to think they shouldn't send you to prison for taking a picture of a corpse

[pisacake]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4611862/Man-jailed-posting-Grenfell-Tower-victim-picture.html

Apparently Mr. Mwaikambo, who is of Tanzanian origin or extraction, opened a body bag at the Grenfell Tower and posted the picture on Facebook.

I'm not sure about Tanzania, but I am in Indonesia and it's very common to post selfies with dead (i.e. in the moments after they die) relatives etc. on Facebook. There was a case earlier this year where a Western man died and the local newspaper published multiple shots of him dead, dressed only in his underpants with blood coming out of his nose etc. Those photos remain online.

Obviously this is not the done thing in England, but it seems that someone they have come up with a fairly arbitrary charge (sending obscene materials over the internet) - there's no law against what he did, per se - and whacked a rather stiff sentence on him.

I'm not saying he was right to do it, but it seems that there is an excessive sentence for someone who broadcast to a fairly limited number of people (he has a couple of hundred friends on Facebook), something which inherently is more about outrage at the fire than the fact of what he did.

The law used is obscenity, but the photos are no more obscene than going to Tanzania/other parts of Africa and taking pictures of dead Africans to be broadcast on the news, or photos of the deceased Gaddafi (widely distributed in Western media) or whatever. The obscenity is the fire, but Mr. Mwaikambo is in no way responsible for that.

He didn't just take a picture of the unfortunate person; he posted it on social media.

He actually unzipped a body bag and took a number of pictures, of the face body and the injuries.

Vile and disgusting behaviour - no excuse at all.

I know we don't live in Indonesia, and that what he did is contrary to British norms and unacceptable

And contrary to our laws.

Were Alun Kurdi's family consulted before his picture was shared?

OP, you sound so heartless

That "corpse"was the body of a loved one, whose relatives might not even know for sure was dead yet

Glad he is in prison, whatever his cultural background

If the deceased was a family member of mine, it is the very least I would want to happen.

And what happpens in Indonesia is irrelevant, to both this thread and this particular case.

Whilst I agree the actual law could be sketchy, your thread title is misleading. He wasn't sent to prison for taking a photo of a corpse, was he?

He understood enough of the 'norms' to be making tea ( British culture so he understands that too) to be making cups of tea!!

"And contrary to our laws."

Well not explicitly no. There is no law as such against what he did. It was determined by the magistrate based on a subjective definition of obscenity.

"Whilst I agree the actual law could be sketchy, your thread title is misleading. He wasn't sent to prison for taking a photo of a corpse, was he?"

For taking a photo and uploading it to Facebook.

How the hell did he get arrested, charged, tried and sentenced in a couple of days?

What he did was heinous unless it was a family member. In which case his cultural background is relevant.

I cannot help but think that this hasty and harsh sentencing is somehow connected to the unprecedented lack of information on the number of dead and the nature of their deaths.

I don't need to know details but its very unusual for there to be so little after a major incident.

It is possible to be jailed very quickly when you are kept in custody following arrest.

If you plead guilty at your first court appearance which is within a couple of days of arrest and the court feels there is no option but custody (so no pre sentence reports etc) you'll be sentenced there and then.

Well, he's not in Indonesia, he's in the UK, and as such he needs to modify his behaviour according to our laws and customs, not his. The sentence was appropriate. Cultural excuse, my arse.

He wasn't granted bail for his own safety. Process very normal.

He isn't indonesian he is African living in London where we don't post dead strangers on the internet im sure indonesians living in londonwouldn't do that either and anyway the African man had been in London long enough to have local facebook friends he didn't just arrive from africa and find a corpse. You are trying to excuse what he did because it might be the Tanzanian way of doing things

I think he should have got much longer, the sick man.
It doesn't matter what is done in different countries, you follow the law of the land, and here it's illegal.
I'm sorry but it's disgusting and sick.

Come on. He took a video and five photos of an unidentified man, including the traumatic injuries and blood loss he'd suffered from jumping from a burning building, and posted them over Facebook.

His profile was covered in horrified comments for days. It appears to have been cleared up, presumably when Facebook removed the offending posts, but he cannot have thought that was in any way acceptable.

He didn't know the dead. He wasn't honouring him in accordance with his cultural norms; and there's no suggestion that the deceased was of the same culture.

He opened a body bag. He had plenty of time to stop and think about if that's acceptable.

Prison is exactly where this disgusting person belongs

"He wasn't granted bail for his own safety. Process very normal."

Yes there are a lot of people threatening him with death and hoping he gets cancer on Facebook. Not sure if they will be sentenced in similar fashion?

It's disgusting to open a body bag, take a photo and put the pictures up on social media. It is extremely disrespectful to the dead and hugely distressing and offensive for the family. I'm glad he got three months, that's the minimum he deserves.

I hope it serves as a warning to the next attention seeking fool who thinks of doing something so nasty.

We are in the UK, not Tanzania or Indonesia.
When or if i visit those countries i will respect their cultures and rules.
Please respect or understand those of the people of the UK.

For taking a photo and uploading it to Facebook

Yes- which is not your thread title

Threatening someone with death is supposed to come under the same law, isn't it?

And rape threats. And we all know how well that is policed.

That "corpse"was the body of a loved one, whose relatives might not even know for sure was dead yet

And image if the way they found out was through a Facebook repost showing a graphic image of their loved one, chared dead body. That for me satisfies the capacity to cause a higher degree of harm.

Also the Facebook text that accompanied the image, doesn't speak of someone who is fulfilling cultural norms (albeit ones from another culture) which may have provided a degree of mitigation, but of a callous and selfish man, who happens to be from Indonesia.

I saw screenshots of the messages underneath. Those threatening death treats to Mr Mwaikambo were wrong. And so was he for unwrapping a body after the paramedics had gone (he had filmed them) and then opening up the covering to take photos for social media. His friends were frantically looking for this man and saw these pictures as part of that search. That was the moment they realised that their friend had passed. That was shit. He deserved the 3months. That man was a victim. He deserved dignity which is what the paramedics had tried to leave him with given the situation. Mr Mwaikambo took that away leaving awful images for loved ones to chance upon.

pisacake is determined to excuse the man on the grounds it is acceptable in his culture.

And then mentions FaceBook. How long has FB been going? How is it someone's culture to be doing something that can only have been possible for a very small number of years?

Why are people so insistent that their perceived norms are human absolutes??? Oh, so let's excuse any behaviour because someone, somewhere might think it's normal. Idiotic poster.

He was African not Indonesian