No charges for Koran burning teen

From The Press Association

A 15-year-old schoolgirl who burnt an English language version of the Koran will not face criminal charges, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed.

The West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service said it had also decided to take no action against a 14-year-old boy who made threats about the girl on a social networking site.

In a statement, the CPS said there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction against each teenager, but prosecutions would not be in the public interest.n its statement, the CPS said: "The reviewing lawyer decided there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction in each case, but considered whether the public interest required a prosecution, or whether a final warning as an alternative to prosecution would be appropriate as both were of previous good character.

"After considering representations from the police and community groups that the case could be resolved appropriately between the parties without need for a prosecution, and that both teenagers had agreed to co-operate, it was felt it was not in the public interest to prosecute."

I have an instinctive distaste for the burning of books, (unless its pornography in book form which is somehow not a book) even a book filled with such unpleasantness as the Koran, but as someone elsewhere pointed out, the girl burnt her own property, and why we don't know her exact reasons an excellent case could be made for her exercising her right of free speech. So it is right that she was not charged. But making threats is not the boy's right of free speech so it does not automatically follow that he should be treated the same.  Anyway I expect her parents are very relieved tonight.