Woman spared jail after driving car at group of children

Woman spared jail after driving car at group of children with special needs when they threw snowballs at her vehicle

Rachel Hall mounted the sidewalk and drove at 2 boys who had thrown snowballs at her car. She then drove onto a playing field in her attempt to target a girl. The girl was struck by the car and required hospital treatment.

Rachel Hall escaped imprisonment. She was depressed.

Teachers described seeing Hall's Renault Scenic wheel spinning and heading for the two boys. A short while later, Hall drove back along the road with her then 17-year-old. The court was told she again mounted the kerb before driving onto the field and into the girl.

She was suffering severe depression linked to chronic fatigue syndrome at the time of the incident, for which she is now being treated.

Hall... ...was given a three month jail term, which was suspended for one year.

Daily Mail

Besides the fact that it is disgusting that a person can drive onto the sidewalk to drive at children, then return to drive onto the paying fields to strike a girl with her car, yet still escape a prison sentence, I wonder whether I, as male, would have received such a light sentence?

I doubt it.

Men are incarcerated 15 times more than women in the USA (Link) and 20 times more in the UK (Link).

They really must outlaw vehicles that go over 15 mph. Just think of all the innocent children they could save? Oh wait, most normal folks don't try to kill children...

Well, I bet that girl won't throw another snowball for the rest of her life.

They are always going light in the UK.

The only way to stop bad women driving cars at children, is good women with cars.

If you outlaw driving at children, only outlaws will drive at children.

Originally posted by DaTroof
Well, I bet that girl won't throw another snowball for the rest of her life.

You make a valid point.

The girl did provoke the women. And the women was depressed.

I don't know how many times I have been depressed and when someone has thrown a snowball at me I chase them onto a paying field with my car and try to run them over.

If this was a guy, he would get a good few years. Wonder if they said she was on her period as part of her "depression"

Originally posted by ReadyPower

If this was a guy, he would get a good few years. Wonder if they said she was on her period as part of her "depression"

Actually, she had children as well. It would be unfair for her children to suffer separation from their mother.

Of course, courts rarely feel that avoiding the trauma of separating children from a father who tries to run children over in his car is as important.

Yeah she should get a prison sentence for that, licence revoked. As for saying she was depressed? What a joke. I would have sent her to counselling.

Men and women get off with stuff all the time. This is just a case of a woman that got lucky me thinks.
And if were going to start throwing out statistics im sure i could easily find a few links that says:

"Men are more likely to commit certain crime and start at a younger age, therefore their more likely to get locked up"

Sexism? or just the fact that men take more risks then women when it comes to breaking the law?

i've had mutiple people try to hit me with threw cars on purpose, i should of taken it more seriously

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

And if were going to start throwing out statistics im sure i could easily find a few links that says:

"Men are more likely to commit certain crime and start at a younger age, therefore their more likely to get locked up"

Sexism? or just the fact that men take more risks then women when it comes to breaking the law?

Like mounting a sidewalk to drive at kids and driving onto a playing field and hitting a girl?

As you say. She got lucky.

But perhaps there was more to it than that. It is difficult to see how a man could have avoided a prison sentence.

Originally posted by ollncasino

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

And if were going to start throwing out statistics im sure i could easily find a few links that says:

"Men are more likely to commit certain crime and start at a younger age, therefore their more likely to get locked up"

Sexism? or just the fact that men take more risks then women when it comes to breaking the law?

Like mounting a sidewalk to drive at kids and driving onto a playing field and hitting a girl?

As you say. She got lucky.

But perhaps there was more to it than that. It is difficult to see how a man could have avoided a prison sentence.

edit on 17-2-2013 by ollncasino because: (no reason given)

I believe the stats show that men are more likely to be involved in violent crimes? Robbery? Drug related?

I think you've made this thread to suggest that women have it easy and men are hard done by - I disagree. I think the law is pretty lax on petty criminals but obviously this is yet another lax over a more serious incident.

She should have gone to prison in my opinion - But so to should the officer that killed Ian Tomlinson.

She should be in jail, not only did she try to run the boys over but she left and came back later to run over the girl. That`s premeditated attempted murder with a deadly weapon.

It wasn`t just a momentary lapse of judgement because she was depressed and angry, she left and came back later with her 17 year old daughter in the car with her and tried to run over the little girl.

she shouldn`t even be allowed to drive she is obviously a danger to herself and to society when she is behind the wheel of a car.


ETA: replace the car in the story with a knife and the woman in the story with a man but leave all the other details the same, would it still be ok for the man to not go to jail? a car is just as deadly as a knife.

a depressed man with a knife is walking along the street and he gets hit with snowballs, so he chases the boys but can`t catch them. he leaves and comes back later with an accomplice and attacks the girl with his knife and injures her he shouldn`t go to jail either, right?.

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

I think the law is pretty lax on petty criminals but obviously this is yet another lax over a more serious incident.

I certainly agree with you there.

The sentence one receives in court does tend to be a lottery.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how a man who had committed the same crime would have escaped a custodial sentence. Unless of course he was depressed or had children...

What is unarguable however is that it is a disgrace that the women did escape a custodial sentence. She is a menace behind the wheel.

Originally posted by ollncasino

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

I think the law is pretty lax on petty criminals but obviously this is yet another lax over a more serious incident.

I certainly agree with you there.

The sentence one receives in court does tend to be a lottery.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how a man who had committed the same crime would have escaped a custodial sentence. Unless of course he was depressed or had children...

What is unarguable however is that it is a disgrace that the women did escape a custodial sentence. She is a menace behind the wheel.

So there's no chance at all that a man could have gotten off with the same thing? You dont think?

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

So there's no chance at all that a man could have gotten off with the same thing? You dont think?

It does seem unlikely.

Still, courts are a lottery.

Was the judge arguing with his wife before he left for work? Is your case late in the day (morning?) when the judge is getting ratty over almost everyone lying to him? Is the judge impatient because he wants to go and play golf?

Still, as a man, having children and being depressed is unlikely to cut much slack with a judge if I had tried to run children over in my car.

Originally posted by ollncasino

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

So there's no chance at all that a man could have gotten off with the same thing? You dont think?

It does seem unlikely.

Still, courts are a lottery.

Was the judge arguing with his wife before he left for work? Is your case late in the day (morning?) when the judge is getting ratty over almost everyone lying to him? Is the judge impatient because he wants to go and play golf?

Still, as a man, having children and being depressed is unlikely to cut much slack with a judge if I had tried to run children over in my car.

Men with kids get sent down all the time - even for petty crimes. Perhaps maybe the judge felt that she showed a sufficient amount of understanding and remorse about her actions and did feel the need to punish her further. I would go as far to say that women are more likely to show shame and regret over their actions if they aren't normally "bad people" - But that would be gender stereotyping and you know how much i dislike that.

Either way, she should have been locked up. I think a man would have gotten off with this in some cases. Lottery like you say. Gender inequalities in the court system? Meh... i'd like to see more evidence to be fair

reply to post by ollncasino


We end up criminalizing mental illness when we are too harsh on people with aggravating conditions or people over medicated and out of control. Many individuals and families need help but there are no resources for them. It seems the most frequent answer is a call to build more jails. It's a sad irony that mental institutions were done away with largely because they were inhumane, but as a result now our mentally challenged Americans face jail.