Woolie believes that we are living in a modern civilised society. He also subscribes to the general idea that in any civilised society it is the duty of all individuals to defend and protect the rights of the more ‘vulnerable’ members of that society. Further it is said that we can judge a people by how they treat such members of society – be they elderly, small children or people with disabilities.

There are idiots in our society who believe that it is no big deal to mock, humiliate, abuse and even bully and mete out physical violence to people with disabilities. Do you know such idiots? Woolie does and he finds it very shameful to be acquainted with them.

When local man Edward Doyle befriended a young vulnerable man in the village of Littlemore near Oxford It seemed to most people to be a kindly and charitable thing. The young man was Sean Miles, 37 who had serious learning difficulties and lived alone in local authority sheltered accommodation. His life was not easy as he struggled to cope with things that most people took for granted.

Several months down the line and things were not as good as they had seemed. It was becoming clear that Doyle was taking advantage of Miles. He took control of his finances and it was reported that he was often violent towards him. The bullying continued but there was nothing that Miles could do to end the relationship. Doyle and his friends took over Miles’ house making it their home. It turned out that many of them were regular drug users and they used Miles’ money to feed their habit. They mocked Miles and his disability and he was subjected to intolerable insults.

One day a friend of Doyle’s falsely accused Miles of sexually assaulting her son. Doyle and his friends subjected Miles to a brutal attack. They rained kicks and blows on the defenceless man. They took a golf club and beat him some more breaking his ribs. One of them stepped up and cut his head in several places with a knife. As Miles pleaded with them to stop – they broke his arm.

Later that day – perhaps fearful that they had gone too far Doyle and two friends took Miles down to the River Thames where they drowned him. His body was discovered nine days later……….