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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Luke McCormick in the papers again

56 replies

Metalguru · 18/10/2014 01:27

Aibu to think he should really be keeping a low profile, not pursuing a career that keeps his name in the press as a constant reminder to the poor parents? Yes, he has served his time. But he drove his car whist twice the drink drive limit and caused the deaths of two boys, just 8 and 10 years old. Shouldn't he be grateful that he has his liberty, and his girlfriend and young son, whilst the parents of the children killed will never be able to experience that again? Instead he seems to have relentlessly pursued his old footballing career, stating "that he has a point to prove" . it may not be national news, but his current footballing career at Plymouth Argyle is in the papers where I live regularly, and tbh, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Aibu to think he should be thanking his blessings and accepting that his actions mean he loses the right to "prove his point" resurrecting his old career path?

OP posts:
MrsDeVere · 18/10/2014 20:20

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hoobypickypicky · 18/10/2014 20:23

YANBU. If I were a club owner he'd never set foot in my stadium.

LapsedTwentysomething · 18/10/2014 20:51

Would you expect a teacher or doctor to walk back into their job, having commited such a crime?

MrsDeVere · 18/10/2014 20:56

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sabrinnnnnnnna · 18/10/2014 21:15

I remember this case so well - it was awful. I really object to him picking up his football career like this. It must be horrific for the family of those 2 boys to see him in the news/papers.

Yanbu.

AlpacaPicnic · 18/10/2014 21:18

McCormick is a scumbag who does not appear to show an ounce of remorse for his crime. I was very disappointed in PA when they resigned him.

PerfectlyPosed · 18/10/2014 21:35

My DP and I had this conversation last night in relation to Ched Evans release and the fact that he appears to just be going back to his normal life. If someone who worked in a bank, for example, or was a teacher served a prison sentence, would their job be held open for them?! Why is it ok for footballers? My DP has seen McCormick play a few times and he gets nothing but abuse so why would he even want to remain in the public eye??

Ir1na · 18/10/2014 23:41

MrsDeVere I don't have any children so I can't answer that.

Ir1na · 18/10/2014 23:42

PerfectlyPosed I thought fans who were abusive for ANY reason got removed/banned from football stadiums?

NotTheKitchenAgainPlease · 18/10/2014 23:50

If he had a shred of decency he wouldn't be back doing such a public job - if you can call it that.
I agree he has done no time at all...

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 19/10/2014 00:05

It's his poor parents who face the life sentence as do those 2 beautiful boys who had their lives taken from them.
Fully agree he should keep a very low profile.
I.M.O they should have thrown away the key. He surely knew he was over the limit so therefore he knew what could have happened, which it sadly did.
All that he served his time does not wash with me, as I said those parents and their boys will never get their lives back why should he.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 19/10/2014 00:08

Maddie. I think he was a bit more than "foolish". Good God what a ignorant and disgraceful comment and an insult to those poor parents and boys.

maddy68 · 19/10/2014 00:38

I'm not in any way justifying what he did. I have already stated that what he did was unforgivable

If prison doesn't rehabilitate then what's the point. If people can't go back to jobs afterwards then the state continues to pay the price for a crime. He a
So has to deal with the taunts from thousands of fans every week, he has to live with that.

maddy68 · 19/10/2014 00:40

And ps, it's not an ignorant comment. I have first hand experience of being a victim of a drunk driver that had terrible effects on my family. Don't you dare say that's ignorant because actually that's an ignorant comment. You know nothing of me or my circumstances.

MrsDeVere · 19/10/2014 10:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 19/10/2014 10:59

Maddie. It's only because of what you have been through that I will not argue back with you. However had another poster said to me "Don't you dare". Like I am 5. I would not be as polite.!

Sabrinnnnnnnna · 19/10/2014 11:51

There's being rehabilitated in prison, and returning to suitable work as your conviction is 'spent'.

Then there's coming out of prison, showing apparently no remorse, and rejoining a glittering football career, while the family affected serves a life sentence of the loss of 2 sons.

McCormick did the latter.

Metalguru · 19/10/2014 12:42

Maddy I'm so sorry for what you've been through, I'm sure this thread must have stirred up sone difficult memories for you and I hope you're ok. FWIW I agree with you about rehabilitation, and I do think he should be working, but not in professional football. It is crass and insensitive. When he got his girlfriend pregnant while on remand, I though wow, what a slap in the face for the parents who cannot have more children and have lost both. But it's not the baby's fault, and I guess accidents can happen - but he had a choice whether or not to return to professional football, and the fact that he has made that choice rather than keeping a low profile is so arrogant IMO.

