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.

I tend to agree with @AliceMorrow, but I think this man should have a custodial sentence. Despicable.
I wonder what constitutes a letter of support in these circumstances.
I feel sickened and angry that this man has entered my profession. How dare he?

I think the judge's comments are partly about deterring other people by pointing out it can end your career.

He escaped a custodial sentence after his partner stood by him and wrote a letter to the judge defending him.

How is this possible? We all know that abusers groom other adults to facilitate them; and that some people don't need grooming.

It is time that men working in professions where they have access to vulnerable children and women automatically get a custodial sentence for sex crimes.
This makes sense. It shows either a degree of premeditation, or, if you accept that some sex crime convictions are "he said, she said" (I don't but the public at large seems to) then you could argue that someone in a privileged role like that should hold themselves to higher standards, and should avoid putting themselves in questionable situations.
A bit like how we expect better behaviour from off-duty coppers on the piss than other groups of blokes, and we prefer to see crimes, sexual or not, committed by police officers to be dealt with more harshly.
A man in a role like that has to be held to a higher standard because he has far more opportunity than say, a roofer or a shopkeeper.

Is it not still the case that teachers can be prosecuted for sex with 16-18 year olds in their care? That's enough precedent I think.

It makes no sense to me. It's absurd- like putting the family members of a defendant in the jury, and seeing if they deliver a not guilty verdict!

She's his partner and has chosen to continue having a relationship with him. Of course she doesn't want him to go to prison. You might as well ask him whether he should go to prison.

It is an odd choice. Different if she could give some proof that he hadn’t done it or something but it’s literally just ‘yes he committed these atrocities but he’s a wonderful guy in the opinion of me, his partner.’

Rather than reflecting well on him it should really reflect poorly on her.

Personally I wouldn’t want her helping me give birth/caring for my baby knowing she stands in support of this man.

"I told him I'd leave him if he did it again and he said he wouldn't. So now you don't need to send him to prison!"

Am I a heartless person for saying I wouldn't stand by my DH if he did something like this?! or anyone else for that matter

@grey12

Am I a heartless person for saying I wouldn't stand by my DH if he did something like this?! or anyone else for that matter

Absolutely not heartless!

Nope, I couldn’t

@VeryLongBeeeeep

Well they aren't mutually exclusive statements.

A child abuse image could be anything that shows a child being abused. Pornography means it's sexual images produced to be used for sexual purposes.

Many people think all pornography is abusive, it's still pornography.

The term I see most frequently used rather than CP is "images of child sexual abuse" or "images of CSA".

The reaction against calling it 'child porn' is because while the whole pornography industry is rife with abuse, coercion, rape, trafficking etc, it is still theoretically possible that any given piece of adult pornography could be consensual. However that involving children can never be consensual as children can't consent to sex, so it is always an image of a child or children being abused. It's an important distinction to make, IMO.

Yeah, I understand the rational, but I don't think it's true, useful, or helpful.

The term pornography has zero connotations that it must be consensual. Even the worst kind of images of women being beaten and murdered still counts as pornography if it's intended for sexual purposes.

It comes off as policing speech for the sake of it, or to imply that somehow others don't take it as seriously as the person trying to correct them.

What the FUCK

The male surgeon who did my c-section was wonderful. I didn't get a choice but I lucked out with him. He was an experienced and well-regarded surgeon and I'm sure he felt that in his training,he'd better know how to do emergency c-sections.

However, why would a man choose to be a midwife? I don't get it and I don't trust those who do. It's not general care where sometimes you need to attend to a pregnant woman, it's only women and only pregnancy - exclusively female experiences. In my country, it also pays less.

I once had a conversation with a woman on twitter who claimed that in her region (an administrative district in one of the African countries- I've completely forgotten which), women weren't allowed to practice as gynaecologists.

Official reason? Because all the women would pick a female gynaecologist and this would drive the male gynaecologists out of business.

@LobsterNapkin

I don't think it's unusual for a judge to feel sad for the waste of human life or the detriment to society of losing someone contributing in a beneficial way, especially since they see so much of it.

I'm not sure how that really translates into "feeling sad for a pedophile" as if it's about wishing pedophiles could have happier lives or something.

Yeah, I read it as "you've let everyone down but most of all you've let yourself down".

@HotPenguin

I think the judge's comments are partly about deterring other people by pointing out it can end your career.

With this case people means men really surely?

The older I get the less generous I become.

I would have used to said why shouldn't men be midwives!

Now I think why should they? Loads of women only want a woman and those that don't mind are ok with women so no loss.

There are women who will go to booking and not want to seem sexist or rude and so not ask for a change. That's just a fact.

If there's an emergency or something then he could be needed no choice.

My personal experience is that for smears I ask for a female but if zero chance I would maybe say ok to man. However having written that for smears the answer shouldn't ever be no women available man or nothing.

My midwife was absolutely awful in so many ways. She was useless. She essentially said I was 'reacting' wrong rather than something actually could be wrong

Anyway eventually male doc came in one look at me one look at readings emergency section in theatre within a couple mins.

I have also seen male gynaes and that's fine.

So I'm not personally totally no men near this stuff. But for me. Birth. Pregnancy even. Are a different thing. So female. Not a medical situation usually. Birth is proven to go better if woman feels comfy with who is with her.

It's one role in a massive number in healthcare. It's vastly predominantly female. That's vastly predominantly what women want. There is no need for men to do this job. And much easier all round if they don't .

Actually read the article now.

Other judge comments-

He added: 'As you have said, you were falling down a slippery slope and things became worse and worse.'

His reasons given accepted. Sounds like what anyone would say in defence. And he has masses of pictures some class a. Slippery slope?

Things became worse and worse? Could have talked to someone or got help or I dunno anything on that slippery old slope before getting images of child rape.

Judge-

'There is a world out there in which women and girls are forced into performing extreme acts that are not only degrading but are painful and dangerous.'

I have no idea what that comment is for or about it's just weird.

Also bizarre comment from judge-

'You owe your partner a huge debt for that letter written on your behalf.

'She stood by you and I would suggest you stand by her because she has made all the difference in keeping you out of prison today.'

????????

However, why would a man choose to be a midwife? I don't get it and I don't trust those who do.

Google 'why would a man choose to be a midwife?' and you'll come across some very informative articles on the subject. One that I thought was interesting was a man who had been birthing partner to two of his female friends.

The fact this man was also found with extreme porn, depicting women being tortured, makes me think he got off on women being vulnerable and in pain. hence his choice of career.

@PandorasMailbox

The fact this man was also found with extreme porn, depicting women being tortured, makes me think he got off on women being vulnerable and in pain. hence his choice of career.

Me too.

I'm not much interested in googling why men want to become midwives, in the context of a man with category A child abuse images, and pornography of adult women that was so violent that it was considered relevant.

By the way, if you google "why do men want to become midwives" really hard, perhaps this man's public reasons for going in to this career might also come up?

Agree re work involving women vulnerable and in pain and sometimes life threatening danger sounds like an interesting job for a man with a sexual interest in women being abused and harmed.

And of course the midwife has power over her really.