Judge Robert Linford didn’t hold back 🔥
A judge has gone viral on social media this week after delivering an epic putdown to two defendants convicted for their part in the UK riots.
Judge Robert Linford sentenced John Cann and Ryan Bailey for their roles in the violent disorder in Plymouth city centre last week. Both pleaded guilty to violent disorder and appeared at Plymouth Crown Court earlier this week for sentencing.
While sentencing Cann to three years and Bailey to 30 months, Judge Linford delivered a scathing putdown to both defendants that has since gone viral on X.
Addressing Cann in court, the judge criticised comments he made during a police interview where he discussed “the better use of taxpayers money and why people were having to pay to keep these people in this country after committing such heinous crimes”.
These 2 Plymouth rioters have been convicted of 209 previous offences + they told the police they were rioting because immigrants cost the taxpayer too much money.
Judge Linford made them work out how much their offending had cost Britain's taxpayers over the last 38 years.👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/om2gvgK7MD
— Rebecca Tidy (@DrRebeccaTidy) August 14, 2024
News website Plymouth Live reports what Judge Linford said next:
“So let’s look at how the taxpayer have been funding your activities over the last 38 years — let’s see what you’ve cost the country: you’ve got 10 aliases, four fictitious birth dates, you’re 51 years of age, you’ve been convicted of 170 offences, you been convicted of theft, arson, taking cars, handling stolen goods, obtaining by deception, burglary, dangerous driving and possessing bladed articles. In all over the years that you’ve been visiting the criminal justice system you’ve received sentences totalling 357 months in prison, many of them concurrent.”
“In other words, nearly 30 years,” Judge Linford continued. “That Mr Cann is what you’ve been costing this country and you sit there in that interview and saw fit to be critical of others. You have no right whatever to say who should or should not be in this country.”
Ouch.
Turning to Bailey, the judge noted that he was in “no position to judge anybody”, highlighting his 29 convictions, which included theft, criminal damage, possession of drugs, supply of class A drugs, threatening behaviour, breach of a Domestic Violence Protection Order, and robbery.
Many X users applauded the judge’s stinging rebuke. “What a fantastic response from the judge,” one wrote. “I hope they are made to do the actual maths.”
“This is why context is so important, some people are purposely spinning the rhetoric that Judges are simply locking people up for one or two tweets or post’s on FB,” another commented. “But that clearly isn’t the case, a lot of these reprobates have previous convictions and provide zero to society.”