To be amazed they've released Mairead Philpott?

[MarylinMonrue]

After serving half her sentence for the arson attack? Apparently even a source from the prison was a shocked at the leniency and the fact she's going to get a new identity and protection. Six children in that fire - is there such a thing as justice in this country anymore?

A very damaged women of low intelligence who apparently had no qualms about sexually abusing her 14 year old step son ,I don't doubt Mick was the instigator in this but Mairead is also culpable in this .

Wouldn’t a parent who’s poor judgement that lead to to their children’s death feel they they deserved loss of freedom If they felt guilt that they are partly responsible

She (no doubt with legal advice) appealed her sentence not once but twice

She also lied to not only save him but save herself too again and again

What we shall probably see is her being in another relationship very soon and pregnant

I've not read the full thread so sorry if this has already been mentioned. At the press conference after the fire, both her and Mick were filmed 'crying' in front of the press, but without a SINGLE tear on their faces, dabbing at their dry eyes with tissues and making all the right 'faces' but no real signs of grief. Even if she had been forced into setting the fire or knew it was going to be done, and even if the death of the children was unintended and a plan that 'went too far', surely she would still have been bereft and distraught at the death of her six children?
There were reports of them acting inappropriately at the hospital and morgue, laughing and joking and being sexually inappropriate. Who the eff acts like that when you have just lost your 6 kids?

She is obviously either mentally challenged or has learning disabilities but to act this way suggests that she didn't give a shit about those children.
She may well have been an abused wife. That doesn't excuse any of this.

I know, lets burn the house down and then get a bigger one.

Yes, great idea.

Oh no, some of the kids have died and one is still hanging on.

Oh, no worries lets have a few drinks.

What she did was horrendous. Of course she knew on some level that endangering her children's lives was the very opposite of her role as their protector.

But the people on here calling those with an alternative view 'apologists' and massively underestimating the power a man like Philpott has. He groomed her in every conceivable way and over the years he used sex (forcing her to sleep with other people for his gratification), violence (frequent and extreme) and humiliation (making her 'share' him with his live in lover) to wear her down to the point where she would have not known how to go against him. Furthermore, he will have told her that the 'kids will be fine' as his apparent intention was to cause a fire that someone else would get blamed for.

In her utterly broken, abused and groomed mind, and given her low IQ I can believe that she would have gone along with his plan believing it would 'all be ok', but also because she would have been terrified of challenging him.

The fact that she then covered for the man responsible for killing her own children tells me only how completely under his control she was.

I am as disgusted by her as everyone, but there ARE factors to consider which I believe reduce her culpability.

'I dread to think what she went through and I don't doubt for a second she believed the children would not be harmed.'

As has been said repeatedly that is very sad but by not by any stretch of the imagination is setting fire to a house full of her kids what people do just because they're in an abusive relationship. Parents should put the welfare of their kids above anything they may be enduring. I bet most if not all the criminals in prison have stories of abuse or sob stories on what made them do it or why they had no control etc etc. The facts are the judge found that was not the case here.

@AliceMck

I hate it when people say "o they have to live with what they have done", like they give a fucking shit!!!

A good thing to come out of Brexit is that the UK will now have a chance to bring the death penalty back now their hands arnt tied by Europe. ALL murders, rapists, paedophiles, child abusers, automatic death penalty!

Yes, bloody EU forcing us to abolish the death penalty in 1965, eight years before we even joined it!

to wear her down to the point where she would have not known how to go against him

But the court decided she regularly did go against him. Just not when she should have done: when he was openly planning to endanger the lives of her children in the most barbaric way imaginable.

But the people on here calling those with an alternative view 'apologists' and massively underestimating the power a man like Philpott has. He groomed her in every conceivable way and over the years he used sex (forcing her to sleep with other people for his gratification), violence (frequent and extreme) and humiliation (making her 'share' him with his live in lover) to wear her down to the point where she would have not known how to go against him.

She went against him often though?

Furthermore, he will have told her that the 'kids will be fine' as his apparent intention was to cause a fire that someone else would get blamed for.

It doesn't matter if he said they would be fine. She knew what the risk was. She knew exactly what the risk was. Are you set suggesting 'but he said it would be fine' is any way reasonable as an explain for this?

Furthermore, he will have told her that the 'kids will be fine' as his apparent intention was to cause a fire that someone else would get blamed for.

