Judge is sad paedophile won't be able to keep his job as a midwife

[PurgatoryOfPotholes]

A man was found to have hundreds of child abuse images, along with porn showing strangulation, and images showing sexual abuse of animals. He escaped a custodial sentence after his partner stood by him and wrote a letter to the judge defending him.

So far, not unusual.

But this bit is. Judge's comments:
'This is a real tragedy for so many people,' he said.

'You qualified as a midwife and will never be able to work in this role again.

It is a shame, not just for yourself but for the community as a whole as I understand there is a desperate shortage of midwives.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9989159/amp/Male-midwife-39-caught-stash-400-indecent-images-children.html

This judge thinks potential patients (women and newborn babies) are losing out on this man's services? The tragedy is that he was not caught sooner, and I feel very sorry for all women treated by him before now. If they had had an informed choice in the matter, they would not have wanted a man who masturbated to the torture of children, doing the new baby checks on their babies.

It's shameful for him not the community. Should be in jail and throw away the key.

Completely agree @PegasusReturns.
Appaling all round.

It seems British judges (among others) are supposed to /required to go off with some profound and highfalutin judgy statements on passing sentence. The whole custom seems pointless to me - just pass the sentence and keep your moralistic thoughts to yourself. But anyway, some of them end up talking bollocks. I wouldn’t read too much into it.

If we had a political party in the uk that clamped down on these perverts for good and locking them up where they should be nearly every mother would vote for it

@Sophoclesthefox

Bleurgh.

Its SO competitive to get onto a midwifery course. If there is a broader shame than the children, women and animals who were abused to provide wank fodder for this arsehole, then it is that the midwifery profession was deprived of someone who could have taken his place on the course, and not turned out to be a nonce.

This.

I don't think this man should ever have been there and it was a waste of public funds to train him.

Looking at imagery of children and animals being raped and looking at hardcore porn of women being hurt indicates a core defect in character. I rather think that it was a factor in why he went into midwifery.

If he had not been so stupid enough as to get caught uploading images to a social media site, he'd still be in post and the NHS wouldn't be down a midwife.

But would you want a man such as that at your side providing support while you were having a painful labour? Or doing stitches on your genital area afterwards? A man who gets off on seeing women being hurt?

Even if he had had more self-control or more fear of the law and had never actually downloaded a single child abuse image, being so devoid of empathy that he wanted to see children and animals being raped made him unsuitable to work in any role where he would have contact with patients. I wouldn't want to take my cat for veterinary treatment from someone who wanted to watch videos of cats being hurt! Human welfare is just as important to me.

I would agree it's a shame that the many years of training were wasted on him, and didn't go to another person, who could still be using that training now.

It's not a shame for this person to have lost his job. It's a shame that there is one less midwife.

@TheQueef

I read this and wondered about the wife. We all know people can be blind to partners faults but this seems a step further, would it not affect her job?

I agree. I do think this level of denial about her partner casts doubt on her current suitability to be in a clinical role.

Getting back to the wife - my memory on this is very vague and I know someone will be able to clarify - but isn't there some law/convention that women can't be forced to give evidence AGAINST their husbands as they can't be expected to be truthful as they will naturally want to support their husband or may be being coerced? I have vague and distant memories of a high profile wife excusing herself from giving evidence on these grounds.

In which case doesn't the reverse apply?

I read that out to my DP last night as I couldn’t believe he’d avoided being sent down.

I can only hope that there was more to the judge’s speech that just didn’t get reported, because if you take it purely on what was written then he’s in the wrong job.

@AliceMorrow

I also read it as: "you moron, everyone is losing out, including yourself, because you are despicable".

I tend to agree with this.

I do find the concept of judges' summing-up remarks a bit . All that care throughout the trial to be impartial, and then at the end they just sort of let rip with their opinions.

I also wonder about his quote saying that he had so many positive comments and women were comfortable around him. I went to a midwife appointment once, was expecting to have a sweep, and the midwife was a man.

I felt like I couldn’t say anything, I don’t think of myself as vulnerable but I didn’t want him to do the sweep. I asked if I could have a chaperone (this wasn’t offered) and my normal community midwife came in).

I think part of it was my conditioning that women don’t like to cause offence, even if it means that I have a man’s hand in my vagina that I was uncomfortable with.

I too thought the judge was adding another level of condemnation, this man has wasted the time, money and effort of the NHS, all of which could have been spent on someone who wasn't a fucking pedophile.

Actually, that's not the right word, sex offender.

Women who choose to stand by "men" like this, are just as bad imo.

“Sympathy which is never extended to female defendants.”

