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.

A Yr8 child brought a knife into my sons school, he showed it to the girl he was trying to impress, she went and told her HOY immediately. He realised he was rumbled and hid the knife. They evacuated the school, the local schools took all the pupils and placed them in their halls. They then locked the school down until they found the knife. I really don't understand why the pupils he showed the knives to, didn't see fit to tell an adult.

The said child was duly expelled, he is now going to school out of area.

The sentencing remarks make sad reading. I think absolutely the right sentence has been passed. Cornick will not be released until he is not a danger. The only way he will get to that point is by showing genuine remorse and overcoming his present dire situation. If he does that then yes, he will be released and he gets another chance at life that he did not extend to Ann Maguire. So far, so unjust - but if you could ask her or any dedicated teacher what they thought, taking away the pain and the emotion and the anger that is quite rightly here - if you could simply ask should somebody who commits a crime as a young person and then genuinely repents and rebuilds their life, be given a second chance? I think the answer you'll get is yes they should and that's why the UK sentencing is right for society and the US policy is wrong.

Regarding why the kids who saw the knife didn't say anything - I think the whole 'code of silence' thing is part of that but the larger part of the explanation is he was showing it to young adults. They do not have the same reasoning and maturity that fully adults have. Part of maturity is balancing risk and being resilient yourself. Any adult shown a knife by a work colleague with that sort of plan is mentally equipped to process it and reason that the risk of harm done by the knifeholder outweighs any consequence for the person reporting this. But for a teen - in such a situation the risk of them reporting it must have seemed far greater than the risk of him actually doing anything with it.

I agree, northern.PLus there may be lots of background we don't know about-e.g. WM mouthing off before but never doing anything.

I totally disagree Northern Lurker.

The adolescent brain is still plastic to some extent, so in cases where the crime arises mostly from the environment, such as a dysfunctional/violent family or neighbourhood, then it is possible for a young criminal to be rehabilitated and go on to lead a normal life.

But in cases where psychopathic behaviour is already being exhibited the prognosis often isn't very hopeful.

I think it is better to err on the side of caution, as the UK does, rather than the US system, where quite young people are sometimes tried as if they were adults, and sometimes sentenced to life without parole.

But one thing about the UK treatment of young offenders rather bugs me. They are housed in Young Offender Institutions until they are 19 years old, and then transferred to adult prisons. But even at 19 their brains still haven't fully matured. I think for long-term young prisoners, there should be the availability of a YOI until they're in their mid-twenties.

There's another Channel 5 documentary, called "Kids Who Kill", which I found rather educational, especially the first case discussed (Daniel Bartlam), which does have some similarities with this one: www.channel5.com/shows/kids-who-kill/episodes/kids-who-kill

He has been diagnosed a pschyopath. He's proud of what he did and the pain he caused. His victim will be dead forever. Her family will suffer her loss the rest of their lives.

So fuck that little shit. He should never be released. Pschyopaths can't be rehabilitated so he'll always be a danger to society. Bleeding heart criminal lovers don't have the right to bet the lives of innocent people on their ideological belief that everyone should be released regardless of what they've done, the pain and loss they've caused and what they possibly will do if given the opportunity. Those who justify this boy and wish for his reintroduction to society are worse than he is. At least he has wonky brainwire an excuse. Those who try to excuse, minimise and place him in a position to repeat his behaviour are plain evil.

To the poster who said that Jamie Bulgers murderers have been rehabilitated. I believe only one has been successfully rehabilitated. The other keeps reverting to crime.

Does that show we can't predict how they will turn out? I can't remember if there was much difference in their childhoods or personalities.

Playthegameout, you said, "I completely agree smoke, but sometimes there are students who have an indescribable power and influence over their peers. These individuals can exercise complete control over others, through fear, through charisma."

There was absolutely no suggestion that this boy was like that.

I'm not sure we actually know that no one told - this wasn't revealed in court either way. To be honest, revealing that might put the young people at risk of him harbouring a grudge. In any case, surely there will also be some kind of review or investigation covering security and why this happened?

The mind set he has will never make him a safe person in society even in 50 years time.

You have absolutely no idea whether this is true or not.
As a young person it is right that we do not exclude the possibility of rehabilitation, even if that possibility is slim.

When the time comes to judge his suitability to be reintegrated into society, that judgement will be made by experts with the knowledge and experience we lack. As it should be.

His crime was horrifying. If we are not allowed to hope that this is possible and we condemn a young boy to prison until he dies, we have lost our status as a civilised society imo. The permanent incarceration of children in US prisons, without hope of rehabilitation, is something I believe has no place here. Or anywhere, actually.

Rollontome I assume you are being deliberately provocative. That's the only excuse for you. Please take your unpleasantness elsewhere. This thread and this situation is not the place.

Yeah, right, Rollon You know for a fact you'd jump in front of a crazed knife killer to rescue someone else, do you?

Rollon I would never encourage my daughter to tackle an attacker who was carrying a knife. I would hope she would attempt to get to a place of safety.
And I imagine that as, by all accounts, a fantastic teacher and mentor to her students, Ann Maguire would have hated the idea that children were injured,or worse, trying to intervene.
I have reported your post as it disgusts me.

Fuck off, rollon.

Reported. Best not to respond to that kind of nonsense.

My daughter would have been too frightened and traumatised to intervene and she is a brave, clever and kind child who would hate to see anyone being hurt.
You, on the other hand, are truly awful.

The sentence is correct in my view. I am against whole life tariffs for anyone below the age of 18 under any circumstances.

Tragic story all round. For the victim and her family, the witnesses and for Williams family. And I feel nothing but pity for William. I work in mental health and was a forensic nurse for a few years and worked with many people with anti social PDs (I don't think William has been diagnosed with ASPD?, they said 'traits' - it would be very rare for that diagnosis to be given to a juvenile and a lot of Psychiatrists would not do it).

Anyway, I felt pity for the men I worked with (without disregarding their crimes or the risk they may pose of course) and I feel pity for William.

No child should feel they should "have a go" but I am still truly boggled as to why the child he showed the knife didn't tell someone.

Rollon, you are being deliberately vile on a thread that has been balanced and well argued up to this point.

There was nothing anyone could have done to stop him, short of "shooting him with a Taser". Roll On is clearly a very stupid poster. Every single person including high trained Armed Policeman would be in a state of shock with that happening in the space of a couple of seconds. To suggest young 15 year old children should be able to act in a way even highly trained police officers would struggle with is disgusting and completely wrong.

Thank you for that sensible post needyou. I agree, he is to be pitied and if you have compassion in your heart for Ann Maguire's family you need to have it for his family too.

Rollon I am mostly ignoring your rantings but I did want to point out one thing. The children who witnessed this crime were victims of this crime too. Only a truly awful person blames the victims of a crime for not preventing it.