Scene and heard

Three people in England held an epileptic man hostage in a garden shed. They tortured him over a period of 6 weeks until he died. He had fractured ribs and larynx and burns over 10% of his body. They made a ‘hostage style’ video of him. But ‘experts’ claimed that it could not be proven that it wasn’t the epilepsy which killed him, so murder charges were dropped. 2 of these murderers received 10 year sentences and the other, 9 years having pled guilty to false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/6284184.stm

What is the precedent here? If someone has heart disease and is kidnapped and tortured, but dies of a heart attack, can it be proven that he wouldn’t have had a heart attack if the kidnap/assault hadn’t taken place?

What ridiculous nonsense is this? As I don’t believe the same would have been said in my latter, hypothetical case, that leaves the question of whether this was discrimination against epileptics. Either way, I’m disgusted!