Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

To think carers should be jailed

402 replies

InBedBy10 · 20/06/2026 10:09

That man who threw that poor child into the alligator enclosure is said to be severely mentally disabled. He was out with 2 carers who clearly weren't watching him when this happened. Witnesses have said they were on their phones. AIBU to say they should be charged for this incident?

To be honest this is not the first time i have heard about carers being totally negligent and getting away with it. Instead the care company they worked for was sued. Which will probably happen here. But i think its totally wrong that the people directly responsible can walk off into the sunset with no repercussions. There needs to be more liability put on people in this position.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Weemammy21 · 22/06/2026 17:01

OonaStubbs · 20/06/2026 21:37

Someone has to go to jail. You can't have a child thrown into an alligator pit and just say "it was just one of those things, no-one is to blame". It is either the perpetrators fault, or the people who were employed to make sure he didn't do something like that.

it is the Directors of adults and children's social Services who should be held accountable as they are the persons responsible for making decisions to cut provision and services for the most vulnerable whilst they sit in their private offices receiving pay checks over twice what the Prime Minister of the UK gets. It is these decision makers that should be prosecuted and held liable like Sharon Shoesmith was for the more serious case of Peter Connolly, Director of Children's services in Buckinghamshire Richard Nash and a lot more. local authorities overpay Chief Executives and Directors including the Childrens and adults social care whilst the most vulnerable can't have their needs met because they plead poverty. Croydon is an example. It has been in financial crisis for years and yet they can afford to pay a woman in her 70s £800 a day to do the post of Director of children’s services and also pay the salary of the Chief Executive of Greenwich Council Debbie Warren her full chief executive salary whilst she goes to Croydon to act as Finance manager and sort out Croydons finances. How is this right in any way? It is Directors and Chief Executives who award themselves inflated salaries that are hugely detrimental to the most needy that need to be named and prosecuted each and every time a safeguarding incident occurs. Instead anger is directed to the vulnerable and minimum wage workers. Only once they these Directors and Chief Executives are named and prosecuted will any change occur.

BrownBookshelf · 22/06/2026 16:01

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 22/06/2026 14:17

You don’t know what they were doing on their phones. I’m a brownie leader and we have a diabetic girl who controls her condition with an app linked to her monitor so we have to use her phone quite a bit. They might have been looking at the zoo map on their phones. Maybe they were messaging someone regarding him on their phones. Just being ‘on their phones’ doesn’t equal negligence

Not only that but we don't even know that they were on their phones. Closest we've got is someone who was in the zoo that day saw some people who might have been carers (which also means they might not have been) on their phones at some point during the day. The OP is completely premature.

Verv · 22/06/2026 15:56

I dont know exactly what happened yet.
But i do know that it takes less than a second to snatch a toddler and launch it over a railing.
If it was an instant decision and action there would've been very little stopping him.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 14:57

TheJuryIsOut · 22/06/2026 14:28

You've clearly never been in the position of being told you have to take a job or your money (that feeds your children) will be stopped.

I’ve been working my arse off my life.

Don’t tell me what position I have Bern in or not.

ScholesPanda · 22/06/2026 14:44

I've said YABU because I think you're operating on a false premise, you've decided for whatever reason they are immune from punishment.

If they are found to be criminally negligent they can and will be punished. However, it's quite a high bar to prove that. A lower bar could see them found to be negligent under civil law, with costs or compensation awarded against them and/or the company they worked for.

TheJuryIsOut · 22/06/2026 14:31

Allseeingallknowing · 22/06/2026 14:19

It does if they weren’t keeping an eye on him!

They might well have been keeping an eye on him, this probably took mere seconds to happen and a carer probably wouldn't have been able to physically stop it even if they were holding on to him. The point is we don't actually know so we shouldn't go straight to vilifying the carers.

TheJuryIsOut · 22/06/2026 14:28

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 14:16

You clearly don’t understand how UC credit works and what they can and cannot do.

You've clearly never been in the position of being told you have to take a job or your money (that feeds your children) will be stopped.

Allseeingallknowing · 22/06/2026 14:19

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 22/06/2026 14:17

You don’t know what they were doing on their phones. I’m a brownie leader and we have a diabetic girl who controls her condition with an app linked to her monitor so we have to use her phone quite a bit. They might have been looking at the zoo map on their phones. Maybe they were messaging someone regarding him on their phones. Just being ‘on their phones’ doesn’t equal negligence

It does if they weren’t keeping an eye on him!

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 22/06/2026 14:17

You don’t know what they were doing on their phones. I’m a brownie leader and we have a diabetic girl who controls her condition with an app linked to her monitor so we have to use her phone quite a bit. They might have been looking at the zoo map on their phones. Maybe they were messaging someone regarding him on their phones. Just being ‘on their phones’ doesn’t equal negligence

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 14:16

You clearly don’t understand how UC credit works and what they can and cannot do.

Thesinisterdiagram · 22/06/2026 14:14

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 14:05

They clearly didn’t force you because you had to attend an interview.

It’s your choice, accept a job, don’t accept a job, but UC has commitments you have accepted when you decided to claim.

Only because I didn’t pass the interview, if I had I would have been forced to accept.

