To hope William Cornick spends at least the next 50 years in prison if not the rest of his life.

[smokepole]

William Cornick should never be released from prison, for his horrific and brutal attack on Ann Maguire. The judge has sentenced him to a minimum sentence of 20 years, no doubt based on his age. However, despite his teenage years and the stupidity and thoughtlessness that comes from these years his crime was so appalling he should spend the rest of his life in prison.

The only country that sentences children to full life terms is the USA, that is called a injustice by most of the world , because it does not allow for rehabilitation of children. William Cornick can not be rehabilitated for this crime and despite what the European court of human rights will say , he should serve the maximum sentence available under English law "Life in Prison".

The parents of Cornick must be living in a nightmare, wondering how they have bred such an evil child and thinking they are to blame for not stopping him from committing this heinous crime.

the article

The quotes I mentioned are all there.

Do people ever read posts properly. Not one poster has said the parents are to blame. The op and I both said that they will probably be blaming themselves. Of course they will, they wouldn't be normal if they didn't.

polly in the OP's last paragraph, she suggested the parents would be blaming themselves; I just suggested that they shouldn't.

No, as I stated in my post, I haven't read more than the average person about the case. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I have no idea whether he can be rehabilitated or not - but even if he can be, that doesn't necessarily mean he should ever be released from prison.

If he's a sociopath then of course he's disordered. It's incurable.

People are born like that, some go on to kill.

They shouldn't be released into the community as its incurable and they will still pose a danger.

Saying they're 'bad' or 'evil' is unhelpful - they have faulty wiring and they can't easily live with other humans.

So they need to be locked up.

I can't speak for any other posters, Polly, but yes, I read posts properly.

I am conflicted. I can see how you feel, but as a mother, I can't help but seeing someone elses little boy who's lost his way. Though equally as a mother, my heart aches for the Mcguire children too. My hope is that the prison service will do it's job and reform him and he will see what he has done. 15 is still young and with time and maturity he may grow into a remorseful man who can be reintegrated and rehabilitated into society. So sad all round.

I think that the boy needs to be locked away, but I am not sure that jail is the right place for him. I feel that 15 years old is too young and too soon to say "throw away the key". In twenty years time he may well be a very different man. I feel that the chances of rehabilation is far stronger for a child/ teen than an adult.

One of James bulger's killers has been sucessfully rehabilated and one of them is clearly a case where the key needs to be thrown away. It is too soon to say that rehabilation is impossible.

In fact I feel that twenty years is too long for a child who is fifteen years old. I would prefer a sentence that is the same length of time that a child has been on the planet for before parole is considered.

littleducks Yes, the judge has lifted reporting restrictions now so he can be named and discussed.

I also get at the willingness to ascribe abhorrent behaviour to mental illness. But it doesn't make any difference anyway, for me, to the fact that he needs to be kept securely locked away to protect the public, regardless of whatever the possibility is of rehabilitating him.

He suffers from a life limiting illness, it is therefore unlikely that he will live 20 years.

I suppose I think someone who can cold-bloodedly plan and commit a murder and show no remorse must be mad, because it's so far outside "normal". This isn't a hardened gangland boss who gunned down a rival - that's the kind of "bad" I can understand. The motives for this were unfathomable and to have the ability to do it the boy must have something missing - either his sanity, or a normal personality, in the sense that he has a disorder (such as being a psychopath). Either way, to me that's not something he had much choice about.

(Though I totally agree he needs to be locked up to protect the public.)

I know plenty of psychopaths, they don't all go out killing people.

It's when you get a mix of that plus other issues such as a lack of worrying/caring about consequences that these things happen. I don't know if this kid can be rehabilitated but I'm sure those trained in mental health will be able to identify that.

Morecrack, yes I saw that, but judging by that posters use of the word "apparently" I think its meant to be sarcastic.

Dawndonnaagain I thought he was diabetic? I know this shortens life expectancy but not as dramatically as 35 years old?

What illness does he have dawn ?

And I dont believe that remark was intended to be sarcastic.

Donna, I haven't read that, could you add to it?
I don't know how I feel, just so much sympathy for all the parents and families involved, but I can't agree that we lock people away forever. Surely that's inhumane.

I think many more offenders should be in secure hospitals and far fewer in prison. A huge proportion of offenders have serious mental health issues. I think it doesn't happen for reasons of cost and also appeasing the public who don't want the justice system to look "soft". It's really tragic.

"Mad, bad or just sad" has been debated for years and will be debated forever more.

This young man deliberately planned and executed a murder. Who knows why he showed others the knives and told them of his plan. He could have shown them and told them to give her a chance of life. He could have shown them and told them because he was proud of his plan. He says it was the latter (or at least, he showed no regret that he had been able to action his plan).

I think the fact that a psychiatric report stated that he had psychopathic tendencies and that he would be difficult to assess in the future, gives a very poor prognosis for rehabilitation.

20 years is just a starting point.

Also, we need to remember that at this tender age (bearing in mind that current thinking is that the brain isn't fully mature until 25), he will be spending his last 10 years before his brain is fully matured, in the company of criminals and other psychopaths....not the best hope of a productive future.

It's tragic. I think it's all the more tragic that she was just months from retirement. It's even more tragic that she had actually gone to work on her day off, to help students prepare for exams.

Who knows if she hadn't, whether he would have done this another day?