...“common sense, decency and humanity”

The words used by Mr Justice Bean to describe the jury who unanimously acquitted "devoted" mother Kay Gilderdale. He like his collegaue Judge Richard Brown, who presided over the case before trial, invited the CPS to drop the attempted murder charge. Judge Brown referred to Mrs Gilderdale's earlier guilty plea to assisted suicide and therefore deemed it unnessary to tangle her up in any more "legal mumbo jumbo". Fascinating turn of phrase from a judge.

There has been much critcism of the Director of Public Prosecutions for pushing this case to trial. I fully understand the anger and frustration in subjecting Mrs Gilderdale to the recent ordeal in court exept to say- she took the law into her own hands. The role of the DPP is to decide, among many other things, whether or not prosecuting a case is in the public interest. Clearly this case falls within that category. The law is so murky in this area no one can accuately predict where one stands. It is a rather ugly state of affairs, almost kafkaesque, when no one knows which way the criminal justice system will come down on you on any given case.

I have every sympathy with Mrs Gilderdale and her family. I also, on a personal level, do not think that what she did should should be against the law. However as it stands - it is against the law.... i think. And for that reason this case needed to be brought into the public eye and hopefully, more importantly, into the eye of the politicians. For it is through government action that will bring clarity to the law.



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