Mother gets 30 years for torturing son

[robinoi]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/21/mother-burnt-sons-nipples-penis_n_4135794.html?1382362620

Awful.

The Daily Mail article gives more detail and discusses what may have been the motive and it also mentions that the victim is 'mentally challenged'. The American Justice System has much tougher sentencing than ours, which is a good thing.

"Though it's unclear what prompted the abuse, prosecutors said they believe it had something to do with the victim, who is mentally challenged, no longer receiving financial assistance from the government because he wasn't enrolled in school at the time."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2469989/Christine-Gelineau-jailed-burning-sons-penis-nipples-lighter.html

Why am I compelled to click on abuse links?

"...unclear what prompted the abuse..."

Am I the only one who finds this terminology perverse? Victims of abuse are just that, victims, and anything which suggests that they may be somehow responsible for that abuse, or that abuse can be 'explained' by a 'motive' or 'reason' is potentially very damaging. And wtf is 'mentally challenged'? Do they mean 'mental health problems'? If so, this was a particularly vulnerable victim of abuse. His mental ill health is not a 'motive' or 'reason' for such an attack.

People make decisions. Those decisions may be instigated or flavoured by personal experience, but an abuser still makes the decision to abuse and anything that potentially detracts from that personal responsibility is woeful.

Not clicking the link but i agree with mantana. What prompted the abuse was the fact that he was being 'cared' for by an abuser. That is the reason he was abused.

I think you are reading it wrongly.
I think you are misreading it. The Judge said the following:

"When asked by Judge Richard McNamara for a more definitive motive , Waldron seemed at a loss.
‘Punishment,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders."

The Justice system wanst to try and find out why this occurred?

I think this is a shocking case where a person with learning difficulties was seemingly repeatedly abused over years and it was eventually ended.

I think it shows how vulnerable people with learning difficulties often are and I think it highlights the need for the authorities to make better checks on the welfare of people with learning difficulties.

"prosecutors said they believe it had something to do with the victim, who is mentally challenged, no longer receiving financial assistance from the government because he wasn't enrolled in school at the time"

That is what the prosecutors think. They don't think such a disgusting thing just happened out of the blue.

And the reason it is important to know why is so as to try and spot the signs of potential abusers and prevent these things happening.

"Detectives initially interviewed the victim and Cantrell together, at which time the victim claimed his wounds were self-inflicted. In a subsequent interview, though, the victim contradicted parts of his earlier account and said that all three defendants had carried out the abuse. Cantrell and Nason have also been charged with witness tampering."

That is how bad it is, that the victim initially claimed that his wounds were sielf-inflicted. Lessons will be learned from this by the Justice System and pychologists/psychiatrists will hopefully be able to spot what personality disorders and character traits the criminals had and will hopefully be able to create profiles that may help them spot future potential abuse before it happens.

That's what I call a sentence, not the pitifully short terms you sometimes see.

Exactly, nicename. Keep these people out of circulation.

Reading it again, I don't think she got long enough. It says

"As part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to nine to 30 years in state prison"

So she may not get the full 30 years.

The signs of potential abusers are well known and well documented, yet still it happens, time after time. Do you really think that finding out what excuse someone gives to their behaviour will prevent it happening again? Some people are utter shits. I fail to see how giving an excuse for their behaviour helps the victim, or future victims for that matter. Abusers don't have motive. What they have is means, method and opportunity.

Actually they do have motive. Self gratification, pure and simple. And it would manifest itself at any time, using whatever justification they can think of.

'Do you really think that finding out what excuse someone gives to their behaviour will prevent it happening again?'

One of the abusers gave an excuse

"When asked by Judge Richard McNamara for a more definitive motive , Waldron seemed at a loss.
‘Punishment,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders."

but the prosecutors did not accept it or believ that that is why the abusers acted in the way they did

"prosecutors said they believe it had something to do with the victim, who is mentally challenged, no longer receiving financial assistance from the government because he wasn't enrolled in school at the time"

"I fail to see how giving an excuse for their behaviour helps the victim"

Prosecutors do not accept excuses, they look for reasons why and motives. That is totally different from an excuse, because there is no excuse, but there is a reason why.

I believe that understanding how it can happen that someone can do things like that will help stop those things happening in the future, and that is why criminologists and psychologists and psychtatrists try to understand how these things can happen.

I still maintain that in abuse cases it is futile to look for a motive when looking for one effectively absolves personal responsibility and when abusers have no motive other than self gratification and a need for control. What possible reason, motive or excuse could Savile have had to abuse all his victims? Even he would struggle to explain, if indeed he ever accepted responsibility. Why does a mother abuse a baby, or a toddler, or a small child? Her own child no less. What possible reason or motive is there, other than self gratification?

'What possible reason, motive or excuse could Savile have had to abuse all his victims?'

Because he was a paedophile, he was sick. As a society we have to spot people like that and prevent them before they commit their crimes.

'Why does a mother abuse a baby, or a toddler, or a small child?'
She may be out of her mind on drugs, or mentally ill or evil or on medication that has changed her bahviour etc

"What possible reason or motive is there, other than self gratification?"
I don't believe that 'self gratification' is the cause.

Totally shocking. Hope through time the victim can eventually move on with lots of support that he needs.

Sorry wrong thread totally, will ask to have it deleted