Paul Gascoigne AQUITTED

UnclePsychosis

Gazza appears to have the mental age of a seven year old.

Phenomenal player, but he seems to be genuinely unwell. I hope he gets the help he so desperately needs. Hopefully karma comes calling to all his "mates" who abandoned him as soon as the good times went.

Didn't follow the case at all, can't really comment on that. 

MikeS

Back in the day I used to have a drink and play pool with Paul, Ally mccoist, some of the other players, as well as 5 belly’s when they played for Rangers. Got to know him quite well Over a year or so. Hate to see what alcohol has done to him, and always wish him the best.

Philly_Q

I've been thinking about a documentary on Gazza I watched long ago, and found this on the Telegraph website.  The bit quoted at the end has stayed with me for years, I find it quite shocking somehow.

Gazza, (Terry) Butcher recalled from their time together with England, was, in the early hours of the morning, "a lost spirit, wandering up and down the corridor," pleading for company - chiefly the company of Butcher's room-mate, Chris Waddle, who would pretend to be asleep.

What he sought was action - the midnight swim, the 3am game of tennis, anything to distract him from himself.  John Barnes indicated that it would have suited Gazza had the standard duration of a football match been set at 24 hours and had football matches occurred daily.  Then his many projects of self-escape would not have been called for. "When you're on your own," Gazza said, in an old piece of interview footage, "you think a lot. And I don't like to think.  I like to act spontaneously."

Dominic

The whole point that comes across is that the poor guy is at best a very well documented mentally unwell fella and at worst a rather sad and tormented alcoholic ........why waste all that public money making a court circus out of him ;
He is ill ,
It's like taking a documented epileptic to court for having a fit in public and knocking over an old lady whilst having a seizure
With all the meds and treatment he is probably on I would doubt he had the physical ability to present a viable sexual threat in the true sense .
My late younger brother was a non-violent but tormented schizophrenic with a history of mental hospital , section orders etc etc and a specialist mental health care worker, drop-in centre pass etc going back 20 years..........He was stopped by Police for riding a bike on the pavement and gave a stream of false names including such bizarre ones as " Mopatop " and " Uncle Stunckle " and they took him to court for attempting to pervert the course of Justice and obstructing Police .
 Of course , when the mental Health Team gave evidence and his records were brought into court it was thrown out and the Judge told him to be " More forthcoming and honest with the Police " ( Like that made any difference to him - he thought he saw Demons and Monsters in the courtroom " )
 They tried to short -circuit the whole nonsense by making this available to the Police and CPS in the first place but the automaton machine rolled on and they took it to Crown Court .....I went and was amazed at the Sausage Factory approach.
 Similarly somebody should have exercised some common sense with poor old Gazza.Sad.

Sassafras

lovestrat74 said:

Might have been a different story if Fergie had got hold of him

She'd have given him a coupla black eyes.

Wazmeister

Heartfeltdawn said:

Wazmeister said:

Feel for Paul, and had 5 days with him and the England team at Bisham Abbey some years ago (I was coaching)...

"Gazza, come on now. You're never going to get a decent tone using a DS-1". 

Clearly, you overheard...

Snap

A couple of years ago there was a documentary on Gazza, something like "Being Paul Gascoigne" or something. He's an addict by his own admission. He was talking about how he shifted his booze addiction to cosmetic surgery and sweets. He went back up to Dunston and was kicking a ball about with kids and he has lost a lot of his basic co-ordination. He's just a mess full stop really. But then, he always was by all accounts.

axisus

He was an amazing natural talent at football. It is sad to see where he is now. Clearly this only ever went to court as he was a celebrity of sorts and someone thought they could make some money from him. This should have been thrown out in my opinion.

fretmeister

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

DLM

Heartfeltdawn said:

Wazmeister said:

Feel for Paul, and had 5 days with him and the England team at Bisham Abbey some years ago (I was coaching)...

"Gazza, come on now. You're never going to get a decent tone using a DS-1". 

Glad to hear he was getting competent effects-use advice, Gazza is the only player more notorious for wah wah than Kirk Hammett.

Philly_Q said:

Gazza, (Terry) Butcher recalled from their time together with England, was, in the early hours of the morning, "a lost spirit, wandering up and down the corridor," pleading for company - chiefly the company of Butcher's room-mate, Chris Waddle, who would pretend to be asleep.

Thank you so much for finally giving me closure after all these years about what those late-night Spanish news broadcasts were rabbiting about! 

p90fool

fretmeister said:

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

Why does this get a lol? 

What exactly is ok about forcibly snogging someone you don't know?

NelsonP

fretmeister said:

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

Maybe he was just inspired by this fella...



"I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women —I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything."

axisus

p90fool said:

fretmeister said:

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

Why does this get a lol? 

What exactly is ok about forcibly snogging someone you don't know?

I didn't LOL it, but I'm guessing that it comes from the fact that most people have met the opposite sex in many places over their lifetime, pubs, clubs, parties etc, and at no point EVER during impromptu snogging has a consent form either been waved or signed by either party.

Note: I'm not referring to this specific incident there, it's a general comment.

fretmeister

axisus said:

p90fool said:

fretmeister said:

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

Why does this get a lol? 

What exactly is ok about forcibly snogging someone you don't know?

I didn't LOL it, but I'm guessing that it comes from the fact that most people have met the opposite sex in many places over their lifetime, pubs, clubs, parties etc, and at no point EVER during impromptu snogging has a consent form either been waved or signed by either party.

Note: I'm not referring to this specific incident there, it's a general comment.

Not on a train, in public, and for the utter bollox reason of protecting someone.

Sassafras

axisus said:

p90fool said:

fretmeister said:

phil_b said:

munckee said:

He has been cleared of sexual assault, still facing common assault charge I believe.  His barrister argued he had no sexual motive in kissing the woman on the lips.

why is this even in court

Because kissing someone without their consent is an offence.

Why does this get a lol? 

What exactly is ok about forcibly snogging someone you don't know?

I didn't LOL it, but I'm guessing that it comes from the fact that most people have met the opposite sex in many places over their lifetime, pubs, clubs, parties etc, and at no point EVER during impromptu snogging has a consent form either been waved or signed by either party.

I think the keyword here is "forcibly".
You can't kiss, grope, rape or force yourself in any way on anyone. And you can't be allowed to feel you can do so with impunity.

Deadman

Gaza's been off the rails for years. The 'Moaty' incident was the first biggy I think. Funny but tragic at the same time.

prowla

I don't class myself as a namby-pamby liberal, but the woman was assaulted, wasn't she?

Someone kissed her on the lips without her permission.

Whether or not it was well intentioned or in a drunken stupor is not really the point.

Dominic

It's an assault for sure but in context an assault by somebody who has severe mental health issues and isn't ill -intentioned
Can we call it a well intentioned mild assault by a misguided person of limited intelligence and diminished responsibility ?
I think we probably can.

p90fool

Dominic said:

It's an assault for sure but in context an assault by somebody who has severe mental health issues and isn't ill -intentioned
Can we call it a well intentioned mild assault by a misguided person of limited intelligence and diminished responsibility ?
I think we probably can.

Only if you're nostalgic about English football.

To anyone else it's not only the action of a dickhead, it's also illegal. 

munckee

p90fool said:

Dominic said:

It's an assault for sure but in context an assault by somebody who has severe mental health issues and isn't ill -intentioned
Can we call it a well intentioned mild assault by a misguided person of limited intelligence and diminished responsibility ?
I think we probably can.

Only if you're nostalgic about English football.

To anyone else it's not only the action of a dickhead, it's also illegal. 

I am nostalgic about English football but it’s completely out of order behaviour.