But the courts did not accept this argument as valid. Presumably she never set fire to herself? Put out candles, turned the oven off like everyone else? She knew fire was dangerous. It doesn’t matter if she believed he would succeed in rescuing six kids from a burning house, she knew they would need rescuing and otherwise they would die. Because she knew the risks of fire.

A food fight? I haven’t heard this before - what was supposed to have happened?

A documentary from the day of the sentencing, it interviews her family, her dad breaks my heart when he says she is his daughter and will always love her.

Nice that the criticism of Mairead has been described as "witch burning" when 6 children were actually killed because of the fire she set with her husband. I'm sure you'll be throwing your doors open to offer the poor woman housing and a job. Probably as a nanny!

Yes our CJ system is far from perfect but christ what would you all prefer

The abolishment of parole, so that the offender serves the full sentence

And please don't anyone say "the prisons are full" or "we can't afford it", because as ever with money it can be found if the will's there to build more prisons and make the changes

Presumably any further children she has -and I hope that’s none - will be removed at birth.

Our efforts need to be focused on rehabilitating those that can be - drug addicts, petty criminals etc

I agree, but am not sure "petty" criminals get to see the inside of a cell now - at least, not unless they offend again and again

Doubtless there are exceptions, but these days it seems a real effort needs to be made to be imprisoned, and for me the whole thing's got too far out of balance
No doubt some will bleat "prison doesn't work", but actually it works very well in that at least they can't reoffend while in there, meaning the rest of us are protected

Interesting link here about who exactly goes to prison: www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/whogoestoprison.pdf

It seems I was largely correct in saying they've got to put some real effort into getting there

Serious offences should attract a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. With that introduced we'd no longer need to worry about the rehabilitation or security of child rapists, serial killers and persistently violent offenders - prison conditions really wouldn't matter too much, because they'd never be released and so any damage would be irrelevant to wider society.

Personally I'd like to see the death penalty brought back, and not just for treason and murder. Serious and repeat offenders should be put to death. A lot of people oppose executions for two reasons; that they are "cruel" and that an innocent person might be executed.

Both those concerns are foolish. The "cruelty" aspect can easily be put to one side. If you believe that hanging is not an instant enough death, simply anaesthetise the criminal on the gallows. If hospitals can ensure someone is unconscious for several hours during an operation, it should be easy enough to put a criminal to sleep before, erm, putting them to sleep.

The idea that innocent people might wrongly be hanged is a red herring. In the current system, people get wrongly convicted too! People who are entirely innocent a dumped into prison for years on end, doing a huge amount of psychological damage to them. In many ways, it would be kinder to execute them in these cases.

All in all there aren't many arguments against the death penalty that stand up in the modern era. It should be brought back for serious offences, and, ideally, be done in public.

contrmary you might feel differently about how kind it would be to execute innocent people if you, or a loved one, was the one being executed.

For me the pertinent question is: is she a danger to society upon release? Mick P definitely is and I hope he's never released. As far as Mairead is concerned I don't think she is dangerous per se, but I do think she ought to be forcibly sterilised and forbidden from ever working with children.

@contrmary

Serious offences should attract a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. With that introduced we'd no longer need to worry about the rehabilitation or security of child rapists, serial killers and persistently violent offenders - prison conditions really wouldn't matter too much, because they'd never be released and so any damage would be irrelevant to wider society.

Personally I'd like to see the death penalty brought back, and not just for treason and murder. Serious and repeat offenders should be put to death. A lot of people oppose executions for two reasons; that they are "cruel" and that an innocent person might be executed.

Both those concerns are foolish. The "cruelty" aspect can easily be put to one side. If you believe that hanging is not an instant enough death, simply anaesthetise the criminal on the gallows. If hospitals can ensure someone is unconscious for several hours during an operation, it should be easy enough to put a criminal to sleep before, erm, putting them to sleep.

The idea that innocent people might wrongly be hanged is a red herring. In the current system, people get wrongly convicted too! People who are entirely innocent a dumped into prison for years on end, doing a huge amount of psychological damage to them. In many ways, it would be kinder to execute them in these cases.

All in all there aren't many arguments against the death penalty that stand up in the modern era. It should be brought back for serious offences, and, ideally, be done in public.

OMG! Seriously this is disturbing.