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!!

Human rights are for everyone or no one.

I think sex offenders are vile just like everyone else does.

I don't want to live in a country where people get mauled in prisons while the guards stand by. I don't think the guards want that either. I don't think NHS workers want to help sex offenders who've been attacked again, and I don't think the state wants to pay benefits to people who are disabled by prison attacks.

Being a civilised country means we're better than that. It's not siding with paedophiles, it's arguing for a basic standard of decency shown to every single person.

Human rights are for everyone or no one.

I think sex offenders are vile just like everyone else does.

I don't want to live in a country where people get mauled in prisons while the guards stand by. I don't think the guards want that either. I don't think NHS workers want to help sex offenders who've been attacked again, and I don't think the state wants to pay benefits to people who are disabled by prison attacks.

Being a civilised country means we're better than that. It's not siding with paedophiles, it's arguing for a basic standard of decency shown to every single person.

@Haroldwilson

I just don't agree with this! Of course, the people in charge of the country and our 'laws' don't agree with me and that's never going to change but I do not think that a man who would happily insert his erect penis into a child or wank over the pictures of another man doing so deserves any standard of decency.

I truly believe that a crime such as that renders your right to any form of decency BIL & void.

I mean, there are new born babies being raped daily and that's going to occur for the rest of human existence, but once those people are discovered I'm not sure why they deserve any form of decency. We exterminate dogs, who present a danger to children and yet we are expected to offer decency to actual human beings who KNOW they are doing wrong and yet still rape and abuse babies and children. No. I hope they die and I believe they should be helped on their way, not because I believe it's a deterrent but because they don't deserve to live.

I’m sure they do that’s why I said I’m no professional just have a zero bullshit register
but imagine saying someone in a top TV role with capacity to think on his feet at huge live events of nationwide importance for hours on end had vascular disease/dementia but you continue to look for excuses for a paedophile if you like.
I know a close family member who has this disease in its mildest form she could not manage a tv role even with auto cue so yes so this to me is further BS.

I mean, this is why the system of law developed in the first place. So you don't have mobs tearing people limb from limb in the street. Then finding out they got the wrong person.

Sex offenders are repulsive. They need to be convicted and punished according to a system. The public should be protected from them. Every effort should be made to stop reoffending. If anyone harmed my kids I would also want to go round with a pitchfork, of course I would.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to live in a world where it was seen as ok to beat people up. I don't think it would result in less sex offending. I think it would just make for a worse society.

I think many people might be surprised, if they realised it's not that uncommon for abusers to be working in positions of trust and dealing with vulnerable people

exactly. I know it’s fashionable on MN to hate the daily mail but…. They’ve got an article today showing other paedos who have received similar sentences. Men in responsibile positions - teacher, councillor, a mayor. It’s disgusting but shows these men are everywhere in ordinary jobs and jobs that would have access to children or vulnerable people. It’s a shame it’s taken HE crimes to shine a light on the light sentencing (and yes I fully understand he was sentenced in line with the current guidelines). Maybe the papers should have a weekly article listing all the convicted paedos, their sentence and their jobs, so we continue to shine a light on how these men exist everywhere.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13863659/online-paedophiles-walked-free.html

I am not "looking for excuses for a paedophile"

@Haroldwilson We always get the flog them and hang them brigade out when it’s a well known person and the sentencing guidelines are not understood. Sentencing is also about the best way to secure not reoffending as well as punishment. It’s important to undertstand why we have a system of punishment options and mitigation and pleading guilty matters too. We need people to be reintegrated safely into society. I agree that taking the “law” into the hands of the public does not benefit society. Look at the recent riots. DIY Justice isn’t tolerable in a civilised society and nor is sending more and more to prison when the best change of not refunding is an alternative course of action.

Such institutionalised pie in the sky tripe.
If only victims could get a slice of this pie for their own healing.
But go ahead, invest your hope in the hopeless. You get paid to.

I get paid? How? Yes, I do want a civilized society. It’s vital. Victims cannot call the tune on every aspect of law. Or we would have the death penalty and use it frequently. I prefer to live in a society that tries rehabilitation where possible. Other countries have a different approach to child offending for example. Some here like the idea of the death penalty for children. I’m a civilized society we try a different model. Sorry if you don’t like it.

Sentencing is also supposed to act as a deterrent to a crime and it doesn't.

You can moan at everyone on here for not being fair towards the criminal or their sentence and plead all you like that they fairly deserve to be integrated back into society but when you're reading news on how a(nother) man has enjoyed watching a young child being penetrated and many more other images of young children, it makes it hard to want someone like that in society.

As usual the real victims of the crime are pushed aside whilst the criminal is taken care of.

Thank goodness for @Haroldwilson, @ilovesooty, @TizerorFizz and the other sensible, rational people on the thread.

I still can't work out why the 4 of you have appointed yourself monitors of this thread and have tried so very hard to scold everyone who has shown anger at this case.

I also can't work out why you can't just let people be angry on a post? What harm has it done to have people say how they feel and why have you all felt the need to jump on and have a go at them?