OP posts:
Mascaramascara1 · 19/10/2014 15:46

This case makes me feel sick to my stomach. The sentence was woefully inadequate and his behaviour since release has been despicable. He has made statements thanking his fans for their 'support' during his difficult time fgs. Saying he now has a 'point to prove' regarding his poxy football skills.

If he had any ounce of decency he'd be keeping as low a profile as possible for the sake of the parents. Not making statements, completing interviews and accepting a captain position.

Loveloveloveher · 19/10/2014 21:21

Completely agree with you OP. It's all well and good to claim someone has "served their time" but funny how the victim and their families don't have a time limit on how their lives are affected.

Andrewofgg · 19/10/2014 21:25

Having "done his time" - in fact he did exactly half and was then released on licence for the other half as the law requires - entitles him to his liberty but not to his old job back. His disqualification expired six months after his release!

PuffinsAreFicticious · 19/10/2014 21:50

He, his rapist co professional and all his other criminal co professionals can happily get the fuck out of football. Yes, they should have jobs, but not ones in the public eye. There are fatbergs in London's sewers that need removing. They can go and do that. Why do their apologists always come along and tell us that they have to return to professional football in order to have a job, are they incapable of doing anything else?

PuffinsAreFicticious · 19/10/2014 21:51

And yet Mascara, you're all for rapist Ched Evans being allowed to go back to play, now why might that be?

Actually, don't bother, no one cares.

Mascaramascara1 · 20/10/2014 00:47

And yet Mascara, you're all for rapist Ched Evans being allowed to go back to play, now why might that be?

Er, what?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

AliceLidl · 20/10/2014 01:09

I was 20 weeks pregnant when our car was hit from behind while we waited at a red traffic light. We were hit by a man driving some massive lorry with a masonry crane on the back, biggest thing I've seen on the road, and we were pushed through the red light into oncoming traffic.

We lost our baby two weeks later, she was born prematurely and was too tiny to survive. I almost died as well.

The man driving the lorry wasn't drunk. He was in a hurry to get back to his yard for the end of the day, didn't use his handbrake, and was wearing wet boots. His foot slipped and jolted his lorry forward into us.

So for the sake of a couple of seconds of his time, some muddy footwear and his decision not to put his handbrake on, our daughter died.

I find it hard to explain how I feel about this man.

In a couple of seconds, a moment of bad driving, he took our daughter and nearly killed me. He didn't mean it, and I know he was remorseful, even there at the roadside he was apologising as soon as he stepped down from the cab of the lorry, and when he realised I was pregnant he was even more upset.

He wasn't prosecuted, and I don't think I would have wanted him to be in those circumstances.

But he went home to his family, his wife and children, he went to work the next day, his life didn't change in any dramatic way.

And our daughter died at two hours old, while we held her and watched her go.

I do find it hard sometimes, to accept that his life carried on regardless.

He's just a lorry driver, rather than a footballer. Nobody cares if he kept his job or not. I still have to drive passed the junction where he hit us. Sometimes we even see the lorry there, driving along the same bit of the road. And that hurts.

I don't know how much more it would hurt if he were someone famous, in a celebrity job, and I had to watch him and his workmates justify his actions in the press on a regular basis, or hear total strangers say he'd served his time or had to live with the knowledge of what he had done. That's no punishment, living with what you have done.

I doubt the man who killed my baby thinks of her every day. I doubt he even remembers what we looked like. He didn't see her fighting for her life for two hours, he didn't hold her or watch her die. He didn't feel just as proud of her as any other parent to any other newborn when she waved her fist and opened her mouth. He doesn't visit her grave or wonder what colour her eyes were, or what colour hair she would have had. He doesn't even know her name.

I can say that the man who killed my daughter made a split second foolish decision. He chose not to use his handbrake while driving an enormous lorry in muddy boots and bad weather. And I can say that I accept that. I don't forgive him for it, but I don't wish him ill for it either. I'd just like to think that she had a greater effect on him than being the end of a bad day he forgot about in a matter of weeks.

But I don't think I could say the same if he were someone who chose to drink and drive. That's not a split second foolish decision, it's a deliberate choice to endanger every other life on the road. It's something that can't ever be fixed or taken back by a couple of years in prison, not when you take lives because of it.

Rehabilitation isn't just serving time or saying sorry. It's something that you prove every day for the rest of your life by acting on your remorse and showing it. It's not something you just say and it's not something you claim has giving you a point to prove by going back to your old life and carrying on as though nothing has happened.

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