Another woman guilty of murdering a small child…

[AlternativePerspective]

Leiland-James Corkill: Laura Castle guilty of murdering baby www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-61479420

Why is it that it is increasingly women who seem to be perpetrating these hideous crimes?

No OP that's not correct. Murder is still overwhelmingly a male crime (over 90% of convicted murderers are male).

It's not. Women are just significantly more interesting for the media to report on, hence why they get more airtime than the obscene number of men who commit the same crimes.

It isn’t. We just notice when it is a rare one involving a woman as it’s unusual

It's not, the media just make you more aware of female murderers

It makes me shudder to think of how sad these children must have felt, to have had no love in their short lives.

As for your question, I’m not sure. Perhaps women have more opportunity to be in contact with children. Perhaps they stick in our minds because we do not expect it. I know I’m not surprised that another mass shooter is a male.

Perhaps women have a dark side too.

That case is horrific, the husband acted appalling too 😨Poor baby.

Are we using the gruesome death of a baby to point score now?

The media just like to report on female murderers more because they play on the fact that women are supposed to be maternal, loving, and nurturing.

Who cares whether the murderer is a man or woman. It's heinous.

Looks like it. Pretty sick.

RIP Leiland-James. Such a beautiful Bonny baby :(

May Leiland-James rest in peace. Sweet little fellow. So much loss and pain inflicted on him in his short life.

Fact is though some of the most prominent child killings over the past few months have been perpetrated by women.

Arthur, Star Hobson, this baby, nobody is disputing that men kill, but the amount of women who kill seem to be increasing. Why is that?

As others have said, the reason why it sticks in your mind is because it is so unusual for women to kill.

One thing i found particularly sad about this case, and something that seems relevant to posts that appear on Mumsnet from time to time, was the evidence from the neighbours who said they heard what they believed at the time to be the child being slapped regularly and shouted at but that they didnt report it as they didn't want to cause trouble/that the adoptive parents would guess it was them.

And what went wrong that these people made it through the process and were approved to adopt?

Serial killers were prevalent in the 70's and early 80's there is research which points to why this is. I feel something similar will happen with this, it does not seek to excuse or justify it but to explore why it happens.

We also need to stop thinking of women as inherently safe.

Prominent because they are the ones the media are reporting on

The foster mum said he was ‘badly behaved’ and she had to ‘absolutely leather him’ 😨I wouldn’t give a shit is they knew it was me, vile thugs.

They're the most prominent because they were women. The media highlight it, write loads of articles about it, people express shock all over social media because it is a woman.

It is unusual. It is shocking. Because women dont often commit murder. That's why the prominent cases were by women... because murders by women are reported more by the media.

This is absolutely horrific, particularly as he was obviously already under social services , going through the adoption process. That poor lovely little boy, I would have taken him in a heartbeat.
And typical of some posters on MN trying to tell us ooh it's usually men that perpetrate these horrific crimes. Yes stop bloody trying score points. A BABY IS DEAD FFS!!

One thing i found particularly sad about this case, and something that seems relevant to posts that appear on Mumsnet from time to time, was the evidence from the neighbours who said they heard what they believed at the time to be the child being slapped regularly and shouted at but that they didnt report it as they didn't want to cause trouble/that the adoptive parents would guess it was them.

I’ve even seen posts on here from posters advising only to report if it won’t come back on them, to put themselves first. Not just in terms of child abuse but domestic violence as well.

I am certain I heard my neighbour hitting his child one morning. I reported him both to the police and social services. As my house is the only one which is joined to theirs there’s no way they can’t know it was me.

I don’t know what happened, but the shouting and screaming at the kids has significantly reduced since then, so I can only hope that SS going round and having a chat was enough.

Dog bites man - same old, no news.
Man bites dog - rare, news.
Man murders baby - same old, no news.
Woman murders baby - rare, news.

@FourTeaFallOut - well said.

Vile human

I remember being really shocked to hear, 20 years ago when I was doing my teacher training, that 10% of murderers of children were women. I had assumed it was much less. But it seems as though that figure has pretty much held steady for the last 20 years at least.

Mem murdering children IS reported in the news.......regularly
.

Oh, this is so extremely sad... The boy was cared for from birth for 8 months by another woman, who said he was very cuddly and loved the be held. He was then taken from this care giver, at around the time the usual separation anxiety peaks for babies, and given to another family, who quickly started to describe him as "a moaning wingebag". It seems to me the poor baby was clearly missing his first mother figure.