Even criminals say judges are too soft
Cowgirl Olivia wants to rein supreme
YEEHAAAAAAAAAA!
Meet Olivia Lochhead – a real life cowgirl representing the UK in a Western style horse-riding championships.
The plucky 18-year-old is the only Scottish member of a five-strong UK team at the gruelling event in Australia. The teenager – from
North Berwick in East Lothian – started learning the ropes of Western style riding when she was just 12. She will aim to wow the judges with techniques specially adapted from those used by real-life cowboys, and girls, in their cattle herding jobs.
Olivia, who flew out to join the competition yesterday, said: “I have my parents and my little sister Amy coming with me to cheer me on.”
Rather than pulling reigns or kicking the horse, Western style riders move their weight around the saddle for control, a method kinder to horses according to Olivia.
At home she normally trains with her trusty steed, Red, but will have to use an unfamiliar ride against experienced competition Down Under.
“It’ll be tough without Red but it’ll make it fairer for everyone,” she said. “Hopefully we can do really well.”
How we reported the burglary epidemic. 55, said: “When you’re a criminal, you don’t think of your victims.
“To you, they’re not people because if you personalise them it will stop you committing the crime.
“To stop re- offending, we need to work on instilling victim empathy and show burglars the impact of their crimes.”
Across Scotland, figures show there is a break- in every 26 minutes on average but there are variances in the ability of the police to catch the crooks responsible.
Last year The Sunday Post revealed the first ever breakdown of burglaries and clear-up rates by council ward.
In Aberdeen’s Garthdee suburb, just one of the 56 housebreakings recorded was solved, meaning the detection rate stood at a paltry 1.8%.
In Falkirk North, the area with the highest detection rate of those we probed, 62 of 107 break-ins were cleared up. But even there, nearly half were unsolved.
In Edinburgh, which has one of the worst problems with housebreaking, police chiefs admitted dedicated housebreaking units were the only way to tackle the issue.
Overall just 60,000 of the 250,000 burglaries that have been investigated resulted in criminal proceedings, leaving 190,000 families without justice.