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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask: if you think it's OK that sex offenders get beaten up in prison, look at this

227 replies

Zzelda · 29/05/2021 11:08

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-beaten-lags-prison-after-22813580.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Too often we see people on here and elsewhere on social media expressing the hope that those convicted of sex-related offences will get attacked in prison. It's horrible under any circumstances: it's condoning criminal assault and even murder, and effectively it's giving carte blanche to violent men and women to commit serious assaults while we all merrily look the other way. It's bad enough when the person has been correctly convicted, but it's inevitable that innocent people will get caught up in it and get victimised. I hate those posts, they come over as so smug and thoughtless, and I wish MN would stamp down on them more.

OP posts:
ViciousJackdaw · 29/05/2021 19:01

The only thing that should happen to sex offenders in prison is rehabilitation.

Whether you like it or not, most offenders are released. Preventing repeat offences is essential. Should they be let back into society with no attempt at behavioural change? That can only ever lead to reoffending. Society has a duty of care towards these people. It also has a duty of care towards the general public.

Allowing these offenders to be beaten up in prison is going to lead to festering bitterness within them. Negative feelings that will be taken out on others. Meaning yet more victims. More victims means more public money spent. Police and court time used, medical/psychological treatment that a victim may need, reincarceration of the offender - all these things cost money.

Whilst it is understandable that many people would like to beat these offenders to a pulp, it will have a detrimental effect on others in the long run.

3cats2kids · 29/05/2021 19:16

You can’t change anyone that evil.

They should be hanged.

Thelnebriati · 29/05/2021 19:23

I don't think it's OK that sex offenders get beaten up in prison. I don't think its OK that other men (who are also convicted of serious crimes) get kudos for beating up sex offenders.

Male violence, no matter what form it takes, is one of the most serious problems facing us today. I can't cheer it on.

CharlotteRose90 · 29/05/2021 19:25

I don’t agree with other inmates attacking them but in my opinion they deserve their dicks chopping off or being Hanged. Sex offenders never ever change.

ViciousJackdaw · 29/05/2021 19:34

@3cats2kids

You can’t change anyone that evil.

They should be hanged.

We don't have capital punishment in this country though so that's a total non-starter. It doesn't matter what you, me or anyone else thinks, the fact remains that most offenders are released. Do you think we should make no effort at rehabilitation whatsoever?
boredbuttercup · 29/05/2021 19:44

A shocking number of people on this thread seem ignorant to the fact that a massive number of child sex offences are committed by those who experienced CSA themselves. It's quite clearly cyclical.

Sick of excuses for those who destroy innocent life.

What if they themselves had their innocent lives destroyed? And that's what led to them doing it again

The action steals from children a part of them that will never recover. Those children become adults, it lasts an entire life time. I will save my sympathy

So for the huge number who themselves were sexually abused/assaulted, them doing the same is part of them never recovering. Do you have sympathy for that? Because they were a victim first.

Honestly this area needs masses more research if we're ever going to actually do anything productive about eliminating CSA. Being purely punitive clearly isn't working. You can hark on as much as you want about having no sympathy. But as long as you support a system which is purely punitive and has been proven not to work rather than pushing for a system which actually works to stop CSA and looks into why this crime is so often cyclical, well then you're essentially allowing more children to be abused to satisfy your own feelings of 'morality' rather than actually looking to fix the problem and stop this terrible cycle.

Crispychillibeef · 29/05/2021 19:51

I don't think the subject of this thread and the article in question align particularly well. So he got beaten up because people thought he was a sex offender. How often does someone get mistaken for a sex offender in prison? I think the debate ought to be about how someone can end up in prison for 15 years off a 27 month sentence.

ViciousJackdaw · 29/05/2021 20:07

@boredbuttercup Absolutely. We can only prevent things happening by understanding why they happen in the first place.

For anyone interested in the IPP, the story of Charlotte Nokes is worth a read.

travellinglighter · 29/05/2021 20:11

@TillyTopper

No I don't think it's right that any one gets beaten up in prison. The punishment is prison not getting randomly attacked. However, I would support capital punishment for sex offenders.
Really? Capital punishment for sex offenders? So a man streaks at a football match should be executed? Given the low conviction rate for rape, would juries be willing to convict a borderline case if the offender was likely to be executed?
TotorosCatBus · 29/05/2021 20:22

Your title doesn't match your question imo.

This man has clearly suffered from a horrific mistake and needs this allegation removed and to be released for serving time for the original
crime. These IPP sentences should not apply any longer.

It's a massive shame that he's not had the chance to learn how to read while inside. Being illiterate must be a massive barrier to feeling like part of society. I'm also concerned about the lack of support for victims too but that's a personal gripe.

NameyNameyNameChangey · 29/05/2021 20:27

Absolutely I think it's disgusting that prisoners are attacked.
They are serving the sentence laid down in law, they do not need vigilante "justice" on top.

