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I'm intrigued by his Not Guilty plea for escaping custody when he was previously in custody, and then found to have escaped it. I don't know much about legal procedures, but that does seem quite bold.
He's got absolutely no reason to plead guilty. He's not going to get a lighter sentence so he might as well cost them as much as possible by forcing a trial, and extending the news coverage of this embarrassing story.
Not a fan of the guy or his ideology but, from his perspective, this makes perfect sense.
It’s like obviously guilty people appealing their sentence: they have a right to do so and as such their solicitor will recommend that they do it. There’s almost no chance of them getting their sentence overturned or reduced, but you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Why wouldn't he get a lighter sentence for a guilty plea?
Because they're going to throw the book at him regardless now.
He may also disagree with the "lawfully detained" bit of the charge, given that he has pleaded not guilty to the original charges he was due to stand trial for. But he doesn't really have anything to lose either way. There are screaming tabloids on the case now, he might as well spin it out.
I'd have thought they'd want less fuss, so would offer him a deal...but you're right, I don't think he'd accept anyway. The media circus is all he's got.
This is the UK. We don't do plea bargains. There are sentencing guidelines which include giving credit for an early guilty plea but, in this case, I doubt it will make much difference to whatever sentence he eventually gets.
Thanks. If he reveals himself to be a performance artist, I'd be genuinely impressed
I want him to win just to see the bold story that someone made him not guilt.
It would need to be fantastic and I want to see that.
Maybe he somehow fell and got stuck under the truck, and then got lost on his way back to the prison?
As far as I know you can enter a not guilty plea regardless of the circumstances. Maybe he wants to appear a martyr, and use the resulting trial to attract attention.