I am shocked my the general opinion discussed in the majority of these posts. As someone who works directly with adults with learning disabilities it is ridiculous to assume that all individual's with a Down's Syndrome are 'loving individual's who wouldn't do anyone any harm. Just because a person has a learning disability does not absolve them of the ability to understand the difference between right and wrong. It is patronizing and condescending to suggest that all individual's with Down's Syndrome have no comprehension of racism. Also, it is interesting to see the level of angry opinion directed toward the family of the girl underlining the open hostility against the Asian community.

Miss C, Ireland,

It is now racist and worthy of a major intervention by a train guard (or is it Customer services advisor or some such title?) to suggest quite casually that someone might not speak english. This happened recently to a friend of mine on National Express East Coast line. The unwarranted accusation of racism should carry a very stiff penalty and the guilty party should pay compensation to the victim: that is the one accused.

J O'Neill, Doncaster, UK

If the police had any grain of intelligence, then they would have dropped the complaint immediately. To even the most stupid, its more than clear the boy would not even understand the word rascism and any case against him would be pointless. But unfortunately, since Blair came to power, the Police have been politicised and used as a tool of Labour's left wing agenda.

Chris, Woodbridge,

Disgusting. That Asian family should be named and shamed. Then again, their reaction I fear is just standard. I wonder if we would be in the same situation if the girl had called him "whiteface." This is just as ludicrous as the situation where 4 white guys on an Asian is a racist assault, but 4 asian guys on a white guy is just assault......sick!

Kris, Bristol,

It is said the police didn't know how to deal with teh case. Surely our police have not become so dumb they no ;pmger understand the principle of mens rea?

P.O., Liverpool, UK

Apology is not enough , How on earth can this happen in the U.K. .The family should sue the police for blunders of this kind.

Frank, Calvia - Illes Balears, Spain

" Lessons will be learned ".....How many times have we heard this phrase in the last thirty years. Unfortunately you can't teach common sense to these people. The police are an embarrassment.

Josh Martin, Oxford, Gt.Britain

Unfortunately the Scottish legal system is not involved in the gathering of evidence for a legal case, they are only involved in the gathering of evidence for a prosection. Once they have corroborative evidence, in this case the signs of an injury and a statement (however invalid) of complaint, they have enough to charge. They are not interested in any aspect of a reasonable defence or even complete lack of proof. Neither The Crown Office or the police will contact anybody to tell them that no further action is being taken, you just have to wait six months and find out for yourself. This is the 'better' legal system that Alex salmond crows about.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

This is a unique case that hit the headlines and should not be taken as an example of what is happening in society.

In reality the authorities and the police stick their fingers in their ears and sing loudly when real issues of racism and race discrimination are raised. Look at the Stephen Lawrence case. Look at the Jean Charles de Menezes case. The police have been recorded (by the BBC) as dishing out racial abuse. The legal system rightly puts the burden of proof on the accuser of racism therefore there is no point in saying "people are playing the race card". However the legal system also puts the burden of proof on the ACCUSED (ie guilty till proven innocent) when they are in an ethnic minority and accused of the kind of crimes they perceive whites as incapable of committing such as terrorist related crimes. This is complete nonsense.

Back to this case, it is good that finally the authorities issued an apology. That is sometimes all it takes to relieve the tension.

SJ, Birmingham,

Prosecute the girl's family for wasting police time. Fine them for every single penny that was spent in this ludicrous claim. Then name them and shame them.

tom Franklin, London, UK

Good though it is that the Procurator Fiscals office has apologised - unfortunately the apology itself raises even more questions. If the delay was because the box wasn't ticked for "social worker" then they can't use the excuse that they never knew of Jamie's special circumstances. So what were they doing for 7.5 months? What does the Procurator Fiscal mean when (quote) they were "exploring the possibility of dealing with this case in a way that would have provided additional support to Jamie." And that presumerably includes not replying to the Baulds solicitor letter after sending a letter saying that the office had sufficient evidence to charge.

And who placed the newspaper advertisement asking for witnesses to a racist assault? Presumerably that was Strathclyde Police, because had it been the Asian girls family surely Strathclyde Police would have investigated an attempt to incite racial hatred (and been adviced by the PFO to do so.) I think a public enquiry would be best.

Richard England, Stockport, England

OK, so now pushing an asian is racist is it?

