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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Death Penalty for Bellfield

425 replies

Charlotte48 · 09/01/2019 19:42

Having watched Manhunt about the investigation into the evil paedophile; child killer; woman killer; woman abuser and beater, Levi Bellfield, I was just wondering if, after Brexit, we should restore the death penalty. Surely Bellfield should be executed.

OP posts:
Rosehip10 · 10/01/2019 11:46

Can't believe people advocating torture in this thread. Aside from it being unacceptable in anyway it is useless as people who are being tortured generally confess to anything or say anything to end it as the Americans have found with their questioning of "terrorists"

Craft1905 · 10/01/2019 13:09

Charlotte- I should not have linked Brexit with this thread - I except they are not related. Both my husband and I voted to leave the EU and he is an accountant with a degree and other qualifications so take offence that Brexiteers are considered to be thick!

It's accept.

BorisBogtrotter · 10/01/2019 13:12

"so take offence that Brexiteers are considered to be thick!"

But it isn't all leave voters, but the ones who say stupid things, and unfortunately there are rather a lot of them,

AhhhHereItGoes · 10/01/2019 13:23

It's a tough one.

On one hand I wouldn't want to be as bad as him and lower our standards to behave like him. I'd also not want it to be a foot in the door for more death penalty cases, especially because false convictions even for murders plural, do happen.

However, life isn't a game-- it's all very well being moral and just, but where does that take us in reality. Yes we should always try to be reasonable but someone who has no qualms to abuse and kill innocent people, does he deserve our mercy?also keeping him in prison coats us money. So he commits a crime and society (literally) pays to keep him.

I think put him in the general prison population and allow some Russian/Italian gangster to do him in. State aren't murderers and he's gone. Not ideal but the best of a bad lot, really.

Craft1905 · 10/01/2019 13:29

But it isn't all leave voters, but the ones who say stupid things, and unfortunately there are rather a lot of them,

Yes, it's the 99.9% of thick ones that give the rest a bad name. Grin

Riotingbananas · 10/01/2019 13:31

Both my husband and I voted to leave the EU and he is an accountant with a degree and other qualifications so take offence that Brexiteers are considered to be thick!

I'm afraid it's very difficult to engage in the debate with gems like this Grin

AhhhHereItGoes · 10/01/2019 13:37

Oh I do like the idea of dark blue passports though.

Craft1905 · 10/01/2019 13:39

Ricky Gervais has it right.

"We had a referendum on an incredibly complex issue, in a country where we still have to put, on bottles of bleach, DO NOT DRINK. We should never have had the referendum, but if we had to have it, then take the warnings off the bleach...for 2 years, and then have it"

zeeboo · 10/01/2019 13:39

Oh look, someone else who voted for Brexit with no idea what it is or what it will affect. Hmm

Helmetbymidnight · 10/01/2019 13:44

While the main parties don't talk much about death penalty, it IS something UKIP talk about a lot. (UKIP of course are predominantly brexitteers afaik.)

Paul Nuttal was pro - he said he'd do it himself and suggested it should be put to referendum. Gerald Batten (current leader - who knew?!) said 'I cannot think of a single reason why these two should not hang' and other UKIP MEP's and UKIP candidates have called for it too. (One wanted to 'bring back the guillotine')

Frequency · 10/01/2019 13:53

Will Bellfield die in prison or will liberal lawyers get him out? John Worboys was given a whole life sentence and yet the the parole board recommended him for release. He should also die in prison. If there was a guarantee that such people would die in prison then I would probably not support the death penalty even though with DNA mistakes are less likely.

Worboy's wasn't given a whole life tariff. He was given life with a minimum of eight years. Also, the ECHR does allow for whole life tariffs as long as reviews are possible in exceptional circumstances.

They've already refused Arthur Huntchinson's appeal because the UK law does not contravene the ECHR when it comes to whole life tariffs.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/european-court-of-human-rights-upholds-whole-life-prison-sentence-for-mass-murderer-10020323.html

Honestly, two minutes on Google before you post and you won't come off as quite so uneducated. Grammarly might help too. It's an app you download to your browser that helps you distinguish between words like accept and expect.

Craft1905 · 10/01/2019 14:22

(UKIP of course are predominantly brexitteers afaik.)

And the award for understatement of the year goes to.......

joanmcc · 10/01/2019 14:49

No - but we should torture him to get any information out of him about all the scumbags he knows

And during his torture, desperate to make it stop, he yells out "ok, ok, @deadbudgie was my accomplice" - you'd be happy enough to be dragged away and tortured next I assume?

pigsDOfly · 10/01/2019 15:04

Some of the comments on here just beggar belief: state murder, torture.

Thank god that it was only a referendum leading to the possible ruination of our country that these people had a vote on.

rosie39forever · 10/01/2019 15:31

Perhaps we could step it up a bit and execute people we think are going to commit crimes, you know he looks a bit shifty probably a paedo lets have him.
NOT IN MY NAME

Craft1905 · 10/01/2019 15:45

Perhaps we could step it up a bit and execute people we think are going to commit crimes, you know he looks a bit shifty probably a paedo lets have him

We can call it The Christopher Jefferies Law.

Jux · 10/01/2019 17:39

Didn't Bliar have somethIng to do with a genetic test for likelihood of criminality? We could just test everyone at birth and kill all those found to be positive before any of them have a chance to offend. We'd be doing them a favour really.

badlydrawnperson · 10/01/2019 17:48

@Jux I am fairly sure you are being ironic - but there are plenty of folk who'd be fine with this. On another thread about paternity on here there are posters seriously advocating compulsory DNA testing for every birth.

The people advocating all sorts of draconian shite "for the good of us all" are never far away.

Strongmummy · 10/01/2019 18:12

Erm.......no

pigsDOfly · 10/01/2019 18:35

@ badlydrawnperson (love your name). As unpalatable as the idea is, I suspect that if there were ever to be a referendum on bringing back capital punishment it would probably be a yes majority.

Horrible thought, but I think there is a very strong leaning towards it by a lot people.

Even though it's been proved it doesn't work as a deterrent that's irrelevant for a great many of the population, and they don't care that they are advocating murder by the state, they're not looking for justice, they want revenge.

flameycakes · 10/01/2019 18:42

No, let him rot away slowly.

badlydrawnperson · 10/01/2019 18:43

@pigsDOfly I think you are right - there's been a significant proportion in opinion polls in favour of restoration of the death penalty for most of my life.

Fortunately unlike another issue which I am not going to mention on this thread because it's irrelevant to the OPs question, this is not an issue which causes trouble for any of the major parties and will therefore not be the subject of a referendum.

ForalltheSaints · 10/01/2019 18:51

No justice system is perfect and I would never wish to kill an innocent person, nor give anyone the satisfaction of becoming a martyr. I think there would be some juries who would refuse to convict a murderer knowing they would be sending the accused to their death.

AngelsSins · 10/01/2019 18:54

I’m not a fan of the death penalty because I believe society has to act better than the people it’s punishing. However, for the very worst criminals, like him, I would happily have a prison with armed guards only on the outside. Inside all the scumbags can have the run of the place. Air drop in some food once a week, and that’s it.

If they can’t be members of our society, they can live together in their own.

Greensleeves · 10/01/2019 18:57

I think it's been the uncomfortable truth for a long time that if a referendum on the death penalty were held, the British public would vote for it.

I think the answer has to be a radical overhaul of early social/moral education and the way children are socialised. Citizenship lessons at secondary school are not enough. We need to be engaging primary school kids in discussing and debating things like crime and punishment, social rights and responsibilities, how laws are made etc. People aren't born stupid and bigoted, they become that way.