To be surprised the lady that stabbed the paedophile got 3 and a half years?

[m1nniedriver]

Just that really. I thought she would get longer. The world is a better place without him but still .... She murdered him.

Hmmm, I get the impression that a lot of the "good on her" brigade would have been present in the crowd attacking the home of the Pediatrician in Newport.

Where does your sense of vigilante justice stop then? Is it just child molesters? How about bad drivers, cyclists that jump lights, shop lifters....

I'd rather the law dealt with people than a bunch of knee-jerk half wits going off half cocked.....

Badger, what you're arguing though is that we should show compassion towards somebody who molests children but withdraw that compassion when someone is placed under such immense pressure by their actions that they lose control. It doesn't make sense.

Incidentally no paediatrician had her house ruined. A paediatrician had 'paedo' written in very small letters on the outside of her house for unknown reasons by Unknown persons (it could well have been a coincidence). But the story of a baying mob attacking a paediatrician is untrue.

And the judge made very clear this defence only applied to her own very specific set of circumstances, not vigilantism in general.

www.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/8897

Full story about the 'paediatrician mob' here.

My point is sempai that comments like your 'it would be one thing if one of her children was a victim, but it never states that' are completely redundant here. Because we wouldn't be told if he had abused a child of hers, or another family member or anyone who she had a relationship with that would make them identifiable.

Booyaka is owning this thread, btw. Unfortunately I suspect we'll have plenty more supercilious remarks about mob justice and invocation of the spectre of dense proley bitches lynching paediatricians. Hopefully she'll hang around to deal with them. There are ways to express reservations about mob justice and support for the sentence without resorting to that kind of thing.

OK, to put it simply - I don't care what someone has done, or is suspected to have done, the general public don't have the right to take the law into their own hands.

If they do, they should be hit with the full weight of the law and punished accordingly. Criminals are criminals...

I agree with that IknowIam .We can't just stick to the bits of the law we like and ignore the other bits. If you want 'paedophile killers' to be treated more leniently then campaign to have that area of the law changed, but until then, respect it.
This woman took a knife with her, and that does suggest some level of violent intent. It would have been a different matter if she'd picked up a knife in the kitchen.
I feel sympathy , because I know I would feel massive stress if I knew a paedo was living next door to me and my kids and I don't know how I would deal with it but that wouldn't give me a free pass.

I don't think anyone is saying it's OK to take the law into their own hands - more that in this woman's case, there were mitigating circumstances. Which is, in fact, what the judge said. This is why she got a jail sentence, but a reduced one.

If the 'reading between the lines' is true then I wouldn't blame her for killing him.

If not she should have got a longer sentence.

Deplorable, disgusting man, but we can't have vigilantes taking the law into their own hands.

Reading between the lines it's clear that his alleged victims were linked to her in some way, the press simply won't be able to disclose that and nor will she. On that basis I can completely understand why she did what she did. The sentencing of child abusers in this country is a disgrace. However, she went there with a knife, that to me suggests premeditation. She's lucky she didn't get murder.

We absolutely cannot go around doing this. He was awaiting trial and it is not ok for anyone to go around murdering alleged criminals.

I'm not sure the judgment or reasons have yet been made public, so until that point I really don't see how we can say whether she's lucky she wasn't convicted of murder or that she must have acted with some degree of provocation.

I do feel sorry for her children - while she got her revenge, her children must suffer without their mother while she is in prison. However angry or justified she felt, I do think she should have considered her children - especially if they have been abused. The ability to actually kill someone with a knife is quite shocking, whatever the circumstances. I cannot see her as a heroine. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

Haven't read the thread, or about the case, but my reaction to the outline on 24-hour news was similar to OP. You freely go to someone's home, carrying a knife, and stab them to death when they answer the door. How can that be manslaughter, rather than premeditated murder?

I suppose if I had all the facts I would know, but from a distance it does seem very strange.