What have you gained by doing this? Realistically people are aware of the law and sentencing but this doesn't mean people can't be angry at the injustice and to feel empathy for the actual victims of the crime

In what way have I appointed myself as a monitor on the thread?

Sentencing is also about the best way to secure not reoffending as well as punishment. It’s important to undertstand why we have a system of punishment options and mitigation and pleading guilty matters too.

I generally agree. However I don't see that there's any mitigation for child sex abuse. Except genuine mental incapacity/severe mental illness - which isn't a mitigation as such but would require a secure hospital rather than prison.

We need people to be reintegrated safely into society.

I don't think that's possible with paedophiles. It's a urge/attraction they probably can't control (although they presumably can control whether or not to act on their urges?).

I agree that taking the “law” into the hands of the public does not benefit society.

I do agree with this. Apart from anything else, sometimes innocent people can be mistakenly accused or convicted.

DIY Justice isn’t tolerable in a civilised society and nor is sending more and more to prison when the best change of not refunding is an alternative course of action.

With some crimes I agree that prison isn't necessarily the best option. However child sex abuse is not one of them.

Firstly, as well as punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation where possible, people often forget that another very important purpose of prison (or, where more appropriate, a secure hospital) is protection of the public.

Secondly prison sends a message. Lenient sentences for such a very serious crime (child sex abuse) sends a terrible message.

If you feel that any of my posts are a personal attack on others and breach the talk guidelines do feel free to report. ETA that was to @YellowphantGrey

But its NOT custodial, is it? He and others will know that he "got off" these appalling crimes. He should have had a heavy prison sentence to serve as a deterrent to others by signalling that these behaviours are not acceptable.

I don't agree with having the death penalty.

Apart from anything else, innocent people have been convicted. Even with DNA etc there can still be mistakes made.

I understand though why people would want it for paedophiles (the man I know who was a victim of CSA wants that, and I understand why he feels that way. Many years later it still affects his life badly).

However although I don't support the death penalty, CSA is a crime that absolutely needs prison or secure hospital.

Because you tried your best, all the way through, to stop others being angry about what's happened.

People are allowed to be angry, they don't need people like yourself popping and scolding them for wanting a harsher sentence for a paedophile

It's a thread on a forum, people can be angry or disappointed or upset and I don't know why you tried so much to stop that?

My first thought was the dirty bastard needs his bollocks chopping off. I know that won't happen and I know that can't happen but having someone like you then harp on about how we need to consider his rights and a lecture about how he needs the best care to get him back into society etc I don't really want to consider him, I'm more bothered about the real victims of the crime rather than him

It happens all the time on male criminal threads, but never on female criminal threads.

If it was a discussion about sentencing or the justice system then that's the place to tell people and tell them why they are wrong but not on a thread where people are upset and angry at the injustice of it all.

@ilovesooty there are certain posters who go from thread to thread and don’t like it if anyone might offer a different aspect to a thread or oppose their opinions, I’ve literally seen them say “WHY ISNT EVERYONE AGREEING WITH ME, your all just shouting into an echo chamber”, constructive opinions are welcome.

@YellowphantGrey hang on, you are equally guilty of the same ‘monitoring’ you accuse others of. Anyone disagreeing with you gets immediately and bluntly tackled. As far as you and some of the other posters seem to be concerned, anyone who takes a contrary view or offers a different insight is wrong at best and a paedophile apologist at worst.

@Cantalever it IS a custodial sentence, but the immediate element is suspended. The alternative is a Community Order that has no custody time attached to it whatsoever.

I find it fascinating how you attempt to control the narrative in the language you use and how if someone doesn't agree with you, you describe it as "bluntly tackled"

On a post where people are angry, and you come along and tell everyone how they are wrong and then essentially go on to defend and excuse the criminal and you wonder why people aren't agreeing with you?

As I said, the OP and other posters were rightly angry over what they see as a huge injustice, what good does berating them do? Why can't they feel that way?

But as I said before, in reality it is NOT custodial - he is NOT in prison. The legal nuances you are concerned with seem a little too subtle given the anger and upset felt on the thread. What actual punishment is Edwards getting for his appalling crimes? He has gone home to put his feet up. Where is the actual justice for his victims?

Who do you think you are, telling us, the 'uncivilised' victims, how we would shape justice if we were left to it without the likes of you to guide us? Just because I disagree with your institutionalised script full of hot air and pipe dreams doesn't mean I'm all for hacking off paedophiles limbs (just their dicks) and launching myself into action for vigilante justice.
Does it not occur to you that I too might happen to believe in due process?
What I don't buy is what you're selling: Rehabilitation. This doesn't work for sex offenders. It may work for other criminals. Not for sex offenders. Sex offenders are pathological liars and deceivers. It's not in them to be 'redeemed' or 'rehabilitated'. This is as retrograde an approach as 'conversion therapy'.

I don't think your views are civilised at all. I think your views are unrealistic and your idea of justice is out of proportion and skewed by the brainwashing rhetoric of your profession (which I imagine is within the justice system). Worse, your views of justice are biased towards the criminal and the victim's lived experience seems to have little influence on your thoughts and opinions.

You seem unable to accept and understand why so many of us on this thread are not in lockstep with your very much conditioned thinking.