Protecting A UK "Asian"

(Hat-tip to Aeneas)

Jamie Bauld, who has Down's Syndrome and the mental age of five, was investigated for assault and the crime of racial hate after a minor incident on the campus of Motherwell College in Lanarkshire.

Excerpt from this article at the Times Online:

Jamie, 18, cannot tie his shoelaces or leave home on his own, nor can he understand simple verbal concepts such as whether a door is open or shut. But his parents said that he was charged with attacking a fellow student, an Asian girl who also had special needs.

[...]

The incident in question took place last September at the special needs department of Motherwell College, in Lanarkshire, where Jamie is a student. Fiona Bauld, Jamie’s mother and full-time carer, claimed that the Asian student, who is only slightly older than Jamie, had been following her son and staring at him. Jamie had earlier complained to his parents that her behaviour scared him, and they had advised him just to walk away.

But one day, his mother said, the girl came close up to Jamie as he was eating lunch. He pushed her with one hand and told her to go away....

Not an unusual action from one with Down's Syndrome, but his rejection of her led to charges of lawbreaking, in part because the "Asian" girl

had scratched her own face to mark it and referred to herself as “blackface”.

The police at first told the Baulds that no legal consequences would occur.

That's not how the situation worked out.

For over seven months, Jamie and his parents endured the legal ordeal. Finally, the charges were dismissed:

Mrs Bauld said: “The incident was blown out of all proportion. I can’t believe that two special needs people should be dealt with like this. The whole thing was handled so badly.”

Here is a picture of Jamie and his mother:


Apparently, Jamie's mental age isn't enough to prevent an insulted Muslim from finding a way to make an infidel's life miserable. After all, an infidel touched a muslima. Can't have that!

The fear and anxiety which Jamie endured are inexcusable. Jamie did understand that he was in some kind of trouble. From this article in the Daily Mail:

[O]ne night shortly after Christmas, as the family watched TV, Fiona realised to her horror that Jamie was not as oblivious as she'd hoped.

A scene featuring a prison appeared on screen, at which point Jamie said quietly: "I don't want to go to jail, Mum. Please don't let them take me away." He then burst into tears.

"I rushed over, put my arms around him and told him everything was going to be fine," says Fiona.

"All through this nightmare I've done my best to put on a smile and act normally around Jamie, simply to protect him from everything that was happening. But that night, as he sobbed in my arms, I wasn't sure everything would be OK.

"My worst fear was that Jamie would be taken away somewhere that I wouldn't be able to protect him. I said: 'Jamie, you're not going to prison', but I found myself in tears, too."

When Fiona - who lives in Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, with her husband James, 46, a telecommunications contractor, and their daughter Stephanie, 17 - uses the word "nightmare" she is making no understatement.

It is the insane climate of political correctness which led to a legal and emotional situation which should never have transpired at all.

Further reading: Robert Spencer's take on the above story.