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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:
wideratthehips · 12/12/2008 17:51

i would be terrified that anyone got murdered down the road from me...

tiredsville · 12/12/2008 17:52

Sorry, but I feel my DC would be safer without the paedophile next door.

Lotster · 12/12/2008 17:56

Ref: my earlier post, I read in The Times Mr Cunningham spent four months in jail in 2001 for raping a schoolgirl under 13

Thought I'd read he served four years.

It's great to hear that some people attacked get on with their lives, and they aren't ruined, I should have said "may have been ruined" and I apologise Peachy. However some people become depressed, suicidal self-harmers as well, which I say with passion from experience of someone close.

goldFAQinsenceandmyrrh · 12/12/2008 17:59

but how do you know they won't - what if they hear of something else they don't like - how do you know they won't want to dispense their own form of "justice" again sometime -

CatIsSleepy · 12/12/2008 18:10

agree FAQ
if they get away with this, they might fancy another go, why not? am sure there are more sex offenders out there. what's to stop them, if mob violence is now the way to go?

Reallytired · 12/12/2008 18:22

I haven't read the whole thread, but I do remember some years ago reading about a young paediatrian in south wales whose house was fire bombed because of some viliganie who were as thick as pig sh!t and didn't understand the difference between a paediatrian and a paedophile.

I find revenge attack ahorrant and I say this as someone who offered a very nasty sexual assult at the age of 19. It is true the justice system is often too lienent on sexual attakers, but I don't think that murdering people is acceptable.

Being attacked has not ruined my life in anyway. However I still suffer the occassional flashback 14 years later. Certainly my confidence has never recovered, but I have a good life.

TheFalconInThePearTree · 12/12/2008 18:23

YABU.

I may struggle to have sympathy for the offender but it's still a crime and the murderer is no better than the sex offender he killed.

They should be prosecuted, I can't understand how anyone could kill another person, exception for self defence of course, and I find them just as abhorrent as the sex offender.

Society must be better than it's criminals, must hold it'self to a higher standard and not commit acts like this, otherwise how can we still continue to criticise and hate criminals while condoning such acts as the one described?

MorrisZapp · 12/12/2008 18:27

What is up with the references to babies, children and paedophilia?

Sounds to me like he committed statutory rape ie had sex with a 15 year old and was found guilty of unlawful sex under age of consent.

He may indeed have been incredibly unsavoury, violent - who knows. His crimes may have been vile. Then again, maybe he had sex with a willing 15 year old (I was 15 when I first had sex and it was NOT 'paedophilia' fgs, I was fully grown) whose parents complained and had him charged.

Do people really think that somebody who had unlawful sex with a 15 year old is a threat to their children, ie will molest their little kids?

If anybody has more facts then please do post them so that we know what we're dealing with here. If all we have is speculation then all this 'my babies' stuff is just tabloid guff.

And even if he was the most vile of all, an actual paedophile (person who has sex with children) then he still doesn't deserve mob justice, on the simple grounds that nobody in a civilised society does.

coveredinsnot · 12/12/2008 18:30

Hi I haven't read through all the replies yet, but the OP says in the third or so post that you 'can't feel nothing for this man especially when I think about that young girl who he raped how must she feel everyday' - how do you know that he wasn't raped too at some point in his life? I know this doesn't make anything he did to harm anyone ok, but seriously - it's common knowledge that sex offenders are very often the victims of sexual abuse. Besides, there are laws in place to convict and punish people for such offenses, we don't have the death penalty in this country because it is barbaric, and we are not barbarians.

nkf · 12/12/2008 18:36

You should care because it sounds as if you are living in a lawless area. Bad luck. Any chance of moving?

flaminhell · 12/12/2008 18:37

Sorry coveredisnot but that annoys the shit out of me, that being raped as a child is a pre cursor to being an abuser, its insulting to those that survived abuse, and even if he was, it is not an excuse.

