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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not care that a sex offender got stabbed to death up the road from me.

198 replies

PingpingsatonSantasface · 12/12/2008 15:50

Last night a 52 year old sex offender got stabbed to death A post-mortem examination said the cause of death was multiple wounds including mutilation of the groin. He was a known sex offender in the Wandsworth area and had attacked a girl under the age of 16.

Everyone in my office is shocked that this could happen in our area literally down the road from me, but to be honest I am glad they did it and expressed this. One less perve off the streets.

What do you think?

OP posts:
pamelat · 12/12/2008 16:34

I think there is a huge difference between "why protect them" and "lets kill them".

But I stand by saying that if it happened to your own child it may be different. I wouldnt condone a mob, but could "understand" (for want of a better word, again) an upset/hurt/angry parent.

crankycrane · 12/12/2008 16:34

so you all would not be capable of murder if someone touched your babies?
I ask you that!

jumpingbeans · 12/12/2008 16:35

one less sick sad bastard preying on children,

CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2008 16:36

i can honestly say i would not be able to stab someone to death, no

Waltzywotzy · 12/12/2008 16:36

What a horrid thread
I wish I hadn't posted. How can you get it off your recent threads?

goldFAQinsenceandmyrrh · 12/12/2008 16:36

No I wouldn't be capable of murder. Yes I'd be angry, but why would I want the family of the person who hurt my children to go through what I'm was going through? Why should I make them victims too??

CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2008 16:37

christ knows wotz
i don't think you can

pamelat · 12/12/2008 16:37

No, I think that until it happened to you then you wouldnt know how you would react.

But one person is different to a group, the whole pack mentality thing is disgusting

thisisyesterday · 12/12/2008 16:37

you know what? no, i wouldn't be capable of murder.
would I be glad if they died? well, maybe I would. but I think I would also feel guilty for feeling like that.

would I be able to go out, in cold blood, mutilate and kill someone? NO. I wouldn't

I would much rather that person did their time, and was put on some kind of rehabilitation program

wannaBe · 12/12/2008 16:37

so crankycrane do you think we should scrap the legal system? That criminals should be tried and sentenced by the public? To whatever sentence the public deems fit? stabbing? shooting? public stonings perhaps? Shall we become like Saudi where they have public beheadings on a Friday?

In this country criminals are tried by a jury and sentenced by a judge. Regardless of what this man did in his past, murdering him is wrong.

pamelat · 12/12/2008 16:42

I agree with the majority on here but there is an arugment that sex offenders can not be rehabilitated.

I think that trust in the police to keep them away from children is what you need.

wannaBe · 12/12/2008 16:43

"one less sick sad bastard preying on children," to be replaced by what, 2? 5? 10 murdering bastards? how do you know they only murder paedo's. Maybe they all go home at night and beat up their wives and children. Do you think the sort of person who can pre-meditatedly stab someone to death is a decent upstanding member of society? ?

clarabellabella · 12/12/2008 16:44

A lot of the time, people (without all the relevant information) think that sentences are too lenient. They did an experiment where they gave people all the information that judges had, and the majority thought that actually the judge's decision was too harsh.

You don't know the full facts and there is a legal system for a reason. When mobs start taking the law into their own hands, everything falls apart.

While I think it's appalling what he did, I definitely do not think it's right for him to have been stabbed to death, and repeatedly stabbed in the genitals. Also, there were rumours that he touched the barmaid's 2 year old, but is this true?

crankycrane · 12/12/2008 16:45

well I am not trying to upset anyone on here
however my feelings are that I would do time for my babies...if so I would end up a murderer

and as for rehabilition for sex offenders, it is a fact that a peodophile cannot be cured

Spidermama · 12/12/2008 16:46

You know, most paedos were victims of child sex abuse themselves. At what age do they become paedos and fair game for vigilante murders I wonder?

Terrible story. No winners whatsoever.

pamelat · 12/12/2008 16:46

actually I wish I hadnt posted either as I am confusing myself and none of its very nice.

thisisyesterday · 12/12/2008 16:47

I remember seeing something on tv once about sex offenders who `had chosen to be castrated. it was really interesting actually, one of them had been in prison, come out and he says he treid so hard njot to act on his impulses. but eventually he did it again He had himself castrated because he hated doing what he was doing, but he couldn't help himself.
well, so he hsays, but I tend to believe him because why else have yourself castrated?
he spoke of his relief afterwards of being able to live a free life, being able to walk past playgrounds and think, look at the kids playing, rather than the things he was thinking before.

it would be interesting if this was a valid option for sex offenders, to choose that as part of a rehabilitation program or something.

so yes, pamelat, I would agree that it isn't necessarily a possiblity to rehabilite all sex offendfers, but I also think it probably depends why they are doing it, iyswim?

if it is not possible to rehabilitate, then I guess they should be kept in secure units?

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 12/12/2008 16:48

I read this today and I thought it was utterly disgusting.

"Justice" inflicted by a mob is just as abhorrent as paedophilia.

everGreensleeves · 12/12/2008 16:48

Well, relatively recently we were "like Saudi" and held public executions/amputations/mutilations, although I can't swear to which day of the week was customary.

I am constantly amazed by people who want to return us to a society which openly condones violence, whether it's vigilantism or judicial murder. Particularly as those crying for blood are generally reacting to some especially horrible crime - why do people think piling on more and more violence, cruelty and death will somehow neutralise the problem? It's illogical as well as ignorant.

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 12/12/2008 16:50

"I don't condone violence or murder for that matter. "

Yes you f-ing well do! You said so in the OP when you said "to be honest I am glad they did it"

Lockets · 12/12/2008 16:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

crankycrane · 12/12/2008 16:52

I think the OP has scarpered

wannaBe · 12/12/2008 16:54

"and as for rehabilition for sex offenders, it is a fact that a peodophile cannot be cured" A fact? really? and in what tabloid chapter of your psychology degree did you learn that?

I think before trying to tell people about the "facts" you might start by learning how to spell paedophile.

ElectraInExcelsis · 12/12/2008 16:55

'one less perve off the streets'

That is not what justice should be about. Your feeling is an emotive response to an upsetting situation, which is all very well but that does not make it right.

Yes, I would probably feel similar things towards the perpetrator of a crime towards (god forbid) my children. But that would not make my own crime against them defensible. That is why a judge would decide their fate and not me, because I am emotionally responsive to the situation.

ilovemydog · 12/12/2008 16:55

And the word really winds me up as it means: a person who loves children...