Many Americans have a vague image of England as the land of Jeeves and Wooster, but things have changed drastically over the past few decades.
In June of last year, Antonette Richardson, a 37-year-old grandmother, with convictions for deception and handling stolen goods, called her 38-year-old boyfriend, Tony Virasami, out on bail, tagged and under curfew for shoplifting, so he would come in from the car to the shopping center, where she had pushed her way to the front of the line (“queue”) as she went to buy a packet of cigarettes, and one Adam Prendergas had the temerity to yell at her.
Virasami prompty punched out one Kevin Tripp, 57, and killed him — he fell and hit his head, hard.
Richardson told the court she was shocked and disgusted when her boyfriend hit the wrong person. Mr. Tripp’s sisters and brother were shocked and disgusted by the criminals’ lack of remorse:
“That neither has shown signs of remorse in court, even smiling at us during a previous hearing, makes it even harder to deal with and means we can never forgive them.”
At least she was found guilty — if only by an 11-1 majority verdict.