As for the op, think what you like but if a man is murdered by vigilantes whos to say theu wont make there own rules and laws for you to live by, they are not the law.

i would hazard a guess that it was a personal attack, a knife is a hard way to kill someone, you feel every blow, could possibly be a close person to the victim, so in some ways, I can feel the pain and understand the urge, but to do it is another matter.

lilacclaire · 12/12/2008 18:39

I think there were much younger children involved as well (a 3 year old) and also young boys from what I read in the paper today.

I felt sick to my stomach when I read this, vigilante groups are disgusting and in my opinion whoever did this is no better than who they killed.

JollyPirate · 12/12/2008 18:40

YABU - what sort of society do we have with mob justice?

...and the men (and maybe women) who did this will ALL be fine upstanding members of the community no doubt.

More like just as lawless as Mr Cunningham but in different ways. We have a justice system for a reason.

For those of you saying "glad he's not up the road anymore" just remember that there will be many more who are "up the road" and who may well go "underground" now - unsupervised, unmonitored and anonymous.

Scary!

tiredsville · 12/12/2008 18:42

Cover- the sentences for paedophiles in this country is pathetic. We have heard from judges on numerous occasions spewing out comments like,'she welcomed his advances, she is no angel,' when referring to an 11 year old girl.

artichokes · 12/12/2008 18:42

This thread illustrates why mob justice is so dangerous.

There are people on this thread who have happily condoned murder without knowing any of the facts. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Was this guy in a consenting sexual relationship with a 15 year old or did he rape a small child? We do not know at this stage and yet some people consider themselves to be in possession of sufficient knowledge to feel joy at death and extreme violence.

nkf · 12/12/2008 18:43

If he had raped a small child, that is still something for the legal process to take care of. Mob justice is a contradiction in terms.

choccynutter · 12/12/2008 18:43

sorry but i agree one less sicko if it was one of ur own you would all feel very diffrent i'm sure

artichokes · 12/12/2008 18:44

I agree NFK but I am just horrified at how people jump to conclusions.

Daisy15 · 12/12/2008 18:44

Sounds dead scary... he deserved the punishment but i think it would of been better if he had lived. That way he could live in his own misery with the scarrs and since he got stabbed in the groin no more rapes i guess?

PeachyBidsYouNadoligLlawen · 12/12/2008 18:47

There will be many more- I lived in a village and a friend was raped at night- the Police Officer accidentally let slip the addresses (I know, shite behaviour by PO) of 3 convicted sex offenders in the village ( it ws thought the attack was meant to be on someone else, much younger, who didn't show)so 3 sex offenders out of 2000 residents- that's quite a high proportion when you think...

lilacclaire · 12/12/2008 18:52

I don't think its that high a proportion peachy .
I think one in every street may be more accurate.

LittleJingleBellas · 12/12/2008 18:57

I think you sound a bit thick tbh.

If someone as dangerous as the murderer of this sex offender lived near me, I'd be feeling very nervous in case he mistook me or any friends of mine for someone whom the state hadn't punished sufficiently and therefore he was going to do it.

It really isn't in your interests to have Charles Bronson wannabes in your neighbourhood. It might be your husband he attacks next.

IorekByrnison · 12/12/2008 19:10

Horrible horrible op. Yes you are being unreasonable.

Utterly bizarre that you express this sentiment and go on to say "I am in fact trying to set up a stop knife crime in the wandsworth area for kids youth group". What are you going to do - tell them to save it for the paedos?

2AdventSevenfoldShoes · 12/12/2008 19:12

yabu

WinkyWinkola · 12/12/2008 19:25

"the sentences for paedophiles in this country is pathetic"

Yes, I'm sure it is. But killing someone because of that isn't right.

In an attempt to be constructive, what can we do to:

i) prevent paedophiles becoming paedophiles?
ii) prevent paedophiles from having access to our children? iii) ensure that appropriate sentences are dished out?
iv) prevent mob rule?

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