Phill , Cheshire, England

The Baulds have been a model of restraint and decency - and well done to them. They represent the hardworking, decent and measured attitude that shows the UK at its best .
- it is just so sad that due to weak goverment and a culture of targets and nannying a normal police officer could not have just dismissed this by talking to his chain of command before he even left the station.
- the fact that it ever got to the police is beyond belief, but even so, and if obliged to pursue it they should have just talked to the headteacher at the school and left it at that.

as we all know though - common sense has been outlawed by today's goverment. will it ever return?

alex, london, uk

Shame on the police and CPS for being so willing to turn this into a race issue. It really does diminish the effectiveness of tackling real racial prejudice which cuts both ways.

John, Lincoln,

Mrs Bauld was right to have nothing to do with "social work "
Their involvment would have compounded this farce into disaster.
The parents of children in real distress are well used to fending off social workers, but respectable people with happy and cared for children are meat and drink to this bureaucracy.

robert everitt, wolverhampton,

One really despairs of the police. Any idea of common sense seems to have been abandoned.

michael murphy, Teignmouth, UK

So tell me now, just who has the mental age of 5 in this story? This nation really sucks; we need to get these hand wringing overly PC lefties out. If your a white middle class male then you've had it in this country; now it appears the list has grown.

Kinny, Cambridge, UK

Agree with Laura This is disgusting, if the push had been the other way would the asian parents be rushing to apologise for their racist child? Another waste of taxpayers money to massage the ethnic ego in the UK
.
Well done to the parents of Jamie for not letting it go and rightly shaming the authorities, let them pander to the minorities, we dont have to join them!

If only the "minorities" didnt think they had to bleat on all the time about their differences maybe we could actually forget they had any and then they might realise that being treated as "normal" isnt half as interesting and lucrative, assuming theyll be after some form of compensation for the terrible slur theyve endured!

Utterly appalled!

Yewandé Rae Yihana, Wickford, Essex

Shame on the girls family. Wouldn't you hope they had more understanding of these problems?

Barry, Bognor Regis, UK

Its all starting to make sense now, it looks as though social services tried to get their child snatching hands on the lad first and because that failed the family were left to sweat it out. Will the Asian family now be charged with making false and malicious accusations against this child for as yet reasons unknown? I doubt it.

Cromwell, Leeds, England

Truly,the lunatics are in control of the asylum.

michael murphy, Teignmouth, UK

It's what happens when the Crown lay down zero-tolerance offences and do not let the PF or Police have any discretion. This is just one of a large number of similarly stupid prosecutions that have not all been given the same publicity.

william mcintyre, denny, scotland

It's the other side thats being racist...always playing the 'racist' card..Aren't we fed up of 'em in this country. Look just go away and go back to your roots.

kirk, Rotherham, UK

Remind me, who has a mental age of five?

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

The girls family got a sniff of a possible payout and pursued in my opinion.

The middle class white officers just need to hear the word race and start to sweat, next thing you know a kid with a mental age of five is being read his rights and asked if he understands....... which is where this should have stopped when they saw he clearly did not.

Ben Rosenthal, Manchester,

I'm a young, white man working in Bradford. I've lost count of the number of times Asian men have shouted racist abuse at me for no reason. I've stopped reporting it now because nothing is ever done.

It kills me to say that I'm beginning to become very disillusioned with this country of mine.

Andy, Ilkley, UK

The Police aren't allowed to make judgements in any type of case, they have to refer to their manual. So gone are the days when discretion was employed. That is the reason why the bystander who intervenes is arrested and charged. Our Police State has made all of us less trusting more worried and distrustfull of one another. The sooner we reduce their number and allow the Community to Police itself the sooner we will return to a better way of life. The Bullies and Heroin dealers and informers wont be able to rely on the Police to save them when thing don't go their way.

Mark, Newcastle, uk

What complete brain dead imbeciles. But it goes even deeper: they, like so many idiots nowadays, follow the premise that if anything (a push, an insult, a decision, an arrest, a look...) is made against a non-white, then the push/insult/decision/arrest/look is racist.

This is a massive leap of logic that has no evidence. And here is the perfect example. A push is made against an Asian girl, and suddenly the motivation is racist merely because she's Asian. It is absolute madness.

