspended sentence, Mr Stobart decided to “make it more onerous” by barring him from going to Scotland for three days. He explained to Ford that he had to do something to make the prison order worse because he did not want to activate the sentence.
The judge said: “It sounds stupid and it is stupid.”
Ford, of Middlecott Close, Boston, appeared at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
So why the victim surcharge this time?
EVEN though the main victim in this case was a dead hedgehog, all fines for criminal offences carry an additional £15 victim surcharge.
Money is paid into a fund aimed at improving services for victims of crime. It was introduced in 2004 to “rebalance” the criminal justice system in favour of victims.
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Comments
There are 16 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Stevieb13
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 04:55 PMThis man's actions are more than deplorable and the judges actions are even worse. Why do we live in a mamby pamby state where the youth (youth? ...Victor is 34 years old!) of today appear to get away with total disregard to any values acceptable to a decent society. I find the story and the actions totally disgusting. Can it be explained to me what "barring Victor from travelling to Scotland for 3 days" is supposed to achieve. Stopping this person's welfare payments for 3 weeks would be far more realistic.
sabbath97
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 01:18 PMthis story is appearing on websites all over the world now, just seen it on an american site, what a way to get worldwide recognition
englishspalding
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:54 AMso I have had a comment removed by moderator - it was not racist, derogatory and certainly tamer than others than have appeared on here. So much for freedom of speech.
HollygoLula
Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 06:08 PMExcuses, excuses....yawn...isnt is amazing how when anyone does anything wrong these days its never their fault!!!!! Its about time everyone took responsibility for their own actions in life...even when they are under the influence of drink or drugs.
englishspalding
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 10:10 AMComment removed by moderator
mavrick
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 05:46 PMif the man has health problems then that is sad but it does not give that judge the right to say if you want to s...t as long as you do it so nobody can see you is disgusting as somebody has already said it is not nice when you walk up the river bank and have it all on the bottom of your shoes or your dog decides to roll in it, dog s...t is bad enough but human. may be next time it might be the judges shoes or dog. just let's hope so
leeknivek
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 01:16 AMHe hardly even did anything. Why is everyone on the comments here making him out to be a horrible person? He shat, on a dead hedgehog, in some grass. This wasn't because he's living for free off of the government. This wasn't because he's a poor mental health problem-victim. This is because he got drunk and relieved himself. Of course, since he was drunk, he wasn't able to necessarily make good decisions. That's all there is to it.
sabbath97
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:42 PMbadbonez i'm assuming the judge means we can all do it in the street as long as we are not seen, think i'll do one in the dark outside the judges house
woody
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:05 PMWith all due respect you still aren't listening - Mental health problems may mean this man just doesn't think nor act like the rest of us, it really is that simple.
englishspalding
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:14 PMproblems not issues. We are British not American. So the tax payer has had to pay for him to go to court because he couldnt be bothered to find a toilet because he had a lot to drink. We are listening, Woody, but find the whole episode disgusting. And we, the taxpayer, have effectively paid for him to do this - income support, benefits.
woody
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 04:16 PMNobody is listening, are you ? He has problems with alcohol, significant problems with his mental health and described him as a paranoid schizophrenic and the guy is in need of help, Sadly metal heath assistance is running at an all time low in this area. If anyone thinks a court appearance with change anything them you don't understand mental health issues.
wigwam
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 03:03 PMwhat bothers me, is the fact that he's on income support and disability living allowance. maybe if i start s**ting on dead headgehogs the goverment might give me some money to save me going out to work everyday
englishspalding
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 10:18 AMyes, badbonez, I find it disturbing. Obviously the judge doesn't live in the real world
badbonez
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 09:36 AMDoes nobody else find it disturbing that the judge has given this man permision to defecate in the street as long as he isn't seen?
sabbath97
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 09:57 PMwhat i would like to know is did he deliberately empty the contents of his bowel on the dead hedgehog or was that pure chance that it ended up on it as a lot of emphasis has been put on this, has the hedgehog been given a decent burial and was it exhibit A in court
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