...to think that the police force has absolutely NO business whatsoever deciding that someone is 'pure evil'...

[almostblue]

... much less issuing an official statement to the effect?

I agree WannaBe.

Yes. Because it is.

I agree with the OP.
The more I read about Karen Matthews the more dreadful she seems - but it was the police's job to find Shannon and catch the person who did it (which they did, top marks to them) not to make moral pronouncements.

Actually, I think the police are in the best position to decide if some one is pure evil. They are presented with all the facts in the case, are they not?

However, I don't feel they should make public statements to that effect, regardless if it is true.

It is unprofessional and gives lie to the fact that the police should be impartial and stick to known facts only.

How they feel personally is of course up to them and I truly don't know how they sleep at night sometimes tbh.

wicked better adjective in the circs

Actually, I have to agree, the police should steer clear of hyperbole and deal in the facts. ALthough how they manage it after such an exceptionally unpleasant case is anybody's guess.

No, the police aren't entitled to an opinion and no the judge won't take into account what the police say in terms of their 'opinion' on 'evil' or anything else

The police are a statutory body, with clearly defined public functions and legal responsibilities and manadate.

They are not there to have an 'opinon'. They are there to investigate crime and leave a court to decide on guilt and sentence.

End of. Legally anway!

Actually, I have to agree, the police should steer clear of hyperbole and deal in the facts. ALthough how they manage it after such an exceptionally unpleasant case is anybody's guess.

why then are they giving an opinon about her if they are purely a statutory body dealing in facts?

That's rather my point, lulumama. The fact that this particular 'opinion' is so ludicrously inappropriate makes it easier to raise my point. But I would be equally concerned at an official statement describing a convicted criminal as 'quite a nice chap who loves his mum'.

YANBU - I thought it was unprofessional. Would have thought that pronouncements on 'pure evil' should be the province of religious bodies.

AccioPinotGrigio - I heard the other day that apparently 1 child a week is killed by their so-called carers - so the Shannon Matthews case is anything but exceptionally unpleasant unfortunately. In fact Shannon could be considered 'lucky' to be alive - how awful a comment on humanity is that?

I watched the Panorama programme on iPlayer today and right at the beginning it was mentioned - almost in passing - that Karen Matthews has such a low IQ that she was borderline learning disabled. I think that might have a lot more to do with her ridiculous plot to kidnap her daughter - and the general care her children received and circumstances of their lives - than any lack of morality.

maybe , and the police iwll have had access to an awful lot more info than we the public have had.. she is , in their opinoin 'pure evil'

i think it is rather nit picking to say that the words are hyperbole, but describing her as a 'nasty woman ' , 'a terrible mother' would b ok, as it is more factual, rather than opinion?

"...but describing her as a 'nasty woman ' , 'a terrible mother' would b ok, as it is more factual, rather than opinion?"

No, it wouldn't be ok. See pps.

If she's evil, what was Hitler? What was Stalin? What was Polpot?

It strikes me as a somewhat indicriminate use of the word.

pps?

i thikn that the police involved in a case, particularly one that has attracted such huge attention, should be allowed to comment more vociferously or more openly.

i think that expecting purely factual statements, and a black and white standpoint is not feasible.

This woman knowingly preyed on the good faith and the resources of a cash strapped community .... if it was a banker fritering the hard earnings of a pensioner, no-one would quibble about the words ...

I don't care what opinion the policeman had or said outloud. I DO object to the tabloids running with it like it's a proven fact as opposed to just one person's opinion, however well-informed.

I think the point is not that the police have an opinion, but rather that that opinion has made the papers as some kind of official statement?

Clearly the police can think whatever they like.

OP - yanbu.

I don't see the difference between the police man saying she's evil and a judge saying she's evil.

we are used to judges summing up and saying things along those lines. But they're posher and better educated so they can say it??

It's still one person's opinion. And tbh, I think it's a human gut response to something which is incomprehensible to most ordinary people. Not a professional opinion.

So, a policeman who deals with all manner of tykes and scamps on a daily basis thinks karen matthews is evil.

Doesn't bother me much that he said it. Most people reading it will form their own conclusions. I read it this moring, read the evil comment, and decided that she was poor, had too many children, had a low IQ, low EQ, and TOTALLY lackiong in common decency.

Do judges call people "evil" though? Or do they say they have committed an evil act?

And the term "pure evil" suggests that a person does not have one non-evil cell in their body. I would be surprised at a judge using such poor . . . er . . . judgement if he or she employed a phrase like that.

I was surprised and dismayed at the police using that term. Especially surprised as it appeared to be from an official statement which has presumably undergone several drafts and revisions.

It's not as if the tabloids will be painting a more rounded opinion of the mum ... Tabloids aren't known for their reserve or sticking to the salient points when reporting items like this ...

Police just gave them their headlines ...

It wouldn't have been so bizarre is the CPS had commented that post conviction, she was evil.

But the police are supposed to be the enforcement arm. Of course wearing a uniform doesn't negate an opinion, buy this was the wrong forum.

And not sure she is 'pure evil.' Hitler was pure evil. Robert Mugabe is pure evil.