Court case #47

...Thank you for your side of the story, Hansel and Gretel. Now it is time to call the other side for her to give her testimony."
The back door of the court room opened and to everyone's surprise, out came an old and clearly devastated poor old lady. There were burn marks all over her face and arms. Hansel and Gretel were terrified to see that she still lived. Everyone were quiet and tension was palpable as the old lady sat down at the bench. The judge, however, remained calm and asked:
"It is pleasure for you to have come, I hope you have recovered well."
"I'll live," answered the witch.
"That is good to hear. Could you please share your side of the story with us?"
"Sure," answered the old lady and began to speak:
"It all began with quite a pleasant evening, I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard that someone was eating my house. I went to watch and saw two young children, one was taking pieces off of my roof and the other gnawed my window. I was afraid that they would eat my whole house, so I called them in and gave them a full and tasty meal. After that, as I saw that they were quite tired, I led them to the beds, where my grandchildren used to sleep, while they were here during the winters. As I had put them to sleep I sat down and realized, that I was quite afraid of these two, I saw that I am surely too weak to contain the maliciousness I saw, when they, without knocking or asking first, began to demolish my beautiful house. So I decided to take the boy, who was clearly stronger than me, to the stables, where I could lock him, but where he would be comfortable enough laying on the hay. Anyway I planned to hold him in there as long as their parents came to get them, I just could not let them out to the woods where they would starve and probably die. During the next days I fed the boy as good as I could to make sure that he wasn't hungry, still, every time I asked him to give me his finger so I could know whether he is getting enough or not, he did not seem to get any larger. I was quite worried for the health of the boy. One day, oh that fateful day, I decided to make something special for the two children, using the oven I have. As I was busy preparing the meal, I asked the little girl to check whether the oven is hot enough. She answered that she is unable to do that. I was quite surprised. How hard can it be to check the oven. As I went there, to do it myself the little girl pushed me from my back so I fell right in the middle of the burning coal. But that was not enough for the little girl, she also slammed the door shut. Despite the unimaginable pain I managed to kick the door open and roll myself out. As a last glimpse, before I lost my consciousness, I saw the two running away, carrying all of my dearest pearls and gold, I had collected for the purpose of leaving them for my dearest grandchildren. I would have stayed there and died, if it weren't for the nice young lad walking by, who I discovered tending my wounds as I woke up in his cottage." The witch sighed  deeply, after reliving the terrible emotions related to the incident. At least she had said,what was true, what really happened.
Hansel and Gretel were paralyzed. Their parents were crazed and if it weren't for the lad accompanying the old lady, they would have surely finished what their children had tried, but failed to do.
Now everyone looked at the judge. His face was clueless. After about half an hour of deep consideration, the judge opened his mouth and declared the verdict:
"...

What comes next is for you to decide now that you have heard the other side of the story. Who do you believe, as there is no other evidence than the two sides of one story? Strangely enough, most of our society has already decided, as only one side of this tragic story is told to our little children.