To question the jail sentence for the mum who stabbed her 4 year old?

[Liketochat1]

There's such a sad story of a mum who stabbed her 4 year old daughter in the news at the moment.www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9510938/Nurse-who-stabbed-her-four-year-old-to-death-gets-12-years.html.
She looks like such a broken woman. She not only killed her daughter but also tried to kill herself leaving herself with some brain damage and confined to a wheel chair with other physical disabilities. At the time of the attack she was depressed and facing charges for malpractice and had been left by her partner that day.
She has just been sentenced to 12 years in jail. Do you think she should be jailed? I can't help help but feel she's suffered so much already. Am I unreasonable?

[Liketochat1]

Ooops! Posted twice. Please delete one. Sorry!

[Liketochat1]

Let's ignore this one! The link didn't work. I'm blaming my 6 year old. I'm trying to write whilst he's asked 50 times in my ear. 'Muuuummm whose the best singer in the world?'

[TheHeirOfSlytherin]

Yes I do think she should have been jailed.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I don't understand why you would question it unless you were on the jury

As a member of the public we don't know the full story or about the psychiatric report or how much her mental health was a mitigating factor.

[dottyspotty2]

Yes she should of been jailed she took the life of an innocent child, imagine if this had been her father the hang him high mob would be out.

[Lottapianos]

It's a really tough one I think. I really do feel sorry for her - the rest of her life will be utterly miserable no matter what else happens to her. I wondered what her relationship with her partner must have been like - how did she end up giving him information about patients in her care, what was going on in that relationship to make a sane professional person put her whole life on the line like that?

However, she had no right to take her daughter's life, none whatsoever. When I read stories about men who have been in some custody battle with their ex and decide to murder all their children and sometimes kill themselves, I feel sick to my stomach and extremely angry. I would have no qualms about someone like that being sent to jail if they were still alive afterwards, so I think that on balance, yes this woman should have been jailed.

Horribly sad story though

[NameChangeGalore]

She was of sound mind when she passed on patients details to her bf. She killed her innocent child because she realised what she had done was wrong. She killed her child for her own mistakes. Yes she should go to jail.

[JustFabulous]

Her partner didn't leave her that day. He told her he was taking a woman out for dinner that day.

I know I should have sympathy but she killed her daughter who took hours to die. I can't see any justification for that.

[NameChangeGalore]

She went "mad" after being summoned to court. It's not like she was suffering from PND or Puerperal Psychosis.

[THERhubarb]

Yes she should have been jailed.

There are men as Lotta says who have lost everything and then their partners take their kids away, for some men it's the final straw and they kill not only themselves but their children too. So many similar cases involving fathers and I'm sure that in every single case there is an equally sad tale.

However the bottom line is that she took an innocent life. She could not bear for anyone else to have her child so she selfishly took that child's life. There will be a grieving father, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc for whom life will never be the same again.

Yes she is suffering now and will have to live with what she has done for the rest of her life. However justice must be served no matter what state she is in, otherwise what message does that send out? That mothers are to be pitied more than fathers when they commit the same acts of atrocity?

Besides, she won't be in a conventional jail, she'll be in a specialist unit which is probably the best place for her anyway.

[MrsBethel]

Ideally, jail sentences should serve four purposes: rehabilitation, protection of the public, deterrent, punishment.

Clearly only the latter applies here. Do we really want to punish her that much?