Ian Watkins Dead

[Americano75]

Gosh, how sad. (100% sarcastic)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ian-watkins-dead-lostprophets-paedophile-36052854

I wouldn't advocate for the death penalty, but in some parallel universe where we had the death penalty, surely Ian Watkins would've been a contender?

So, I'm not surprised or sad that he has been killed. I am sure he was not having much of a life in prison, so not much of a loss

I bet he didn’t suffer as much as his victims. That’s that most scandalous part of this story.

I’m not sad at his demise.

However, in a UK prison, in the 21st century, and regardless of their crimes, if we are not using the death sentence (largely because of several unsafe convictions that resulted in wrongful deaths by capital punishment such as Hanratty, as a result of which we believe that capital punishment is immoral), then we really need to keep prisons safer for the inmates.

How do prisoners get their hands on drugs?
How do they have access to large sums of money?
How do violent prisoners manage to “sharpen toilet brush sticks” to create a stab weapon?
Why do violent prisoners have access to boiling water and sugar, or anything that can become a weapon, as the Southport killer recently used, when he attacked another inmate?

I get that prisons are probably under-staffed, and accept that there may be some degree of corruption, as evidenced by recent prison guard related stories in the news, but it seems that these environments are getting more dangerous, and for any prisoner that is later found to be innocent, as in the recent case of Andrew Malkinson, a convicted accused rapist that served 17 years or so, we then have to accept the awful consequences of what that one innocent person has been through, and pay them compensation (rightly so).

But the compensation would, arguably, be far less, if the prisons were not so dangerous in the first place. A good start would be to improve the mental health provision and remove all access to drugs.

I would even support reintroducing the death penalty for absolutely incontrovertibly proven murderers - including those who murder inside prison, if people could then come out of prison reformed, instead of being hardened or broken by the system…

Jolly good news I say. Someone took the trash out.

Chris Watts apparently received fan letters by the sack load after his conviction(s) so not surprising in a way that IW still had some diehards.

Well said!

No one mourns the wicked as they say.

I am in favour of capital punishment, so yes. I agree.

Me too. The bleeding heart liberals can take their overthinking regarding the subject to look all fair and humanitarian elsewhere. Some monsters need death for their crimes. Saves a lot of money too.

Yes, this. ^ 👏

I find this thread pretty distasteful. Obviously this guy was a depraved piece of shit, it hardly needs saying. I am not sorry he’s dead.

But people falling over themselves to congratulate other pieces of shit who were likely also sexual predators for stabbing him in the neck, calling them “mate” like someone from the pub and offering to buy them wine is just making me cringe. How badly do you need validation to want it from violent prisoners? FFS.

I cannot be in any way sad about this.

But I do agree with previous posters about it putting a focus on safety in prisons-it is really concerning a prisoner in Wakefield (which I think, though don't know lots about this- is colloquially referred to as monster mansion because of the type of inmate) has been able to possess a weapon capable of killing someone.

The prison staff must be rightly worried. I hope the whole prison is put in lockdown and thoroughly searched for other weapons.

I’m with this comment. The contributions from prison workers with actual knowledge of these situations has been enlightening and interesting.

Watkins was the worst of the worst. He will never hurt anyone again and for that I feel a palpable sense of relief, albeit I’m not personally affected. I’m not sorry. I am sorry that there are people who simply by being in his orbit will be affected by this: his secondary victims.

But vigilantism is never, ever a good thing whether it happens in or out of prison. I feel for the poor staff who had to witness and clean up after the whole mess - hope they have access to therapy for PTSD - and the prison guards whose already dangerous jobs are less safe if this kind of situation can be allowed to slip through the net.

This whole story is distasteful in the extreme, as is the salivating and vicarious pleasure seen around the internet discussions. I can share the sentiment that a true horror of a human being has got what was coming to him, without the need to congratulate a dirty murderer or crack open the bubbly to ‘celebrate’.

It’s worrying that some would prefer mob rule, kangaroo courts and summary execution at the hands of other violent and depraved criminals (who will then be lauded and held in esteem) to a proper, established justice system with legal representation, rights and protections for everyone.

But then the world does seem to going in a scarily reactionary direction at the moment.

At last! I know he was attacked before but survived. I hope he died in a lot of pain.

You're upset about the wrong thing. We’re just glossing over what this guy did? I’m not even repeating it, it’s vile.

Of course I feel no sadness that he is dead but I also feel no joy that he was murdered. It would be better he was alive as his life in prison would not have been comfortable

despite being surrounded by men that have committed the most violent crimes we do not know if any of these men could have been manipulated into attacking him (some will be more vulnerable than you think)

and this will just make it more difficult for the staff at the prison, not just the investigation but the aftermath, unsettled prisoners it will be very challenging for them

there is nothing to celebrate but I do understand his victims feeling relieved

The jokes about H from steps are really cruel. A person's name is a massive part of someone's identity and to have your name tarnished in the way his has been must be awful. He's already been mistaken in the media for being the lost prophet singer.

Leave the poor guy out of this.

Totally agree.

@Thepeopleversuswork

Yes - it's not the fact that people are happy and celebrating Watkins' death that is obectionable to me. I totally understand that. Have at it and celebrate the fact that he's gone!

It's the fond view of his murderer as an individual that I am quibbling. Unless IW's murderer is innocent of whatever he was convicted of - which, considering he's murdered a fellow inmate is unlikely to be the case - then the stabber is almost, if not equally, as terrible as Watkins himself.

@CrispsPlease I mean this sincerely - if it came to light that the murderer of Ian Watkins was ALSO a child rapist, would you still feel like calling them 'mate' and saying 'have a drink on me'.

Okay, perhaps you don't really literally mean those words and it's hyperbole coming from being (understandably) celebratory that Ian Watkins is dead. But I don't think it's unreasonable for people to find the wording to be questionable judgement.

You're hyper focusing on the wrong thing. Your middle class elitism obviously just wants to pick apart how working class people talk. Now bore off.

Agree. This is another good example of the real risk of vigilantism turning into tragedy. Case in point: the vigilante mob who were too ignorant to differentiate between a paediatrician and a paedophile.

This is why we have a justice system and proper legal process for trying, convicting and punishing offenders. It may be infalliable but it's the best we have.

We've seen where mob rule leads. I doubt whether anyone here would genuinely argue that this is desirable.

@CrispsPlease

I'm not middle class, I'm working class.

Thankfully the majority in the UK still doesn’t support capital punishment. Nice to see someone else on this thread making that clear!

But what I, perhaps unclearly, was saying that I thought was unpopular is that when capital punishment and mob rule are outlawed, people shouldn’t be so thrilled that some prisoner killed another. What Ian Watkins did was unspeakably vile, but so is murder.

@BlackbirdPieAndMash

You're upset about the wrong thing. We’re just glossing over what this guy did? I’m not even repeating it, it’s vile.

I’m not remotely “glossing over” what he did. I have said I am glad he’s dead. I haven’t seen any dissent on this.

But the cheering and congratulation of other violent arseholes is just weird. These people calling them “mate” are like the people you see banging on paddy wagons when someone is sentenced for a crime. Creepy punishment vultures who get a kick out of vigilante justice. The guy has already been murdered, why the ecstasy of grim happiness over it. Grim.