By Dr Phil Edwards: The Zeitgeist of officialdom - officious and over zealous apparatchiks and bureaucrats - often called the "tick box culture" - was brought into focus recently by the case of a young student brutally raped, almost killed, after being ejected from her last bus home in Nottingham during the early hours of a cold winter morning, because - and only because - she lacked 20p of her £5 bus fare.
 
Whilst sitting in Nottingham Crown Court for the entire two weeks of the trial, listening to the lurid forensic and medical details of this appalling attack, I began to wonder just how much misery is inflicted by the attitudes of some officials and public servants - people losing their jobs because their Christian beliefs prevent them from conducting civil partnerships for homosexuals or because they wear a crucifix, teachers and doctors afraid to do their jobs properly due to the corrosive impact that the anticipation of litigation has on their professional life and on their relationship with the users of their services, or the victims of wider applications of Political Correctness to other aspects of "diversity", "inclusivity", multiculturalism, and the "compensation culture".
 
During the trial, CCTV inside the bus showed the young victim frantically going through her pockets and bag for eight minutes, searching for that 20 pence which almost got her killed.
 
How can it be that a bus driver could turn this young girl off the bus on a cold winter morning at 3am, to face a ten mile walk home, and ultimately to encounter a monster like Moran?
 
What is wrong with people?
 
At one point I asked the prosecuting barrister whether or not the Judge might be able to comment upon this phenomenon, during sentencing, and to appeal for more flexibility from officialdom.
 
According to the Daily Telegraph, during sentencing, "Judge condemns "want of a small act of kindness" after student who was 20p short of a bus fare raped." - perhaps a step in the right direction?