"Stranger than fiction", "beyond belief" are just two phrases commonly used to describe events outwith the imagination of most of us. To leave a convicted felon outside a court without supervision awaiting transport to prison because there was no place for him to be held securely certainly can be described by those phrases. It is nothing short of a shambolic indictment and example of all that is wrong but is happening every day in any magistrates` court somewhere in England and Wales.
This reminds me of one of our court 'open days' some years back. A story told by security officer, who had driven a prison van, recounted how it was her first trip to a prison in the countryside but the crew didn't know where it was. Before the days of GPS her colleague suggested they ask a young man waiting by the side of the road. He obliged by giving them directions but then went on to say he assumed they hadf come for him and he had been waiting for half an hour. He had walked to the main road so he could be collected speedily. Guess it wouldn't happen these days...
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