Invergordon man"s conviction quashed after judge calls abduction "stupid prank"
A Invergordon gamer found guilty of trying to abduct a schoolboy has had his convictions quashed after a top judge accepted it was only a “stupid prank”.
Shelf-stacker Carlton Tebbs, 22, and his Manchester law student friend Tariq Alsamaan, 21, dressed as security guards in a plan of “crass stupidity” at a Manchester school in 2016.
The pair told staff they had been hired to take a named pupil home because he was being bullied and wanted to speak to him.
But their plan was rumbled when the school’s head teacher became suspicious and called police.
The pair were convicted of attempted child abduction at Manchester Crown Court last December and given suspended jail sentences.
After an appeal, the convictions of both men were quashed yesterday by Lord Justice Treacy, who accepted the incident was just a bad joke gone wrong.
The court heard Tebbs, of Inglis Road, Invergordon, in the Highlands and Alsamaan, of Winchester Road, Stretford, knew each other from gaming online.
They spoke via Skype, but only met twice in person before embarking on their prank at Wellacre Academy, in Flixton, in November, 2016.
They told staff they wanted to see the boy to ask him questions about his having hired security guards to defend him from bullies.
But the head teacher knew that the boy was not a bullying victim and, when the child came to the office, told him to stay outside.
When police arrived shortly afterwards, the men continued to claim they were genuine security guards.
However, they soon admitted the truth, saying they had dressed as security guards in order to prank members of the public.
Their lawyers argued at the Court of Appeal that they had been wrongly convicted because of unfair legal directions by the judge to the jury.
Giving judgment, Lord Justice Treacy ruled that the legal instructions were unbalanced and made the convictions unsafe.
He said: “The directions given in this case had a strong tendency to be applied adversely to the interests of these appellants in a way that wasn’t warranted.
“In those circumstances, we find the convictions are unsafe and, accordingly, allow the appeals in each case.
“This is a case where it was not seriously disputed by the crown that this was some form of stupid prank.”
Addressing Alsamaan, who was in court, he said: “You were extremely stupid, as was Mr Tebbs.
Alsamaan broke down sobbing when the judge announced that his conviction would be overturned.
Speaking outside court afterwards, he said he was full of remorse for what he did and the experience had been the worst of his life.
Source: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1525483/invergordon-mans-conviction-quashed-after-judge-calls-abduction-stupid-prank/
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