To be absolutely sick of excuses being made for men's disgusting sexual behaviour? Trigfer warning. Hugh Edwards sentencing.

[UCConfuseMe]

Just read that Hugh Edwards ahs been given a suspended sentence.

And if course it's not his fault. He had a mean Daddy and some mental health issues and some bad things going on in his life, poor lamb.

All that made him say 'amazing' when sent photos of children as young as 7 being molested.

Having a rough time and a strict father doesn't make you a fucking paedophile!!!

Take responsibility for your predatory and vile behaviour!!

I really don't understand why people minimise the harm done by the recent riots - not just burning things down, attacking mosques/hotels etc etc but the absolute terror experienced by people living in those towns - IDK 10s or 100s thousands of people too frightened to leave their homes/use public transport particularly women of colour

I'm pointing out facts that affect the sentencing guidelines.

And that, in itself, is an absolute scandal.
"On 9 February, 2024, there were 3,623 women in prison in England and Wales. There were 5,286 receptions of women into prison in the year to June 2023, either on remand or to serve a sentence. (Prison Reform Trust; Factfile February 2024) . As well as all of the Prison Law advice required by men – including adjudications, categorisation, parole, release on license, recall, discrimination and healthcare – women require specialist attention in prison because around two thirds have dependent children and many have, themselves, been the victims of crime and abuse. Women are subject to short custodial sentences for minor crimes such as Council Tax evasion or shoplifting. These can have disproportionately catastrophic consequences, causing women to lose their homes and jobs – or, worse, have children taken into care or permanently adopted. In addition, with so few women’s prisons in England and Wales, women are often incarcerated hundreds of miles from home and family." [Source: Prisoners' Advice Service]
Why are we still imprisoning women for "minor crimes such as Council Tax evasion or shoplifting" but not men for these types of abusive crime? It's simply unfathomable to me.

So why, if you know that, are you repeatedly having a pop at me?

The reality HE who read the new, knew about convictions and prison etc etc continued over a period of time to do this knowing there would be limit of suspended sentence so is it a deterrent --- NO!
The other guy was i think already known peaedophile did it stop him.
Realistically it may be hard to stop people viewing images but current system is not working. If with the internet (and men living much longer and fewer wars etc) the number of children affected will continue to grow and number of offenders will too.
What are the numbers of prisons/prisoners now vs 50yrs ago with alo the population growth?

There has to be a zero tolerance approach to this kind of offence. Those poor children in those images deserve justice, and those who buy/view them should be locked up.

Because you show no awareness that the sentencing guidelines might be wrong. If you follow women's rights you also follow a sorry parade of the vilest abusers being given extremely light sentences often because it might damage their career or affect their mental health adversely. Possessing child abuse images seems to be treated especially lightly despite the fact that the money generated from them fuels further abuse.

The acts of paedophilia ruin lives, including that of my own.
There need to be harsher, longer sentences and monitoring of the inhuman cunts, for example if they are given a sexual harm prevention order. The police are slack on monitoring and they do not act soon enough much of the time.

IDK about 50 years ago but the prison population has doubled from 44K to 89K since 1991

And we imprison a larger % of the population than more or less any country in Europe

I really don't understand why people minimise the harm done by the recent riots - not just burning things down, attacking mosques/hotels etc etc but the absolute terror experienced by people living in those towns - IDK 10s or 100s thousands of people too frightened to leave their homes/use public transport particularly women of colour

@Efacsen No one is minimising that persons offences. They're saying that making, downloading, sharing images and videos of children being abused and raped are worse. The sentencing guidelines for THAT crime should reflect that. They do not.

A suspended sentence for, again, making, downloading, sharing and wanking over images of babies and children should be far, far harsher. There are NO mitigating factors for doing any of those things. None.

This.

Sick to fuck of it.

It's insufferable.

Maybe there's some prize for who can get the NAMALTIng and "Women do it too" in most.

@Lovelyview that’s not true at all. I even said earlier that I hated what the system had become.

it’s possible to manage people’s behaviour without them being in prison

In theory perhaps, @WinterMorn, but then when it all goes wrong - as it so often does - we simply get the standard whine about "lack of resources" and "lessons being learned"

For me, in order for folk to have any confidence at all in the system, it's important for justice not simply to be done but seen to be done, and for very many this just ain't it

It''s not even about revenge but retribution - an important difference which I appreciated seeing described thus:
"Revenge is a response to wrongdoing that aims to deter future harm by causing the offender pain. Retribution is a response to wrongdoing that aims to prevent future crime by punishing the guilty, protecting the innocent, and restoring societal balance"

Well, not unless he spends the rest of his life in prison!

@Puzzledandpissedoff it goes right far more than it goes wrong, but oddly, that’s never talked about.

Empathy-gap, that's why sadly.

Stop being disingenuous! All you have to say is that you can appreciate why a six month suspended sentence may appear to be inadequately punitive for someone involved in the sexual abuse of children, despite it being in line with the sentencing guidelines.

If you don't think that, why don't you think that child abusers should receive harsher sentences?

I would suggest it's because they're following sentencing guidelines rather than because they're raging paedophiles

I have a lot of respect for Karen Ingala Smith but think she's wrong here it was Huw Edwards not the judiciary who sought to off-load the blame onto the nearest available woman - typical cognitive distortion common to abusers = always someone else's fault and a way of thinking which is difficult to address in therapy

'It’s possible to manage people’s behaviour without them being in prison.' Really? Not a lot of women on here's experience.
' If someone wants to re-offend, they will, whether or not they are in custody. If they don’t want to, they won’t.' The probation service should use this as their motto.
'Some are managed very effectively with extremely stringent risk management' Some is good enough I suppose.
I can't be bothered to go through all your posts but it's clear you're an apologist for the current system. You haven't acknowledged any of the victims of sexual assault on here and their very real need to see the people who have destroyed lives appropriately punished. Images of sexual abuse are not only not a victimless crime they are a crime with the most vulnerable of victims and men are getting away with sentences which are far too light.

Absolutely agree rainsofcastamere

There are far too many in prison for far lesser crimes that cause far less harm because they can not pay for an expensive legal team and do not know how to play the system - he has done both

Sorry meant to tag @WinterMorn in my previous post.

I haven’t been disingenuous at all. The only view that I have consistently offered is one that is without emotion because it is based in law, rationality and the ‘norm’ in these sorts of cases. I wish that we could allocate significantly more resources to this area and yes, of course some people deserve far harsher sentences.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. There is at least one post where I have directly addressed the impact of sexual assault to someone who had mentioned it. At the end of the day, you don’t agree with me, and that’s fine. I have also clearly stated that I have real problems with how the system is operating at present. However, I have managed to interact with you in a polite and civil manner, and you won’t be able to say the same.

That's probably fair, WinterMorn, but then it "going right" is what we're all paying for and surely the very least we can expect, especially with such damaging crimes

Nobody pretends any system will get things right all the time, and I fully accept that public abhorrence around child sex abuse will mean more attention's paid to the failures than might be the case with lesser offences, but then this comes back to my point about the importance of public confidence in the systems, which as things stand simply isn't there - and I don't think that's good for anyone