To think justice served on the Mum of Disabled Child in Revenge Attack

[Mitmoo]

Thanks to milkmilk for posting this on a different thread but it has got lost.

The mother of a disabled child who plotted a revenge attack on a poster who launched attacks on a disabled child via the internet found not guilty.

DM but that doesn't matter - it's an important article.

A mother who joined a revenge attack on a man responsible for a vile campaign of internet abuse against her disabled daughter has been spared prison.

Sylvia Hooper, 52, was described as a ?decent and law-abiding? woman who dedicated her life to her seriously ill daughter Kim Arnold. But she snapped after looking on helplessly as a cowardly bully sent her a series of appalling comments via Facebook.

One labelled her a cripple and said the wheelchair user should be left to ?roll down a hill.?

Another message read: ?Your mother should have had an abortion. She only had you because she felt sorry for you.?

Mr Hooper, 19, punched the bully after his mother said ?hit him? and Berwick was then taken back to the family home by car. He was forced to crawl inside and make a ?grovelling apology? to his victim while on all fours. At one point he was hit on the chin with a rolled up newspaper.

All three admitted assault but denied false imprisonment and the judge ruled that not guilty verdicts should be entered.

He said: ?I sentence you on the basis that Mr Berwick sent messages that were wholly disgraceful and shameful but then tried to put the blame on his girlfriend.?

Mrs Hooper was given a conditional discharge. The two men were given community orders which included voluntary work.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028961/Judge-spares-mother-jail-plotted-attack-internet-troll-posted-horrific-comments-disabled-daughter.html#ixzz1Vpq1S3To

Precised down full article on the above link.

Good for the judge, the right decision was made.

Hey 2shoes. Perhaps MN campaign should be against disabalist language and attitudes online, I'll join.

I don't see where anyone has said the girl should have been hidden away. Only that the bully should have been blocked. Perhaps not the best solution in the world to suggest, but hardly on a par with locking her away from the world.

I just don't get people who ridicule the disabled. How insecure must you be in yourself that you need to make yourself feel better by picking on someone not only smaller and weaker, but disabled too. Pitiful. And that it's so common is even more unbelievable. And more pitiful.

Obviously if parents are being driven to this kind of behaviour, more needs to be done to enable to the police to act in cyber hate-crimes.

But I still don't think what that family did was right. They could have got their point across to him without resorting to violence, I'm sure. After all, bullies usually collapse when you confront them.

AnnieLobeseder 'bullies usually collapse when you confront them.'

People always say that, but I have never actually seen it in practice.

It's not just talk about being blocked though, it's about shutting profiles down so much you cannot be found.....

I just think that when the posters on the thread are starting to turn on each other, energies are being projected in wasted directions. Why argue with each other instead of coming together to work out a solution to ensure things like this don't happen, and to stop disabled people being such easy targets.

It's not just on MN, and it's not just about the disabled. It's the same when any women out at night gets raped and everyone just wants to know why she was out there in the first place. Never any blame on the attacker, all on the victim for being a soft target.

Society's views on a lot of things need changing.

'I just think that when the posters on the thread are starting to turn on each other, energies are being projected in wasted directions. '

I think you will find that the members of the SN PurplepantsTwuntyBrigade are in fact united in their opinions, and there is no turning on each other here. Just those who are affected by disablist behaviour first hand having a difference of opinion with other posters who may not.
Rather more in agreement than many of the feminists on the feminist board tend to be.

Sorry, just trying to make peace. I mean arguments between the SN PurplepantsTwuntyBrigade and those not part of this no doubt delightful group. And how did feminists get dragged in?

I'll get me coat.

Nooo stay! You are talking good stuff.
It's just that I usually see you around the feminist board where you presumably know names and can probably place bets on who will voice or support which arguments.
So you can tell the difference between posters turning on each other there, and posters having a fairly clear division between different cohorts.
Which might be a bit harder if you don't know which posters on this thread have children with disabilities. We aren't arguing amongst ourselves.

It's very obvious who are the posters with the SN connections, POG!!!

I'm quite new at feminism, and still learning who speaks sense and who wears a tin foil hat.

I think it depends on which side of the looking glass you stand Annie.
One person's Tin Hat of Irrationality is another's Armour of Righteousness.
I'm old at feminism, but very new to MN feminist boards, and sometimes I think and sometimes
Which is good for the brain.

But I am a weak and feeble woman and therefore have no brain! So I just spend all day staring at myself in the looking glass...

