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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think he should NEVER be released - HORRIFIC STORY WARNING ***warning reiterated by MNHQ - disturbing content***

496 replies

ShockedandOutraged · 04/12/2018 09:44

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6457161/Hes-bad-Ian-Brady.html#article-6457161

After committing a crime like this, it can never be guaranteed that this man is not a risk to society. What parameters do the Parole Board use to determine this? He has not been around to lose his temper/in a position to kill children while inside.

The reports details a network of 'friends' that this fiend has as support when he's out. Who on earth could be friends with something like this?

How can he even want to be released? If he had any remorse he'd have killed himself before now.

The poor parents of these children. Is there anyway they can fight against this?

OP posts:
Augusta2012 · 04/12/2018 12:07

Would you be happy to have this man living in your town under a new identity? How about next door?

People like that never have to worry about something like that happening. They’re invariably middle class lefties who own their own homes in nice areas who know the chances of a bail hostel appearing in their road or a criminal being housed there is nil.

And they’ll scoff at working class people on council estates who worry about things like this, ridiculing them for “intolerance” and “ignorance” and being driven by emotion. But they’re the people who have to put up with this stuff, they’re the ones who might have them rehoused next door when they can’t move away and can’t afford non-social housing so they’re trapped their.

It’s very easy to be kind and charitable when it’s other people who have to take the risks to facilitate it.

Nanny0gg · 04/12/2018 12:08

"A society should be judged not be how it treats its outstanding citizens, but by how it treats its criminals." Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Considering they've committed, you know, actual crimes I think they are, on the whole, treated quite well.

They're not crammed into cells, they have TVS, they're fed, exercised and if they're lucky, educatated.

It's not much of a life, but it is a life. And as they say, If You Can't Do the Time...

I'm quite happy with punishment rather than rehabilitation for some crimes and this is definitely one of them

SugarPlumRoar · 04/12/2018 12:11

No I don't believe he should ever be released. I don't believe with violent offenders such as him that prison is an environment that you could accurately judge what sort of threat he poses to the public.

By all accounts its not an environment similar to real life or to the things which seemed to trigger this man.

This link doesn't cover his crime but it does his background and makes an interesting read.

www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/david-mcgreavy-the-monster-of-worcester

Justaboy · 04/12/2018 12:11

The psychologist identified a number of factors which make it less likely that Mr McGreavy will reoffend in future.

Less likely and what if he does who will take the rap for that then?

Certainly not the bloody parole board! Its simple, life should mean LIFE and ALL of it.

See that instance the other day some poor woman was murdered and the ex boyfriend was given what was it 14 years!

What makes it worse it was a female judge who handed the sentence down!

Slightlyjaded · 04/12/2018 12:13

The problem is that even if he is 100 percent rehabilitated, remorseful and no longer a danger to the public, releasing him would be an injustice because the punishment would then not fit the crime.

There is no fair punishment for a crime like this other than a full-life-term, regardless of any other factor.

flamingofridays · 04/12/2018 12:14

if he had a drink problem, how could anyone honestly say he would be less likely to re offend?
maybe he would, sober, as he has (hopefully!) been in prison.

as soon as hes out, free, pissed, who realistically knows what he will do.

perfectly reasonable sober people, are horrible when drunk.

HermaHelen · 04/12/2018 12:15

I'd never heard of this story. How tragic. Not just that he killed them, but the additional detail of what he did after he had done so.

I find it difficult to believe he will actually be released?

Augusta2012 · 04/12/2018 12:15

So if you murder someone who has loved ones who will stand up and say how much they are missed you should have a longer sentence than if you murder a hermit with no friends or family?*

Actually the death of a hermit would be just as subject to all sorts of emotional decision making. Were there mental health issues involved? Were they targeted because they were a particularly vulnerable person? Did their lifestyle and issues mean they were unable to seek help if attacked?

They’re aggravating factors. Like killing someone in front of their child or knowingly denying a child a living parent.

Or I’m paling three children’s bodies on spikes.

It’s not rocket science. Our legal system really does provide leeway for cases which provoke particular revulsion.

MattFreisCheekyDimples · 04/12/2018 12:16

Wow, talk about a baying mob. The pp who said it's just as well the justice system doesn't work on the basis of popular opinion is spot on. I don't remember this case and the details are new to me, as I suspect they are to most, if not all, the people on this thread. What is (almost) certain is that not one person here knows or understands any of the facts that have driven the parole board's decision.

