How will it help anyone if this man goes to prison?

[DecisionTime123]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rd0r5zez9o
Man kept his dead mother in the freezer, held her hand and chatted to her.

I definitely agree he needs to pay the benefits etc back if possible, but they are letting rapists out of prison as they don't have the room, yet this clearly mentally ill man has to be locked up? YABU = he deserves punishment in custody or YANBU = it won't help anybody, he should get a suspended sentence

For me, the motive is crucial. Did he continue claiming benefits because he couldn’t admit to anyone (maybe even himself) that his mother had died? Or did he conceal the death to continue claiming the benefits?

For me it reads more than tragic than anything. What’s his chance of reoffending? Probably zero I would think.

He obviously knew it was wrong. Grief can drive you out of your mind.

I would assume hea been aasessed aas mentally well and therefore it wouldnt be appropriate.

But he has harmed someone...the NHS, education services, everything else that £78,000 could be spent on..

Can I ask a serious question. I'm not working at the mo, just a part time job due to arthritis making it impossible to do the jobs I'm qualified for. So should I "accidentally" lose the expensive watch I've got insurance for?

You havent commited fraud and £78000isnt pennies its a lot of money

@DecisionTime123 you really don't understand what this tells us about what he is capable of doing? He should be put away for all of our sakes. For our safety.

this bonkers softly softly approach is one of the reasons why things are so problematic now.

Why do you think he's going to pop you in the freezer?

Of course he needs to do a prison sentence. For the fraud alone he should do a.prison sentence.

@Velvera who knows what he would do if he got the chance?

to be clearer because apparently you don't get it

Suppose he gets a suspended sentence

and befriends another elderly woman and does the same thing to her

There's a type of person who would say "He was lonely! He was mentally ill"

And actually, if some kind of mental illness has caused him to do this, that doesn't make him less dangerous does it? He still needs to be away from society as a whole.

I doubt he would put a random in the freezer to claim their benefits. It's obvious this is to do with the loss of his mother.

@Velvera I give up with people like you

He has only been sentenced to two years and four months so the courts don't seem to think he is a danger to society.

As pp said it'll cost the taxpayer a lot to keep him in jail. Then when he gets out he'll need benefits, somewhere to live. He might end up on the streets, which is not a positive for anyone.

It is all very sad.

I'm normally quite harsh on law and order, but I see no point in jailing this man. He should repay what he stole (which he will anyway).

He is clearly deeply unwell and troubled, and will be left even more so by time in jail.

He probably can't cope on his own in the world financially or emotionally, it's all very sad.

As for other friends and relatives, these would be the ones who didn't bother visiting or raising a welfare call for two years? Just left him to sink.

I’ve said YANBU for the reasons you have given, which I agree with - but the benefit fraud shouldn’t be overlooked. Probs wouldn’t want someone in jail for that though.

Most fraud ought to be punished in the community IMO. Community service seems more appropriate as a way of demonstrating to the fraudster that their crime isn't fully victimless.

And I'd keep very violent / sexually offending men inside much, much longer.

What do you mean? People like what?

It’s just part of the pattern of male contempt for women though.
There was not enough evidence to say he killed her, but he, a man, put a woman’s body in the freezer. Then stole her money.

Generally as a society we come down hard on anything involving hiding a death or abusing corpses. It's very much NOT COOL.

She was dead. She won't have been overly worried about that. Presumably there was noone else interested as noone tried to check up on her or him.

Good. I won't lose sleep over that.

Do you mean people who think rationally and understand how the world actually works?

Him? What about his mum? I would be very interested to know how she died.

And the lawyer has told a sob story about him holding her hand the day after she died

Well, sure. I held my father's hand after he died in the hospice, then in the chapel of rest on my my visits before the funeral and I talked to him. That's a perfectly normal thing to do.

Ordering a chest freezer the day after your mum dies and keeping her in it for years and claiming her benefits... nothing about this says "yes let's keep this guy in normal society".

@TemperanceWest I mean I give up with people who think it's perfectly fine for this guy to be wandering around in society.

I'm quite shocked by people implying its fine for people to do whatever they feel is necessary with a dead body as long as its out of "love".

Then, to lie to everyone pretending she's alive, oh and pocket 80k for the privilege.

But sure, that poor man. He's the only one in the world to suffer grief surely- the rest of us also experienced grief but managed not to milk 80k out of the government for it 🙄

Oh I and I worked in a couple of forensic units when I was training and the misplaced sympathy in this thread is exactly how people get easily manipulated

If it were just the freezer thing, I'd agree. But the collecting benefits changes things a lot. It's fraud. Just because he's grieving doesn't make it less fraudulent.

He claimed almost £80,000 in benefits. He didn’t have to do that even if he couldn’t cope with his mums death. It also went on for years and at no point did he choose to stop claiming money he wasn’t entitled to. I don’t think people should be able to steal £80,000 worth of benefits and just have it written off because they were grieving.