I had no choice but to claim. If you give people the choice between destitution or taking an unsuitable job you’re not really giving them any other meaningful option.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 14:05

Thesinisterdiagram · 22/06/2026 13:56

Assuming you’re talking to me?

Actually when I was unemployed about 10 years ago the job centre tried to force me to take a care role, luckily the company rejected me after interview, because it would have been a complete disaster otherwise. Maybe things have changed since then.

The minimum wage had to increase because the cost of living is so high. How are people supposed to live if they’re not paid enough to afford a home, food and bills? Decreasing the minimum wage would also mean more spent on benefits to top up wages.

They clearly didn’t force you because you had to attend an interview.

It’s your choice, accept a job, don’t accept a job, but UC has commitments you have accepted when you decided to claim.

Thesinisterdiagram · 22/06/2026 13:56

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 13:38

Here we go
again.

Jobs might be hard to find, but no one makes a clamant accept a care job.

Assuming you’re talking to me?

Actually when I was unemployed about 10 years ago the job centre tried to force me to take a care role, luckily the company rejected me after interview, because it would have been a complete disaster otherwise. Maybe things have changed since then.

The minimum wage had to increase because the cost of living is so high. How are people supposed to live if they’re not paid enough to afford a home, food and bills? Decreasing the minimum wage would also mean more spent on benefits to top up wages.

EmeraldShamrock000 · 22/06/2026 13:47

JenniferBooth · 21/06/2026 21:50

This is what i was thinking about while reading this thread. If ppl want carers jailed then if they were forced into this kind of job under threat of sanction (i say IF cos obvs we dont know) by the Job Centre then surely the JC and work coach is just as liable.

Carer’s do hold a certain amount of responsibility and can be in serious trouble for being negligent or abusive. No one knows if they were negligent here or whether this person decided on the spot to grab a child. If the parents couldn’t grab the child off him it must have been very fast. I think I would kick him around if it was my child.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 13:40

Write to your MP and ask them to reconsider the NI increase and the min wage increase.

These are some of the factors making it difficult to find employment.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 13:38

Here we go
again.

Jobs might be hard to find, but no one makes a clamant accept a care job.

Thesinisterdiagram · 22/06/2026 13:36

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 13:00

I’m surprised this is so hard to understand.

Find a job, any job or increase your hours or you might be sanctioned.

No one puts a gun to your head and marches you to the nearest care home.

Except finding a job isn’t that simple, there are far more applicants than there are jobs available. Care work is pretty much the only type of role that’s consistently hiring because the pay and conditions are so poor, so a lot of the time it’s that or nothing. If you force people to accept a care job or be left with no money for food and bills you’re not really giving them any other option, even if they’re completely unsuitable for the role.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 13:00

JenniferBooth · 22/06/2026 12:16

Its like saying no one forced you to hand over the money when you are being held up at gunpoint.

Choice one.............take this care job OR be sanctioned
Choice 2 hand over the money OR get shot

I’m surprised this is so hard to understand.

Find a job, any job or increase your hours or you might be sanctioned.

No one puts a gun to your head and marches you to the nearest care home.

JenniferBooth · 22/06/2026 12:16

Idintlikefridays · 22/06/2026 09:31

That’s not quite true is it?
People are told to take jobs otherwise support is withdrawn, which is the same as forcing somebody
I’ve seen people that are so depressed. They can’t even wash their face in the morning for themselves being given sole responsibility of another adult.

Its like saying no one forced you to hand over the money when you are being held up at gunpoint.

Choice one.............take this care job OR be sanctioned
Choice 2 hand over the money OR get shot

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 22/06/2026 09:35

Idintlikefridays · 22/06/2026 09:31

That’s not quite true is it?
People are told to take jobs otherwise support is withdrawn, which is the same as forcing somebody
I’ve seen people that are so depressed. They can’t even wash their face in the morning for themselves being given sole responsibility of another adult.

They are told they need to find a job.
Any job.

No one is forcing a claimant to accept a specific job.

Idintlikefridays · 22/06/2026 09:31

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 21/06/2026 22:38

No one is forced into a specific job.

All there is they are asked to up their hours.

Nothing as dramatic as your reach,

That’s not quite true is it?
People are told to take jobs otherwise support is withdrawn, which is the same as forcing somebody
I’ve seen people that are so depressed. They can’t even wash their face in the morning for themselves being given sole responsibility of another adult.

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 21/06/2026 22:51

JenniferBooth · 21/06/2026 22:47

Shall i start a thread?

It’s s free country.

Start one, don’t start one, your choice?

Hmm
ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 21/06/2026 22:50

JenniferBooth · 21/06/2026 22:46

Read the post i quoted.

No one is forced into a job.

The poster you quoted wasn’t either.

JenniferBooth · 21/06/2026 22:47

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 21/06/2026 22:38

No one is forced into a specific job.

All there is they are asked to up their hours.

Nothing as dramatic as your reach,

Shall i start a thread?

JenniferBooth · 21/06/2026 22:46

ChardonnaysBeastlyCat · 21/06/2026 22:38

No one is forced into a specific job.

All there is they are asked to up their hours.

Nothing as dramatic as your reach,

Read the post i quoted.

Swipe left for the next trending thread