trial of street "children" continues

Of course the "street children" concerned are all now over 18 (except one) so no longer children in the eyes of the law. However, it should be mentioned that these are all people who have lived on the streets for many years, in some cases from quite young childhood, have little or no education and have had several years of continued solvent abuse. All these factors have affected their mental capacity and those of us who work with them would consider them to be people with "diminished responsibility" who shouldn't even be on trial as "normal adults" in the first place.

One of the boys, when the judge read out the accusations against him, turned to the others and said "what did she say?". The judge repeated the charges and asked him "do you understand the accusations?" and he replied "uuuh ... what?" at which the judge tried a third time. By then I could keep quiet no longer and I called out in court "No he doesn't, he hasn't a clue what he's accused of and the others don't fully understand either!" The judge didn't look too happy at my shouting out but she did have the grace to ask me to present myself! I then explained very briefly who I am and that I have worked with street people for 11 years and that they don't realise the severity of the charges against them.

The day I was called to testify, three of the "victims" made some accusations against me, that I have tried to force them to change their testimonies. I suspect that the same policeman put the idea into their heads as part of his way of making my testimony invalid. When I was called before the judge to answer the charges I said that I had at all times advised all of "my" folks, accused and accusors to tell the truth, nothing more, nothing less.

The next court date is Monday 17th October so we will see what joys that holds for us. In the meantime, we continue to hope and pray for justice and mercy.