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.

I assumed the remark was sarcasm. In poor taste nonetheless. I read he had diabetes but surely that wouldn't usually limit his life so drastically.

It was a horrific murder. Life changing for all involved.

I don't understand how a child so very disturbed, slipped through the net though?

Why were his issues not recognised? or were they?

It has just been reported on the BBC news that he told the psychiatrist that what he had done was "fine & dandy" with him.

He has shown no remorse & indicated he would do the same again.

He is not safe to ever let back into society.

His poor, poor parents.

"It has just been reported on the BBC news that he told the psychiatrist that what he had done was "fine & dandy" with him."

That is a fifteen year old speaking. At the moment he shows no remorse, he may well be completely different in 20 years time or more frighteningly he may well have more sense with what he says if he wants to get out of jail.

I feel the job of a pychiarist/ pychologist must be really tough. Its really hard to assess a criminal to tell if they really do feel remorse for what they have done.

To all those who think he maybe could be rehabilitated....ask yourselves this...
Would you like him marrying your daughter in 20 years time?

Yes you are being quite revoltingly unreasonable. The sentence is entirely inappropriate because this child is sick. Obviously the senseless murder is also tragic, but so is this boy. The photograph is dreadful.

Am I alone in finding these threads quite sick?

"There too a teenage boy planned and carried out a cold-blooded murder and tried to convince the authorities that he did it while in the grip of a schizophrenic episode. There too the psychiatrists saw through the pretence."

I don't think you can say 'there too....' unless there are similarities. The striking thing about this case is that the boy involved has not said he was in the grip of a schizophrenic episode. He isn't pretending anything. He is just saying it as he sees it: 'I did what I intended to do and I don't have a problem with it. It's all good.'

Genuine question: Is a personality disorder a sickness? When does it become a sickness? Is it only a sickness if there is something that can be done to change it?

Prosecutor Paul Greaney, QC, said: “To describe the attack as cowardly hardly does it justice.”

The court heard the teenager had exchanged messages with a friend on Facebook months before the attack, which took place on April 28 this year.

Mr Greaney said: “In those messages, he spoke of “brutally killing” Mrs Maguire and spending the rest of his life in jail so as not to have to worry about life or money.

“He spoke of claiming that he was hearing voices, something he was in fact later to assert, and, as a result, what he described as “comfy walls”.

He was, in other words, talking of killing Ann Maguire and then setting up a medical defence.”

According to this, yes he did try to pass it all off as a schizophrenic episode. Cut and pasted from the Yorkshire Evening Post report.

Personality disorder is treated by psychiatrists as a disorder but it isn't curable. I believe I'm right in saying you can't be sectioned for having a diagnosis of personality disorder. Psychopathy is one form of PD. Under the age of 18 nobody can be diagnosed with psychopathy.

Personality disorder is a mental illness, so yes I would call it a sickness. He also had a history of self harming episodes. Some mental illnesses can be controlled and managed through behavioural therapy or medication. Only time will tell if this is the case here.
It is impossible to judge whether or not he will ever be 'safe' in society.

The question for me is where the line between punishment and rehabilitation should be drawn. I think the sentence is appropriate in this case.

Evening all. Apologies for the deletions, which make the thread look worse than it is. It's just because there were five people repeating the same quote, one that we deem to be beyond the pale.

lougle I'm not equipped to answer your question. I just find it impossible to comprehend how anyone can be so inhumane as to not feel a degree of compassion for this boy, while at the same time acknowledging the awfulness of the murder. His photograph is desperately sad. Given the descriptions of the generous character of the victim, I wonder what she herself would say?

Iwas, I watched some of psychopath night. I know what you mean, but surely Psychiatrists would spot one? I appreciate that he would need to be refered to one in the first place, I am just wondering what his general behavior was like [particularly at school-who would be able to refer him] and whether or not anything was picked up on.

He just seems to have been so brazen about it all.

Chilling case. My thoughts are with everyone affected by his except him.

KneeQuestion, I read a report which stated there had been 5 incidents of challenging behaviour in his secondary schooling. 3 of which were in the months preceding the murder. He had been banned from a school trip by Ann Maguire after homework was not completed. He did attend the trip despite this and was then placed in internal isolation as a consequence.

Yanbu. He's a psychopath. He's shown no remorse. He should never be released, I see him as 'bad' not 'mad'.

On rehabilitation, I agree it would be worth attempting if there were a bottomless pit of public funds. As there is not, I'd rather funds be spent on more worthwhile causes, like educating our children, the nhs or public sector pay. Why should we waste more money on this evil excuse for a human?

Am I alone in finding these threads quite sick?.....yes I think you're alone. Why is it sick? What the boy did was sick, discussing it isn't.

I don't see it as inhumane not to feel sympathy for a psychopath. I would agree it's not generous but I'm fine with not being generous in this instance. I can feel it for his parents, who from all the reports I've read had done their best to be decent parents. I also feel it's a shocking undervaluation of teachers' safety that he made these threats fairly openly and no-one seemed to think they had to be taken seriously.

Sentencing remarks of the judge: www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/r-v-william-cornick/

A personality disorder is not exactly a sickness. But I believe biological differences in the brain cause it.

Personality disorder is treated by psychiatrists as a disorder but it isn't curable. I believe I'm right in saying you can't be sectioned for having a diagnosis of personality disorder. Psychopathy is one form of PD. Under the age of 18 nobody can be diagnosed with psychopathy.

Lots of misunderstanding about personality disorder on this thread - have just copied this as it repeats some of the myths and have offered alternative views.

PD is not incurable, people recover from PD with effective treatment.
You can be sectioned for treatment of a PD but only if treatments are available.
Psychopathy is a generic term used to describe PD (but rarely), the term psychopathy when used in it's tabloid sense actually relates to sociopathy which is also called antisocial personality disorder.
It is not recommended to diagnose a PD before the age of 25, although we are now talking about emerging PD.

This young man may have an emerging PD, there are still no clear answers about what causes PD but it may be a 'wiring' thing but it could also be linked to early experience. None of us know why this young man did this, I expect he doesn't either but the job of keeping the public and him safe will be very important from now. Fortunately most of us don't have to worry about how that will happen.

My heart goes out to everyone concerned, such a tragic waste.

I feel mixed. Where is the line between mental illness (e.g. psychopathy) and evil? I think giving a 20yr sentence to a 15yo is okay, as if he can be rehabilitated, it would take decades anyway most likely, surely? I think that the whole throwing away the key/giving up on his future is wrong and premature, he's still a kid, he's not even old enough to be diagnosed as a psycopath. I'm not a psychiatrist, and I don't know the facts of course, but that's why I can't just say you should throw away the key when I have no idea whether there's the possibility he could be rehabilitated.

Tbh, he could do a lot and not have it picked up on. Mental health services in the UK are abominable, even youth ones (my brother has schizoaffective disorder, he's a teen, the school, known for it's pastoral care but otherwise just an average everyday school, had no idea and hadn't spotted any of even the more obvious problems, just calling it bad behaviour- and let's not start on the services outside of school like counselling and the waits for that, or the nightmare that is inpatient care).