No one should have to be frightened to be on Facebook. There are plenty of options available. I'm not searchable in general...you could spend days looking for me and not find me. I have my settings as such that i'm only searchable to friends of friends. I could, if I wanted, be totally invisible. I also have never put any info on workplace, school, area, birthday etc. I can't be messaged by anyone who isn't on my friend list and my ex is blocked completely. You have to keep an eye on it though as Facebook often change settings sometimes opening up something you'd want hidden...I dont think they like to encourage privacy tbh. Now that, to me is something that needs addressing. Cyber abuse will continue if people have no idea how to keep profiles private without isolating themselves

ThePosieParker Tue 23-Aug-11 23:08:50
Hey 2shoes. Perhaps MN campaign should be against disabalist language and attitudes online, I'll join.

would be a good idea, but sadly mn hq most likely wouldn't back it,

they seem to think education is the way forward. so they expect the SN PurplepantsTwuntyBrigade tp spend their time on mn educating the people who deem it their right to use these words. as for attitudes, we are normally told it is just someones opinion and although unpleasant will be allowed to stand so that someone can educate them !!!

I would like to point out that I have a we severely disabled child, and appear to not be on the same side of the fence as you, Goblin. Not wanting to fight amongst ourselves here, but please don't dismiss my views because they are not PurplePants views. I do t think I am the only one on this thread in this position either. I do resent my views being relabelled as disables when they are nothing of the sort.

I do not like the way some of what has been written here has been twisted. Having a secure fb profile is in no way the same as hiding away, being hidden away, or being isolated. I Play stupid fb games (for my sins), and as sch have many friends who are game players only. I control their ability to access my profile, but still have the interaction I desire. I was once part of fanjoes club too, which went from a small membership to over 100 very quickly, and did the same - you do not need to be isolated just because you have a locked down profile. Indeed I remember saying something about open access profiles at the time, as so many people were being added, wih friends of friends, and no one knew who they were or more crucially who their friends were or what their access controls were.

Yes, in an ideal world no one should have to think about these things. But we all know the world is far from ideal. This is not an issue of disability, but of taking sensible steps in the online world.

Sorry if I upset you or appeared to be speaking for others which I have no right to do silverfrog.
I agreed earlier that a secure profile was a good thing for anyone to have, certainly my family do, within the limitations of FB.
My questions were what sort of help had the family been given before they took the law into their own hands and became lawbreakers themselves?
Did they even know or understand what options they had?

not upset

I just wanted to say my bit before it became gospel that this was a have disability in the family/don't understand what itis like divide

I think I said earlier that there should eb more onus of fb to not randomly change secure setting whenever there is an update, and to make it easier to find those settings in the first place. I have quite a few frineds (RL ones, not just game players) who have only locked down their profile after something undesirable has happened - these situations should not be happening at all, but they should be avoided where possible.

I wholeheartedly agree that the family should have been given help, the scumbag should have been sorted out before they had to do it.

I wonder if there is a role for police community liaison officers here? advising on things like fb settings and how to maintain contact without giving everything away and keeping your self safe at the same time?

there should, of course, been and instant reaction formthe police when they reported it - a good old fashioned "going round and having a word" might have sorted it out (and if it hadn't, then maybe it was because that "having a word" had not happened when the ratbag was younger?)

I'm pleased we haven't fallen out then.
I also agree that problems are a lot easier to sort out when they are smaller, if the structures are in place, being pro-active rather than reactive.
Community liaison police officers would have been very useful as intervention when the bullying began. Cheaper too, looking at it from a politician's POV.
BTW, there are members of the PurplePants brigade that don't have children with additional needs, but they do have an interest in prejudice and bias.
I seem to recall StewieGriffinsMom was one.

And me

the problem is imo
even if this girl had changed her settings, this man would have just picked another target.
surely talking about stopping vile people like him would be an idea. rather than discussing how to be safe on fb.
or do we just ignore that, and allow them to carry on and then when the shit hits the fan, they paint them selves as the victim!

What is the PurplePants brigade please? Of whom does it consist and what do they do?

I agree with silverfrog but I also think it is difficult to understand how discriminitive people are to those with disabilities if you haven't experienced it yourself, you can empathise but you cannot fully understand. I had an incidient yesterday int esco where I had my child with me who has severe and complex learning disabilities, autism and physical disabilities and my other two children. Child with disabilities kicks off, spits, screams, swears etc. We give her space to calm down (it wa striggered by a clear pencil case) and EVERYONE in the aisle was staring at us and I had several people come and shake their heads at us and one woman shouted 'good grief!' The ignorance that something wasn't quite right was astonishing and there have been many times when I am out with my child that I have felt threatened by other people and their prejudices.

I know that two wrongs don't make a right but I can't help but think that it must be very empowering for a victim of abuse to successfully challenge her tormenter and hear an apology. Albeit threatened out of him.

I know they've received a legal slap on the wrist but I'm sure everytime that mother thinks about what she did she'll stand up straighter.

What Roger said.
You wouldn't think it was words on a screen if you lived it day in day out.

people have been talking about stopping this sort of crime, 2shoes. no one here has said it is acceptable. no one has said it shoudl have been ignored. nearly everyone (or perhaps even everyone) has said the police should have acted.

but, in reality, the man was a victim - of assault, and kidnap. there is no "painting themselves as the victim" here - he was hit, and taken against his will. this is not right. it is not right that the family felt they had to do somethign themsleves, either, but you cannot ignore the fact that what they did was wrong, by the rules of our society.