To feel complete support for Sarah Sands?

[mimi1962]

This lady and her now adult children have been interviewed on the news and there's an I-player episode on her. The summary is that a paedophile with a history of convictions was housed near her, changed his ID and abused her kids.

She says she wanted to scare him into pleading guilty as entirely wrongly IMO he was allowed to stay in his home and she had to move with her children. She stabbed him and he died. She was initially sentenced to three years which some idiot increased to seven. Her kids are grown now and can talk out about it. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch but my heart bleeds for them all.

Am I being totally unreasonable to think this lady shouldn't have served one single day and deserved our support. not a conviction.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dj4vsx/the-big-cases-killing-my-childrens-abuser

If we are to rely on our current legal system to refuse to deal with such offenders who are an absolute danger to the ‘public’ then it’s no wonder peoples’s visceral responses kick in - and they revert to pre Romanic law ie Germanic and their justice system - I supported her during trial and the miscarriage of justice which ensued - unless something of this awfulness and magnitude has happened to you you’ll never know how strongly you’ll react - so judging her is not what people should be doing 😡 rather they should focus energies on changing this futile legal system

so judging her is not what people should be doing 😡 rather they should focus energies on changing this futile legal system

Definitely! So many judgemental comments (on this and the other thread) when no one really knows what they’d do in this situation. Only a small amount of people are focusing on the fact that her kids probably wouldn’t have received any justice at all. As I said, society protects abusers and not the victims yet hardly anyone is focusing on that

And if he was convicted, I’m almost certain that he would have got less than 7 years. The legal system is a mess

What TF is the point of a sex offenders register if they can just change their name….I despair.

I don't know how I feel to be honest, I understand her anger and frustration, but I'd like to think my main priority would be supporting my children after what they went through. I cant say I agree with what she did, we can't just go around killing people, but I do feel sorry for her, its a tough one.

IMO, if you are a convicted paedophile you should never be allowed out of prison, there is something not wired up correctly in your brain if you get kicks out of sexually abusing children, and no amount of punishment or rehabilitation can change that - I imagine there are very high re-offending rates among sex offenders, so the logical thing to do is keep them where they cannot ever get near children again surely?

This is a great point too!!!!

It should be a given that you unable to do this where you are a potential risk to the community, especially the vulnerable. Whether that be sex offences, violent crime whatever, and yes that should also include people changing their Gender identity.

In fairness that’s probably why nobody has had the sense or the spine to tackle it previously.

We have to have rules in place. You can’t just go around murdering everyone. He’ was a disgusting human being but it’s for the legal justice system to make judgment not us.

I understand why she did it, I would want to do the same. But her children had been through enough without losing a mother for 7 years too.

The system allows dangerous predators to live amongst us, if they were dealt with properly this wouldn't have happened. Go figure the normal mother ends up behind bars 🙄

She should have got a medal and a ticker tape parade. The fact she served any time is a disgrace.

I understand why she did it but I do not support her actions in anyway, 7 years for killing someone is low.

I wonder how people lauding her a hero would react if someone killed one of their relatives because they were convinced of their guilt? None of us have the right to be judge, jury and executioner. There are so many stories of innocent people being targeted because someone else has convinced themselves of their guilt. She may well have been right about his guilt in this case but that still doesn’t give her the right to kill him.

I’d take 7 years for getting rid of someone who had abused my children TBH.

even though the boys say they really needed her when they were growing up and in some ways wish they'd never told her? Sure.

I saw this on fb and it made me cry. Her poor children. The powerlessness she must have felt.
The only thing that would have stopped me in her shoes was knowing my children would need me more than ever.
However, a lot of victims say the retraumatisation of having abusers crime minimised was worse.
Her boys know their mother did not minimise it.
But omg I hope they were supported well by mental health experts in the field while she was in prison.

Good for her, I’m just sorry her children missed out on having their mother around for 4 years especially after what they went through.

But there are different issues here. I disagree that you should just go round stabbing abusers. I believe they should go through the justice system.

But. I also agree that if a serial abuser of children is out and about - there is either something wrong with the law, or there is something seriously amiss with the application of the laws and punishments. That is something every voter in the country should be on at their MPs about.

She served 4 years not 7

Where did they say that as I never saw that anywhere? I’ve only read that they would wake up in the night calling out for their month. They also lived with their grandmother for the four years. It’s not as if they had no family and were placed in care until their mum was released

I read it online on a newspaper site, can't remember which one. Being sent to live with your grandmother as your mother is in prison and you're recovering from abuse isn't great is it? I wouldn't want any of that for my kids.

I don’t support her. She was selfish and didn’t put her kids first.

it was in the BBC article posted in the other thread

No support from me. You can't take the law into your own hands. And going armed with a knife indicated that she meant to use it.

And I don't think 7 years is long enough for taking anyones life. No matter what his crimes.

This is hard. I totally see why she would want to kill him. And it certainly shows some unbelievable gaps in the system. But if you start making exceptions to laws, where does it end? Is OK for me to arrange the rape of the guy who raped my best friend? How about can my friend at work kill the person who ran over her DSis? Maybe anyone ever found over the limit in a car should be in prison so they can't ever do it again.

I'm not necessarily saying I think these crimes are all the same - but to the people involved I'm sure they would feel it was justified, and if we start justifying some exceptions how do draw a line over what is acceptable?

I think given what she knew, and she went with a knife to his house of her own volition, stabbed him 8 times and left him for dead, in many ways she was lucky to "only" be tried for manslaughter not murder. And that's not me saying I disagree with that decision, more saying I think a degree of leniency was already applied (within the confines of the law itself).

I don't support her actions, you can't go around killing people and getting away with it as it opens it up to others to do the same, and someone will get it wrong and kill someone innocent.

However. I'm not sad he's dead and I'm not saying I wouldn't do the same if I were in her shoes. But I'd have to live with the consequences.