Nasty Piece of Work

I was faced today with an unpleasant and resentful defendant. He had a solicitor, paid for by you and me, but he interrupted him several times and as I began to announce our decision he attempted to negotiate it. I gave him short shrift, but in the interests of fairness I allowed his brief to have an unavailing word with him. I summed up the decision in a few crisp words and invited him to leave. He gave me a long hard stare, and slowly made his way out, all the time looking at me, presumably based on his usual technique for dealing with those who disagree with him.
When dealing with this kind of violent thug (as evidenced by his record) I always remember a phrase from an old mate of mine who was a PC nearing the end of his career, back on the beat for one last rota. I asked him if he was worried about being a fiftyish man facing the usual gaggle of hoodies, and he said "No; I always say that my gang is bigger than their gang, and even the dimmest yob can work that out".