Why do people choose to believe this? Insults are thrown at Lewis Hamilton and they're incorrectly deemed racist. A black person is declined for a job because they are unsuitable, and that unsuitability is deemed as racist. A push is made against an Asian girl, and that push is seen as racist.

What is wrong with people? For racism to exist, the motivation must be directly because of their colour and asserts their inferiority based upon their colour. None of these do this. Stop this nonsense.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

its good to see the police are doing their JOB!!

what a disgrace this society has become no thanks to this government and all the idiots within it...the law is their to follow yes, but each case is different and it is clear that this matter should not be treated in the same way as any other .

The weak are punished as there is not enough back bone to tackle the real culprits in society...

what a good allocation of police resources!! I feel for the kids and their families who had to tolerant this....

C Kroustis, London, UK

I find it extremely hard to comprehend that the Girls family - who should fully understand and have compassion for people with special needs, have been ignorant enough to persure this complaint in the first place. As pathetic as the police handling of this situation has been, it has only been mirrored by the Asian family involved.

Scott, Halifax, UK

The only reason the Crown Office apologised was because the story hit the headlines.

Sean, Surrey, UK

The blame in my mind is not on the Police but on the parents who brought the case to the Authorities in the first place. Rightly or wrongly the Asian family seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of racism for what purpose???

As most professionals and parents will know racism is not a concept with people who have learning difficulties and if he did say the young Asian girl had a blackface what on earth is wrong with that?

Would most folks in the same position be offended if a black person with learning difficulties commented on our white faces. We do have white faces and black folks do have black faces. Just an observation and in the case of Jamie an innoccent comment.

izzy, wirral, england

Our police are totally useless in matters of this kind.

Whilst conceding that they are merely carrying out the wishes of our incompetent government, they still beggar belief when such sad incidents are prosecuted with such cruelty.

Fairness, equality and justice are only available for selected groups in British society.

Our racist government decides which groups are entitled to the protection of the law, by positive discrimination.

Lamentably, in this case race was a more positive factor than disbility.

jnette bond, morecambe, britain

Just another example of the broth-brained idiots running our legal and policing system.

If you are honest, law abiding, weak, vulnerable or harassed by others in this country you are likely to get no protection from the police or the legal system.

If you are a thug, a con or kill someone by dangerous or drunk driving, you get a slap across the knuckles or a fine at best. Yet families with left with a life sentence to cope with loss or permanent disability.

It's very sad.

David Pattison, Edinburgh, Scotland

This is an example of how pathetic the civil service has become under Labour. The nanny state always wants to interfere where it is not wanted.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Surely the Police are just doing their job, they are not paid to think they are paid to arrest people who break the law, its up to the prosecutors to decide if a case is worthy of taking to court ?

Laurence, Chichester, UK

It really is frightening the stupidity of the police these days. Do they have no common sense at all?

Kate, Newcastle, England

Surely the police were wrong in not arresting the man (over 18) and taking him down to the police station to make a statement - this was clearly an alleged assult of a young girl -after all that is what normally happens to an adult..
This case clearly demonstates how stupid all the people in authority are when faced with an exceptional case - not one person in authority did anything to stop this case before it snowballed out of control..

John Doe, Chonburi, Thailand

To the family of JAMIE BAULD all I can say is to educate everywhere you go about Downs Syndrome. Until you experience the love of this children you will never understand the beauty and love within there hearts.From personal experience I believe our children know no hatred or harm only love.

Rosie Ingle, Brownsville, Texas

I hope the Police Officers involved get their come uppance in due course and hopefully swiftly . What mean spiteful child hating people they must be ,dressed up in a uniform.

Steve, London, UK

I suspect another example of hasty and inappropriate use of a caution asa means of getting another quick win tick in the box towards the quota system otherwise known as target driven policing. What happened to the use of discretion?

Harry Willis , N.Yorks,

Elsewhere from the Times: "...the Asian girl had admitted that she had scratched her own face to mark it and referred to herself as “blackface”. " So presumably the family of the girl is now prepared to apologise to the Baulds? I doubt it. What I find amazing is that the police officers accepted that Jamie Bauld had understood the caution. They wouldn't caution a five-year-old, so why didn't they ask for advice on how to caution a person with the mental age of a five-year-old?

Chris D, Edinburgh, Scotland