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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

He raped 100 women, was jailed for life in 2009 and is about to be released on parole

355 replies

Unfinishedkitchen · 04/01/2018 16:25

AIBU to believe raping 100 women is worth more than nine years in jail?

www.theguardian.com/law/2018/jan/04/black-cab-rapist-john-worboys-released-prison

OP posts:
Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 18:24

Prosecuted for the other allegations I mean. He's essentially got away scot free for them.

PhoebefromFriends · 04/01/2018 18:26

Can we start a petition? How easy is it to start one? It gives a worrying message to other would be attackers that even if they do get caught they won't have to be in prison for long.

HisBetterHalf · 04/01/2018 18:31

no doubt he will get his taxi licence back too- justice is so fucked up

guardianfree · 04/01/2018 18:33

Men society puts very little value on women's lives. The bigger picture with a relentless stream of murdered and abused women alongside repeated sustained attacks on women's rights and even our sheer existence is just so utterly depressing.

I will write (for what good it will do). This government show little interest in the safety of women.

WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 18:34

I don't think he can be prosecuted either because the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time set those allegations aside. That was Kier Starmer.

Yes. He could have some very difficult questions to answer.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 18:35

He is banned from operating a passenger vehicle for payment for life betterhalf, how effective that will be is debatable.

BISHBOSHBASHBOP · 04/01/2018 18:36

This government show little interest in the safety of women.

As pp has said Starmer was DPP at the time. I'm not this government's biggest fan, but others have questions to be asked of too.

BarbarianMum · 04/01/2018 18:42

Men (as a group) do place too little value on the lives of both women and children but half the voting public are women. We don't need to rely on men to get this to the top of the political agenda and we shouldn't rely on them to do so unless we are happy to die waiting. Women need to start telling our local politicians that they will not be getting our votes unless this stuff is addressed - and mean it.

Nineteenagain · 04/01/2018 18:43

IV emailed Secretary of State for Justice. All of you who are angry please do the same. I cannot just do nothing except rant. We have to have hope that we will be listened too.

JustDanceAddict · 04/01/2018 18:44

I couldn’t believe this when I heard it today. Wtf?

Elendon · 04/01/2018 18:47

Can we leave politics out of this?

The Conservatives have been power now for 18 years. Enough time to make an amendment regarding this law, if they really wanted to.

Jerseysilkvelour · 04/01/2018 18:48

I was agog when I saw that he's being released.

At least it's being widely publicised, hopefully his life will be ruined by the press following him around so everyone knows who he is.

I'm not one to advocate such behaviour, however this man has ruined so many lives and it's difficult to believe that he won't just find some way to pick up where he left off.

Ten yrs? Quickest way out after his minimum tariff was to become a model prisoner, say he's sorry etc etc.

WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 18:49

The Conservatives have been power now for 18 years.

Errrrr no they haven't.

Starmer should answer questions. I don't care what party he is part of.

safariboot · 04/01/2018 18:51

10 years would be a short sentence for one rape, never mind that and a whole bunch of sexual assaults, with the use of "date rape drugs" as an aggravating factor.

I doubt anything will be done to reverse his release, but perhaps in future judges will impose more deserving sentences on such serial offenders. Consecutive sentences should be the norm for serially violent criminals.

Aeroflotgirl · 04/01/2018 18:52

What is the e mail. Is there a template letter or something.

Elendon · 04/01/2018 18:52

The Conservatives got to power in 2010. It's now 2018. Hope that jogs your memory.

WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 18:53

The Conservatives got to power in 2010. It's now 2018. Hope that jogs your memory.

Maybe read your own posts before talking about others memory....

Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 18:57

The Conservatives have been power now for 18 years. Enough time to make an amendment regarding this law, if they really wanted to.

It's 8 years. 5 of those in coalition. And indeterminate sentences were ditched in 2012.

However no government can go back and alter sentences made under a previous government. That's a very important principle of justice. This whole thing is a legacy of the Labour government.

PricklyBall · 04/01/2018 18:57

Individually tailored emails work much better than templates, aeroflot. All I did was link to a newspaper article, say I thought the time served was too short, that I thought there was a huge risk of reoffending and he posed a serious risk to women, and asked Lidington to overturn the parole board's decision.

email is
[email protected]

You can find out your own MP's email from the "we work for you" website: www.theyworkforyou.com/mps/

It may be more effective to write to your MP asking them to take the issue up with the secretary of state - correspondence from other MPs carries more weight with ministers than correspondence from members of the public.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 18:58

2018-2010= 8

Are you feeling okay Elendon?

Elendon · 04/01/2018 18:58

Perhaps you are a purist Witches

Yes the Conservatives have been in power since 2010, all the PMs have been Conservatives. However I do appreciate that they had a coalition with the LibDems and now a coalition with the DUP.

Perhaps that's what stopped them from over riding this law or perhaps they think it's perfectly fine

Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 19:00

That's not 18 years elendon...

LakieLady · 04/01/2018 19:00

Sentencing guidelines in respect of rape and sexual assault need to change if women are to be adequately protected.

Judges are under an obligation to justify minimum tariffs according to sentencing guidelines. A sentence that does not stand up to scrutiny in the context of those guidelines is easily overturned on appeal.

Similarly, the CPS is not necessarily at fault for not bringing cases to trial. Their remit is to ensure that there is at least a 51/49 chance of securing a conviction, something that is very difficult in the case of crimes that tend to be committed in private or secluded places.

If the CPS guidelines were relaxed, more rape and sexual assault cases prosecuted and the conviction rate fell as a result, the MRA nutjobs would cite this as evidence that women made lots of false allegations.

What is needed is a root and branch review of the way that sex crimes are dealt with in the criminal justice system. I'm not convinced that the adversarial system is an appropriate one for dealing with sexual assaults, but it needs wiser people than me to come up with an alternative.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 04/01/2018 19:01

And they did ditch the law...in 2012...they can't retrospectively resentence though...

WitchesHatRim · 04/01/2018 19:01

Perhaps you are a purist Witches

No I am of the belief that 10 - 18 is 8 years. Hmm

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