28-YO Man Jailed For Breaching COVID Protocol & Crossing The Irish Sea On A Jet Ski To Visit His Girlfriend
Dale McLaughlan travelled from Whithorn in Scotland across the Irish sea to Ramsey - a town that lies in the north of Isle of Man. His journey took over four and a half hours instead of the estimated 40 minutes. He had to further walk 25 km to his girlfriends house to meet her However after having gone through all this trouble he was arrested and jailed.
They say, everything is fair in love and war. Well, that might not always be true, and a 28-year-old Scottish man found it out the hard way.
Dale McLaughlan travelled from Whithorn in Scotland, across the Irish sea, to Ramsey - a town that lies in the north of Isle of Man, as per BBC. Dale¡¯s journey took over four and a half hours, instead of the estimated 40 minutes. He had to further walk 25 km to his girlfriend¡¯s house to meet her.
However, after having gone through all this trouble, he was arrested and jailed. Why? The same reason most of us are cursing the year 2020 - COVID-19.
Under the current laws of Isle of Man, non-residents are only allowed to enter if they have special permission. In September, Dale had been granted permission to work as a roofer on the island, for four weeks. However, his subsequent requests to return had been denied. That is probably thought of setting off to the Isle of Man, on a jet ski.
AFP/Only for representation
Deputy High Bailiff Christopher Arrowsmith said Dale¡¯s 'deliberate and intentional attempt to circumnavigate' the border restrictions had risked people¡¯s lives. His defence lawyer, however, argued that he was suffering from depression, which had made it difficult for him to cope without seeing his girlfriend.
What would have looked like an extremely romantic gesture, actually landed Dale in jail because of the breach of COVID-19 protocols. This pandemic has posed a lot of obvious and not-so-obvious challenges for people all over the world. While the virus seems to be stubborn and dangerous, parting with friends and family for a very long period of time has also caused a lot of stress and agony.
AFP/Isle Of Man
While some people are plain careless and simply don¡¯t feel the need to follow rules, there are others who find themselves battling mental health issues, loneliness and unable to cope with how things are.
On the flip-side, authorities enforcing rules cannot be discriminating between the two, simply because the virus does not. The hope is that by the next year, vaccines will have arrived, and our lives will be a little simpler than they are now, if not normal as they were before.
