Dean Canham stands accused of beating with a baseball bat a 15-year-old girl and her 8-year-old sister after his 18-year-old son claimed they were taunting him for being gay. The teen “was struck on the back of her head as she tried to run away and blacked out on the seafront, the jury was told.”
Bashing 15-Year-Old Girl In Head Likely an Overreaction To Her Calling Your Son a ‘Mo
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fagburn
The man doesn’t “stand accused”.
The judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
Did you read the article you link to?
Tallskin
I guess all those who haven’t experienced a gang of chav scum hurling abuse at you for being gay won’t know why I don’t feel any sympathy for the beaten brat.
Three years is far too long a sentence.
hyhybt
@Tallskin: There are some things you Just Don’t Do. Physically attacking minors for name-calling is high on the list.
fagburn
@hyhybt:
The father admitted in court he lost it and saw “red mist” descending.
It was also pointed out what happened to his son went far beyond name-calling, and this was not the first time he’d been harassed – and not by just one girl – but by a gang of youths she was part of.
I hate violence – but how many parents, if they saw their own kid being repeatedly threatened and abused, wouldn’t lose it?
Three years is excessive.
fagburn
Also – the headline ‘Bashing 15-Year-Old Girl In Head Likely an Overreaction To Her Calling Your Son a ‘Mo’ is really misleading.
I’ve come to expect better from Queerty…
L.
By the time I went and read the original article, @fagburn had said pretty much what I wanted to say, so I’ll just thumb him up and second his post.
Hilarious
Sounds like the original article is trying to garner sympathy for the GANG by using the fact that it had two girls in it. They fail to mention that the others were guys and highlight the fact that the son was BEGGING for help from his father.
There’s a reason he brought a bat and it wasn’t because two girls were name calling.
That said I do think a grown man should have found a better way to handle the situation. There seems to be more to the story on his side too because I don’t think the first thing that would cross my mind is to physically harm minors unless it was life or death.
At least maybe that knock on the noggin will make those idiots think twice about gay bashing again. It’s a shame the father has to lose 3 years of his life and time with his son over it.
DR
So dad is 44, son is 18, girl is 15, girl’s sister is 8. He drove to the scene with a baseball bat, and was hit on the back of her head as she tried to run away from the adult with the baseball bat.
Sentence sounds about right to me.
L.
@hyhybt: I’ve never fought once in my life, so I’m not in any way condoning violence, but he physically attacked a 15-year-old, who, these days, look anything but minors. It’s obvious from the article he had no idea she was a minor, and was appalled to find out she was.
And, as was mentioned, she was not alone, but part of a group, and pack behaviour can be quite frightening at times.
Tallskin
And you can bet that if the gang had beaten up the gay kid then they’d have got away with it.
hyhybt
@L.: You have a point there…
tarxien
Also gangs of teenagers like this have frequently kicked and beaten adults to death for trying to protect their families, homes, vehicles etc. It’s not that unusual. He needed a weapon and to be prepared to use it or he might have been killed. No sympathy for the thugs, age is irrelevant. 15 year old girls have killed people.
DR
@tarxien:
So the solution is to go bashing all of them over the head with baseball bats and then cry when an appropriate sentence is imposed? I don’t think so. Thumb down me all you want, but dad was in the wrong and assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm was the appropriate plea in this matter.
You don’t whack an unarmed child in the head with a baseball bat while she’s running away from you. She got the point and ran. Mission accomplished. The strike was overkill and the fact that people here support this type of behavior makes me really glad most of you have no idea how to use firearms…
beergoggles
This is how breeders react to gang attacks and abuse. If more gays stopped being victims and started acting like this, there would be far fewer cases of gay bashing.
Jon
Obviously the bitch deserved it and her and all of her “gang” will think twice about taunting people again. And he should have bashed the girl’s mother too for raising two evil children.
Gorbeh
Those girls deserve what they got. They’re the ones that belong in prison. I can’t even imagine the untold psychological and emotional harm the son had due to those girls’ abuse. I know what it is like to be abused and harassed by people (if they can be called that). I went from having straight A’s all my life, not even A-‘s to getting all F’s in one semester and subsequently left high school. Fortunately I tested into college and almost have my Bachelors but I still don’t have a high school diploma. This was all due to harassment and bullying that was likely very similar to what happened to the boy. The father did what was right.
L.
@Jon: Again, I’m not much for violence, but you do raise an interesting point that wasn’t made before, namely that the parents are partially to blame.
Pack mentality / group pressure can only go so far turning a kid into an abuser, and if parents parented, then maybe we’d have more decent kids who would act decent.
Kev C
If parents don’t teach and discipline their children to be good kids .. someone else will.
jason
I believe the young brat should have been put in the middle of the classroom and called all sorts of name by her fellow students. It would have taught her a lesson. The physical assault on her by Dean Canham is completely unacceptable. He deserves a custodial sentence of several years in my view.
Keep in mind that Dean Canham himself might be homophobic, and not just the girl.
fagburn
@beergoggles:
One of the many hidden benefits of being a gay man is you don’t even have to pretend to be impressed by adolescent macho posturing like yours.
alan brickman
teenage girls can be vicious..and have killed gays…
alan brickman
I have been attacked by girl gangs….and taunted….she’s not that innocent…
L.
@jason: The *father* of the assaulted 18-year-old gay man who went to his rescue when called to help may be *homophobic*?
Are you out of your mind?
[Notices byline]
Oh. Sorry. Ignore my last question, the answer was there all along.
ousslander
Th father ws wrong but should have swung harder. The 18 yr old needs to grow pair. Gays need to fight back and start doing damage of their own. maybe then scum will thinktwice.
B
No. 2 · Tallskin wrote, “I guess all those who haven’t experienced a gang of chav scum hurling abuse at you for being gay won’t know why I don’t feel any sympathy for the beaten brat.”
The father had two reasonable options:
1. chase her but not actually hit her and so she’d tell
all her friends about how she barely escaped alive, which
would convince them to find another target.
2. apprehend her and have the police arrest her or someone
else for a hate crime.
Then the problem’s solved and the gay kid’s father stays out of
jail. Basically this 18 year old gay kid needs a father more than that homophobic twit needs a cut on the head (let her be abused in jail instead).
Jeffree
It may not have helped in this case but I believe every LGBT should take self-defense classes. You learn not just how to defend yourself physically, but verbally.
And as “B.” said in #25 the dad had other options.
This whole incident is sad all around.
Michael Canham
@jason:
Dean Canham may be many things, but one thing he isn’t is homophobic! He is infact my father! And I love him so much…
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