I'm just guessing one of them wasn't the dazzling apercu that he 'clearly has some sort of brain wiring problem', ffs. If what is meant by that is that he had/has a psychiatric disorder (as seems likely, given what he did) then without question more is known and understood about that, and its relationship with violent offending, than would have been possible in 1973.

Do you lot have any idea what savages you sound like?

Orangepear · 04/12/2018 12:16

Got to wonder about the "network of community support" or however they phrased it. Which community is that then?

flamingofridays · 04/12/2018 12:17

ah yes, we are the savages, not the nice man who violently killed three children.

puzzledlady · 04/12/2018 12:18

Yikes. This is horrid. I understand why some would say in circumstances like this - where it is proven beyond anything that he did it, then the heinous nature of what he did does warrant the death penalty. My own family have been affected by something fairly similar, and the murderer/rapist did get the death penalty. Did it bring her back? No. But it did allow her mother to sleep a bit better at night knowing her child’s murderer/rapist wasn’t around to ever be allowed to harm another child.

flamingofridays · 04/12/2018 12:19

and honestly, if he has a psychiatric problem, he should still be locked but in some kind of mental health facility.

mental health issues or not, he killed three kids.

he needs to be locked away somewhere where he can do no more harm to anyone else, for the rest of his life.

SciFiScream · 04/12/2018 12:20

He should be given a cell, have it stocked with supplies and then forgotten about. His supplies can be delivered to him, the bare minimum mind you, by some sort of delivery system so that no human has to have contact with him again.

Aworldofmyown · 04/12/2018 12:23

I'm a pretty rational person but this excuse for a man should rot in prison.

45 years is not enough and I don't care what kind of person they think he is now. You can't rehabilitate that level of evil.

nottakingthisanymore · 04/12/2018 12:23

Excellent and accurate post augusta

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/12/2018 12:27

The problem is that even if he is 100 percent rehabilitated, remorseful and no longer a danger to the public, releasing him would be an injustice because the punishment would then not fit the crime

Exactly

FWIW I agree that justice isn't decided by mob rule, and nor should it be - but this is what you get when the majority feel that justice hasn't been done

In a balanced society there's a value in proper retribution being seen to be carried out, and for me it just isn't happening

CharlesChickens · 04/12/2018 12:28

So I am a savage then, because I think someone who commits a crime like this, and destroys the lives of three tiny children and in turn the lives of their family, should never be released. It would only add to the agony of the parents, to have their children’s killer living a free life.
Ultimately, there is no way of knowing whether someone will reoffend or not. You can only say that it is more or less likely. In this case they feel it is unlikely. I don’t feel that is good enough. The parents were told he would be kept in prison for his whole life, and that is where he should stay.

HermaHelen · 04/12/2018 12:28

Yes, well said, Puzzled.

Claw001 · 04/12/2018 12:29

flaming I think the drink problem is the tip of the iceberg.

Our prison system is flawed, as it often acts only to deter, hold and punish. For serious crimes, regular physchiatric input is needed to rehabilitate.

We don’t know what input he received, However I should think it would be dangerous to release anyone, hoping that punishment has done the job.

brizzledrizzle · 04/12/2018 12:32

There's no way that he should be released.

Wonkypalmtree · 04/12/2018 12:42

There was a media ban on reporting this story for a number of years, that might be why people haven’t heard of this before or until recently.

I hope that he isn’t released.

ReflectentMonatomism · 04/12/2018 12:43

Not supporting it means you don’t believe the death penalty is a fitting punishment ever, whatever the crime, whoever the criminal.

By that strict standard, I suspect most people support the death penalty.

For example, Rudolf Höss was hung in 1947. I doubt many people see that as something to regret.

NeridaVulchanova · 04/12/2018 12:47

I wonder if members of that parole board feel comfortable with him babysitting their kids/grandkids now that he has "changed considerably"!

AndThereSaw · 04/12/2018 12:47

For serious crimes, regular physchiatric (sic) input is needed to rehabilitate. We don’t know what input he received,

Exactly, so how can we demand that the parole board (who do know what rehabilitation he has undergone , received and benefitted (or not) from) 's decision be overturned on the basis of what was reported 45 years ago?

Because he pleaded guilty the details were not released even in court. The media circus now is based on tabloid reporting back in 1973.