Rubbish. It is frequently extended, just as inappropriately as in this guy’s case, to female defendants.

I’ve read some shocking sentencing speeches where it’s been very clear that the judge has bent over backwards to show sympathy and leniency to women; it’s definitely not a one way street.

One that springs to mind was a woman who put her stiletto heel through a guy’s eye socket in a night club. She got a small fine with a victim surcharge whilst he was scarred for life and nearly lost the eye. I’ve seen others (several, and unfortunately becoming more common) involving women glassing male and female victims.

It’s usually written off as a “one-off.” It was “out of character” and “unlikely to happen again.” The defendant is “of previously good character” and it would be “unfair to ruin a promising career” by giving them a custodial sentence.

It’s rare now to see meaningful punishments given to people of either sex for acts that would, 20-30 years ago, have got you serious time inside.

I'd be more worried that he had access to my baby tbh.
I had a twin birth and had a male consultant. He acted as Lead but let the midwife and registrar to the work at the coal face. I felt utterly comfortable with him being there as he was doing his job. Males can work in this field and not make women feel uncomfortable. When something like this happens it makes it harder for the hard working professionals who love the work of delivering babies.

Judge is sad that paedophile won't be able to keep his job as a midwife

Just that. I can’t add anything or comment on it. I’m just staring at it.

Agree with most on here (except for the whataboutery comment).

I'm going to make a complaint about the sentence. It may be that it won't be accepted as I can see that only some sex crimes against children are covered.
[email protected]

I'm also going to raise a safeguarding issue with the local authority and hospital involved about his partner working with babies in their neo natal unit (if they still are). Normally I don't believe in "visiting the sins of paedophiles" on their partners. But in this case she's actively managed to keep him from serving his sentence because???? In my view that judgement makes her an unfit person to be anywhere near children or vulnerable women. If she's so in thrall to him it doesn't bear thinking about what she would do if he requested photos of children etc? There need to be consequences for such a massive safeguarding and moral fail.

What a shocking and disturbing case.

Agree entirely, Purgatory, that there's nothing 'unfortunate' about this man's choice of career.

'they need someone who is caring and listens and they want to feel safe with the midwife'

'They' is the pregnant women who attracted him to the role. He was attracted by the vulnerability of the patients.

Abusers and predators will always find the weak points of any system and ways to access vulnerable victims.

@FannyCann

"Butler had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images."

He didn't just view, he MADE indecent images. I don't know if that means IT wizardry or actual abuse of a child to take the photos. Utterly appalling.

He got one thing right in that interview posted above "women want to feel SAFE with the midwife".

I have always been against male midwives, not that I think they are all paedophiles but they are men. I would never agree to have one.

Oh, and he met his wife on the neonatal unit. Is she a nurse I wonder? IMO her glowing letter of support disqualifies her from her job.
I need to get off to work but I am thinking of a complaint to the hospital and the NMC about her too.

I agree with this.

I wonder very much how the wife could 'support' him. There is one reason that springs to mind - I hope they have thoroughly investigated her as well. I wouldn't want her around my children.

child porn and STRANGULATION!

I put the strangulation in capitals not because its anymore severe than the child porn but because a midwife likely has to deal with issues of accidental strangulation by umbilical cord as part of their job. If they get off on watching the life drain away from someone how on earth is it a loss that they are not in a job where they need to revive someone from strangulation.

What is wrong with these judges.

I will always be highly suspicious of any man that chooses to work with vulnerable woman and children.

Same here.

I read it differently too, his awful conduct has left the profession a person down, such a waste of Nhs resources training him when his behaviour was so abominable.

This attitude is shown across sex crime in the Criminal Justice System. It's all very odd.

Outside of the London middle classes who seem to think criminals are some sort of victim, pretty much everyone wants to see much longer sentences for sex criminals. And all criminals. And yet the Criminal Justice system doesn't agree. Why is that?
Have a read of this.
researchingreform.net/2017/02/07/judge-sentences-for-paedophiles-too-lenient/

Why is there such a blind spot in our system?:
Paedophiles and rapist sentencing is laughable. Why is that?
We still haven't managed to set up a Commission on paedophilia despite being promised. Rape gangs in the North were allowed to operate with impunity for years.
Pay attention to sentencing whenever you see a (small) story on a rape case. Let alone the larger cases e.g. the London cabbie who raped numerous people and was let out early until public outcry ensured he went back to jail. Most of the criminals don't have this outcry and get out very quickly.
Note this is not political as no party is seeking to look at this.
All very odd.

Still, it's such a shame this poor man could no longer be a midwife eh? Poor luv.