Those naughty Colombian couriers!

cfsmtb said:

This article has to have Title of the Year, four years for being a
stupid pillock? Hrmmm. 🙁

Same story but the facts vary a bit:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060226/asp/foreign/story_5897483.asp

Slapper in slammer
Bogota, Feb. 25: A Colombian man has been sentenced to four years' house
arrest for slapping a woman's bottom as he rode by her on his bicycle,
sparking debate on whether the punishment fit the crime.

Showing re-enactments of the incident, television news shows were filled
yesterday with legal experts offering opinions about the judgment handed
down earlier in the week by Bogota's district court.

Some said that to confine bicycle messenger Victor Garcia to his home
for four years for smacking Diana Marcela Diaz's buttocks was excessive.
Others said it would deter other men. One programme showed three models
having their denim clad bottoms smacked so hard by a phantom hand it
could be clearly heard by television viewers. The women said they hoped
the case would mean they would be safer while on foot.

--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

Peter McCallum said:

Same story but the facts vary a bit:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060226/asp/foreign/story_5897483.asp

eye raed dit on teh interwebbie so [censored] is ture. 🙂

cfsmtb said:

This article has to have Title of the Year, four years for being a stupid pillock? Hrmmm. 🙁

Colombians cage [censored]-grope bicycle courier
theregister.co.ukbicycle courierOpen ↗

Buttock-fondling ne'er-do-well gets four years. By Lester Haines

Let's face it, they don't mess around in Colombia. To add to the many hazards of life in that sun-kissed paradise - including kidnap, death by coke-dealing guerillas, or getting shot by enraged footie fans (ok, that only applies to World Cup squad defenders, but still...) - is the very real possibility that a moment of macho madness might earn you an extended spell in chokey.

More specifically, if you're a bicycle courier and you grab a handful of Diana Marcela Diaz's posterior, you can expect to spend the next four years playing hunt the soap in a Bogota slammer.

Ms Diaz, the BBC reports, was on the receiving end of said outrage and, although the perp tried to make good his escape, he was debiked by passers-by. The unnamed octopus was subsequently cuffed, and his victim rather splendidly offered the option of "slapping him, letting him go, or filing a complaint".

Declining to give him a good whack in the chops for his trouble, Diaz decided to "set a precedent that would stop sexist behaviour", as she explained. It worked too, because the bloke was banged up for a four stretch - a sentence slammed by some lawyers as "excessive".

A (female) member of the national ombudsman's office said the courier had acted merely "out of lust", offering: "He didn't use violence or commit a sexual act."

A number of South American countries still allow the 'crime of passion' defence when men assault 'their' women. All the usual examples "I thought she was having an affair so I killed her when I was angry" Not guilty. The worst I have heard is a university professor who got off after killing his wife with a hammer in a fit of passion because his dinner was not up to scratch. It was clearly too much for a macho man to put up with. Not guilty.

So how does that compare to 4 years house arrest for an assault (or even sexual assault) at the lower end of the scale? Very strange.

(Hunt the soap at home? The report I saw said it was house arrest.)

SteveA