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 should have said I do not believe a child sex offender can ever be rehabilitated

Its not a sexual orientation it’s a desire to harm children using sexual violence

Interesting article in the Graun today feels relevant to the thread.

What a brilliant article from The Guardian. Summed up so well.

We would have reason to expect a higher quality of defensive argument from a senior consultant psychiatrist at UCL surely. The link between failing to attend Oxbridge and committing a heinous crime is tenuous if not entirely laughable.

@mrsmiawallace3 The way I read it was his father’s attitude to this failure. Lifelong disappointment. I think the other issue is a very complex person. Not straightforward. The magistrate didn’t accept all the report’s views.

I think that is exactly what they will be thinking - get caught and no real consequences for the "ordinary" paedophile. To think that we as a country don't believe that the vilest possible crimes against babies and children should mean years being locked up (ACTUALLY being locked up - not on suspended sentences), fills me with despair. Where are our values when property crimes attract long prison sentences, but these do not? Its sickening that our values and priorities are so skewed.

Didn't someone get jailed during the recent riots for shouting at a police dog?

No. He was jailed for violent disorder, part of which was shouting at a police dog.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2nm5jgxlko

He sounds pretty unpleasant and violent disorder seems in keeping.

McCarthy admitted violent disorder at a previous hearing. He has convictions for violence, weapons offences and public order.

Regardless, what Edwards did was a far more despicable crime.

On an individual case yes. But the riots as a whole had a wider impact and the potential to be extremely dangerous if they continued. So tough action was needed to shut them down.

Haven't read the full thread but if the issue is the prisons are full, why isn't any political party promising to build.more prisons? Not only for crimes like this but for crime generally - everyone seems to be worried about rising crime generally these days. Surely it's got to be a vote-winner? (And it must help create jobs etc?)

IDK @DavesSpareDeckChair longer and harsher sentences are popular vote winners which is a good part of why the prison population has doubled in the last 30 years

But 'build more prisons' doesn't even really feature in lists of voters concerns

Politicians aren't always honest and voters can be naive

Because we can't afford it and even if we could it would take years.
It's been a dereliction of duty by previous governments to let it get to this position by kicking the can down the road

Here’s an archive link for Janice Turner’s article on HE from today’s Times:
https://archive.is/tvFuc

It’s powerful about the scale of the problem and the malice of the offenders. But I think it’s off on a few points.

Firstly for some reason there’s no mention of male victims.

Also there have been huge court cases in the past against the big adult porn sites like PH / OF. So surely by now they are vigilant against illegal material. They make so much money legally anyway.

Also JT’s article doesn’t connect the problem to the arguments against under 16s having unrestricted smartphone and social media access. Perhaps that’s another article but surely it’s part of the story.

I read somewhere that 95% of HE’s offending was photos/videos which was self-shot by the underage subjects. (Probably all the material showing just one person).

So it sounds like children have in various ways been groomed into photographing / filming themselves with their phones. It could be they’ve been active on social media, chasing likes with selfies, and then tragically
a HE figure had made contact with them privately and it’s escalated out of control. That sounds like what happened in HE’s first court case. Or else an immature young boyfriend has leaked something that’s been shared privately.

Jonathan Haidt linked to this article the other day which is worth reading:

katherinemartinko.substack.com/p/want-kids-to-be-safe-then-ditch-their

Yes, that article is a bit jarring in switching on to talk exclusively about men watching the abuse of female children, when HE was looking at males.

It's on point about the scale of the problem and the role of porn though. And to go to your point about OnlyFans and PornHub - I think the problem is that a whole heap of the problematic "Lolita comes with dad" type content she mentions is it isn't technically illegal because the actors are over 18 in many cases. But it does break the taboo of watching this kind of stuff and even more of a problem, it trains mens brains to be aroused by breaking the taboo.

I also think (cynically) that PH/OF may well accept the risk of "inadvertently" hosting illegal material and build the costs of fines into their business model.

I personally think streaming porn should be banned under decency laws and there should be much tighter controls over live broadcast sites such as only fans. The Andrew Tate case shows how some women end up trafficked and forced into this line of work. But I can't see that happening because of the importance the patriarchy places on mens penis needs.

@GardenOfficer Regarding the HE sentence, self filming is relevant. I’ve not heard that this sentence is being reviewed.