I agree with those saying that vigilante justice should not be rewarded. The judge, I believe, said a similar thing, but she got 'bonus points' (not the right word I know) for going straight to the police and confessing, for not attempting to destroy the evidence, and for being in the grip of a rage about this man living close to children.

I think with the shockingly low rape convictions, child abuse convictions etc, that actually the odd threat of vigilante action is the only deterrant for some people. I do not see. I dont think this sets any precedent that hasnt always been there.

I'm slightly by all the "I would kill him if it were my child" because when parents say that sort of thing, it stops children from speaking out.

Imagine you are a small child and have been systematically violated in the most horrific way by a grown up, someone who is meant to be responsible and trustworthy. You are terrified, have been emotionally abused and bullied into believing that something terrible will happen when you tell. Somehow, you work up he courage to tell your mum and she stabs the bastard. Oh look, he was right, something terrible did happen when you told. It's all your fault, look what you've done, you silly girl. It stops the sexual abuse but you've lost the only adult in your life that you could trust. Everyone now knows what has happened to you which is another dose of humiliation.

So, go on, cheer and offer her a drink now, knowing what I've just told you it's like to be a child who was abused.

I think it's shockingly low tbh.

A human life is a human life and to start placing different levels of worth on it based on the individual is a slippery slope.

She went there, armed with a knife. This wasn't a crime of passion, unexpected and sudden - it was premeditated.

She should feel lucky she's in the UK because if she was in America she'd probably have got life.

She should have got longer. You can't take the law into your own hands. What if she had mistaken him for someone else? There was a case only this week where a woman in Southampton had acid thrown over her - as it turns out she was wrongly targeted and the men concerned meant it for someone else. Her life has now been ruined and she has lost half her sight.

You can't just go round attacking people for what you believe they might have done. That's not how life works. Just look at the case of Bijan Ebrahimi. He was dragged out into the street and set on fire because two men thought he was a paedophile.

Vigilante justice and mob rule are not right and should not be rewarded. She should be serving a much longer sentence for murder. And if he is guilty of everything that has been insinuated then imo he should never have been released from gaol.

I'm also at the 'I would do it too' comments.

So you do it, you end up in prison, your kids suffer more.

Big thumbs up - well thought out plan you morons

I'm truly sorry to hear what you went through kourtneyk. But please do not presume that those who've posted saying they would offer her a drink or otherwise congratulate her would need telling what it is like to be an abused child.

branleuse but then it obviously isn't a deterrent if rape and child abuse is still going on, even at the risk of vigilantilism. Just as capital punishment doesn't act as a deterrent for murder.
Some of the low sentences that are handed down for child sex abuse are disgusting ,that is true, but even if they were higher some people would still feel free to take the law into their hands . Vigilantism isn't really about justice or murder, it's about fulfilling violent tendencies at the expense of a victim that no one cares about.

I meant 'justice or doing the right thing', not murder.
Not sure hiw that one crept in .Can't blame that on autocorrect.

I may have read this incorrectly but I thought she was appealing against her original lengthy sentence of 7 years?

She's now appealed successfully and it's been reduced to 3 1/2 years due to mitigation (the information contained was not released).

She'll be out in 10/11 months based on the time already served while remanded and in line with half her tariff.

I don't know the details of the original case but it clearly states it wasn't murder but manslaughter due to loss of control (used to be provocation, but changed in 2009/2010 as provocation was too sketchy).

None of us can comment on whether the loss of control defence for manslaughter is relevant as we weren't privy to the details of the original case.

Either way for manslaughter with strong mitigation 3 1/2 years is not an unusual sentence and yes the fact that the victim was a paedophile will make a difference to the sentence.

That said the Judge was very clear - this wasn't a vigilante attack and this isn't to be used as common law for other loss of control cases as its limited to the specific facts of this case. Ergo, it won't allow vigilantes to attack people and then use this case to support theirs.