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Should the parents of the Southport Killer face civil or even criminal action?

335 replies

mids2019 · 06/11/2025 22:36

Listening to the news I do wonder if the parental decisions of the Southport Killer reach a point where they need to face some sort of accountability. I understand that the parents aren't to blame but potentially they could have acted to stop their son and is there not some sort of sanction for this?

OP posts:
CommonYew · 23/04/2026 07:44

Supersimkin7 · 21/04/2026 21:33

AR doesn’t have any mental illness, and neither does anyone in the family inc his one sibling, older brother.

No one’s claiming they’re standard issue humans but they’re certified not insane. AR wasn’t abusing his relations - he needed them.

AR was diagnosed with autism/high functioning autism, but the parents blocked what therapy assistance there is (it’s not curable) and refused to administer meds.

It's amazing that people still consider this high functioning. Is it time to drop the term, maybe? High functioning people don't murder kids.

5MinuteArgument · 23/04/2026 08:34

ClassyCuckoo · 22/04/2026 14:45

Does the psychiatrist also bear responsibility then? For not realising this was a child with neglectful useless parents who might do physical harm to himself or others?

I don’t know where you start drawing lines.

I imagine the parents will never forgive themselves - and neither should thet

I think they will forgive themselves all too easily. They seemed to think their son's appalling behaviour was everybody else's fault.

kerstina · 23/04/2026 08:54

If it would have helped save the lives of future innocent children then changing the law has got to be worth it . Something should come from this enquiry not just “ lessons will be learned “

MaturingCheeseball · 23/04/2026 12:24

Can a legal precedent not be set? This case is too dreadful for the result to be “there you go, nowt to be done”.

I see that the parents of a child in Italy may be prosecuted as he threw a statue off a balcony and killed someone underneath. I think it hinges on the fact that he was unsupervised with heavy statues - it’s not as if he threw a broom/toy over. The Southport parents are clearly far more to blame as they condoned the killer having knives - nay, paid and took delivery of them - and obstructed investigations before and after the murders.

Kimura · 23/04/2026 13:52

MaturingCheeseball · 23/04/2026 12:24

Can a legal precedent not be set? This case is too dreadful for the result to be “there you go, nowt to be done”.

I see that the parents of a child in Italy may be prosecuted as he threw a statue off a balcony and killed someone underneath. I think it hinges on the fact that he was unsupervised with heavy statues - it’s not as if he threw a broom/toy over. The Southport parents are clearly far more to blame as they condoned the killer having knives - nay, paid and took delivery of them - and obstructed investigations before and after the murders.

I see that the parents of a child in Italy may be prosecuted as he threw a statue off a balcony and killed someone underneath. I think it hinges on the fact that he was unsupervised with heavy statues

As the child is too young to be held criminally responsible, the accusation is that the parents' negligence in failing to supervise him was directly responsible for the victim's death.

The Southport parents are clearly far more to blame

Moral and legal responsibility are not the same thing. They were not involved with or aware of the crime.

Can a legal precedent not be set?

There's no crime to charge them with. You can't just make one and charge someone retroactively because you think they deserve it.

soupyspoon · 23/04/2026 17:38

CommonYew · 23/04/2026 07:44

It's amazing that people still consider this high functioning. Is it time to drop the term, maybe? High functioning people don't murder kids.

Well some have, but only the same sort of proportion as people who dont have ASD I think.

HoppingPavlova · 24/04/2026 06:49

soupyspoon · 22/04/2026 14:40

Are you the poster that stated that the parents refused to give him meds?

If you know this, where do you know it from and what meds were they, thats all Im asking, you seemed to know

Nope, that was not me. If you think it was, then please provide those quotes as i don’t believe I ever typed that so very interested why you have targeted me for that.

soupyspoon · 24/04/2026 07:58

HoppingPavlova · 24/04/2026 06:49

Nope, that was not me. If you think it was, then please provide those quotes as i don’t believe I ever typed that so very interested why you have targeted me for that.

Im not 'targeting' you , Jesus!!!

Its a long thread and I cant remember who said what, I find scrolling back and forth difficult and I cant remember names. I was asking you as you seemed to know.

But now Ive had to find the post and its 22nd April at 1.29. You said his parents refused to give him the meds

soupyspoon · 24/04/2026 07:59

HoppingPavlova · 22/04/2026 01:29

I didnt realise he had meds, which were these? Sometimes kids like this are prescribed mood stabilisers even though they dont have a MH diagnosis

It would seem he didn’t have meds as his parents refused to give them to him. If he had of been on prescribed meds this whole thing may have been avoided, and their home life may have been somewhat normal/tolerable.

You said it here

HoppingPavlova · 24/04/2026 09:38

soupyspoon · 24/04/2026 07:59

You said it here

That was in response to another poster above me who referred to an article that said that. Read their post for that detail of this that I was responding to. Do you need me to find that post or are you capable?

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