And, if people bother to read the article, he was believed to be a sex offender but it was a mistake.

a8mint · 29/05/2021 20:34

No ifind it sickening!
Worse is the way these people often 'fall down the stairs' at the police station.

nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 29/05/2021 20:44

CSA victim here. I've never had a relationship, never even kissed anyone. I doubt I ever will. My mental health is in pieces. The fact that I function at all is to the credit of a skilled and endlessly compassionate therapist. Sex offenders destroy people, many of us will never ever recover. If I could slit all their throats myself, I would do it with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. Let them be lynched, it's less than they deserve.

GrolliffetheDragon · 29/05/2021 21:10

CSA survivor here. Nobody should be beaten up in prison.

Not targeted at anyone in particular here, but when people talk about this it sometimes feels like people care more about hating the perpetrators than they do about helping the victims. I mean they say it's the victims they care about, but... I don't know. Maybe it comes across as a form of virtue signalling.

StoneofDestiny · 29/05/2021 21:19

Courts decide what punishment is due to an offender, not other offenders. Makes me rage that murderers, violent offenders, drug dealers, gang members, burglars etc etc think they are superior in ANY way to sex abusers.
They are not.
Many victims of burglary never feel safe at home ever again, their terror is real, many are too afraid to leave home and too afraid to stay at home because of home invasion. They are in a living hell.
Murderers - of anybody, at any age, have no right to appoint themselves judge, jury and executioner to anybody else. Some family are bereaved forever at the loss of their loved ones - the murder victim has no chance of recovering, no therapy will bring them back to life.
Violent offenders - I know one young man who was beaten to a pulp by drunken thugs, so called gangsters. He did nothing, said nothing to them - he was coming back from the library while at university! He had to give up his studies, has a permanent impairment due to the severity of the kicking he got and has real difficulty having any social life that involves him being alone on the street - oh, and the UK has now lost a man who would have made a great NHS doctor.
Drug dealers - how many neighbourhoods are terrorised by these morons? How many deaths caused by them?

Sorry - there is no hierarchy of offenders. Sex offenders are vile, but the others are no better. If they have a prison sentence they are considered unfit and unsafe to be amongst the rest of the public.

The very idea that murderers, violent thugs, burglars, drug dealers, thugs etc put themselves above the law even in prison and dish out their idea of 'justice' is abhorrent - anything that makes them feel 'superior' to anybody else needs to invite our disgust - not our approval.

Oh, and by the way, our loved ones who work in the prison service and who try to keep these thugs and vile specimens off our streets day in day out, find their work even more difficult when vigilante justice is dished out like this. It disgusts them that baying mobs on line and in the media encourage it.

Being a victim of a sex offender doesn't give us the right to decide a whole alternative set of justice is dished out by other criminals.

Everleigh2021 · 29/05/2021 21:19

@MadamBatty

Violent women? Can you point me to any cases?
Joanne Dennehy
RoseRedRoseBlue · 29/05/2021 21:22

@GrolliffetheDragon what a thoughtful, considered response ❤️

Everleigh2021 · 29/05/2021 21:22

the paedophile who killed the 8 year old we found (was first officer on scene, years ago now but i think of that little boy daily) got murdered in prison by Damien Fowkes

sorry but i'm bloody glad!!

RoseRedRoseBlue · 29/05/2021 21:23

@StoneofDestiny equally good response

Everleigh2021 · 29/05/2021 21:29

look up the current case in the u.s of cash gernon.....then look at the daily mail footage of his actual abduction from his little bed

not a paedophile...not convicted yet....but a child was murdered

amusedtodeath1 · 29/05/2021 21:38

You're right of course OP. It's just that there are so many injustices in this world that the pain of people who have caused others pain is kind of low on my priority list.

Vooga · 29/05/2021 21:40

@Everleigh2021

the paedophile who killed the 8 year old we found (was first officer on scene, years ago now but i think of that little boy daily) got murdered in prison by Damien Fowkes

sorry but i'm bloody glad!!

Just looked him up and see he is the guy who attacked Ian Huntley. Yes he should be in prison, but Huntley should be dead.
Everleigh2021 · 29/05/2021 21:45

@Vooga yes Fowkes murdered Colin Hatch. I knew Colin slightly, he was the local paedophilie nobody was allowed to touch/follow/question

we all knew he would kill a child eventually. The law was changed slightly off the back of the murder of Sean

op...sorry,but I'm glad. you expect them all to be cosy and protected in prison?? nah....you're deluded.

RoseRedRoseBlue · 29/05/2021 21:57

@Everleigh2021 given most of the posters on this thread don’t want people to be assaulted in prison, it would seem that actually, you are the deluded one.

NameyNameyNameChangey · 29/05/2021 21:58

op...sorry,but I'm glad. you expect them all to be cosy and protected in prison?? nah....you're deluded

Cosy, who cares? Maintaining their basic human rights, yes.

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