Here’s something for an intelligent British filmmaker to tackle once he’s done making silly minstrel movies
Another sad tale from the morally disintegrating British white underclass. Thomas Lee Wood has been sentenced to 21 for unprovoked stabbing a young man to death. Often “unprovoked” means the victim actually did provoke the attacker, verbally or physically, but in a context that makes no sense to media people or prosecutors so they insist it was unprovoked. In this case, however, every indication is that there was only the slightest, most trivial provocation, essentially none at all.
The convicted murderer is a poster boy for post-industral “Cool Britannia”.
AS A child, Thomas Lee Wood saw his mother stab his father. When he was 8 he almost drowned in a bath while his mother was tied up and locked in a cupboard.
From that time, the boy was sent to boarding care schools dealing with children so difficult that they needed to be excluded from mainstream and special education.
A report on him at 10 describes his infatuation with knives. He has an IQ of 71, is dyslexic, has no long-term relationships and an antisocial personality disorder that makes him unable to cope with pressure, anger or authority.
“Thomas,” his solicitor Jonathan Jackson told The Times, “is from that underbelly of society that most people ignore because they never come into contact with them. They don’t have jobs. They live in their estates. They don’t come out into town centres. They are on benefits or the odd part-time job for a few weeks before they get sacked. There’s plenty of them. He is not untypical. He is a product of the times.”
The victim came from entirely different circumstances:
IF ANYONE could be described as the perfect son, it was Thomas Grant. A much-liked student, straight-A scholar and keen sportsman, he was hoping to train to become an officer in the Armed Forces.
Following in Prince William’s footsteps, he was hoping to go from St Andrew’s University to Sandhurst. A memorial service at Oakham School in Rutland was attended by 500 people. “Tom had such a profound generosity of spirit and kindness towards others,” Alex Aldous, the school chaplain, told the teachers and former pupils.
One of the things I don’t like about countries like Britain and my native Sweden is how poorly insulated you are from the dregs of society. In America, one can fairly easily side-step the violent underclass (unless one is underclass-poor oneself and has to live among them), but in mass-transit obesessed Europe, you constantly rub elbows with its members.
That was the fate of the victim:
On the platform [Grant] encountered Wood, an unemployed security guard. The angry young man from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was hard to avoid. He was arguing with his girlfriend, Sarah Chadwick, 18.
…
On the platform, Ms Chadwick was talking about having her tea and Wood threatened to steal her food. “When he said this, Mr Grant turned round and looked at them: he did not say anything, and he turned away,” Tim Holroyde, QC, told Preston Crown Court.
“The defendant plainly took exception to this. He said to Mr Grant, ‘What the f*** are you looking at? I’ll stab you in a minute’.” Unknown to Sarah, Wood had stolen a large kitchen knife from the house where they had been staying.
The two men boarded the same carriage. Mr Grant had no choice; he had to stow his bicycle in the designated compartment.
A row broke out when Ms Chadwick, a woman friend and three children were unable to find their tickets. Sarah wrongly suspected Wood of stealing them; he threatened her and she began crying.
Wood stood up and started looking at her. A passenger described Wood “walking up and down the carriage as though he was stalking. It was as if he was looking for trouble and looking for eye contact.” Wood returned to the carriage through a sliding door with the knife in his hand.
He looked at the seated Mr Grant, jabbed downwards with the knife and then sprang back as the boy cried out: “I’ve been stabbed.” Another passenger said Wood’s arm movement was “quick and forceful, like a boxer”.
Wood looked down at the body and said without emotion: “He’s dead.” A pathologist found the wound penetrated 8cm (3.in), passing half through the sternum, through a lung, into the heart sac and the main artery.
I met quite a few people like Mr. Wood on trains and in train stations back in the Old Country. It was rarely a particularly enjoyable experience, although I suppose I should count myself lucky for having been exposed to such character-building social diversity.
