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.

The images included category A images of sexual abuse. So we are talking about penetrative rape of children.

A man who finds that enjoyable to watch is not someone I'd trust to dispense sufficient pain relief to a woman as she prepares to push a baby out of her genitals. He should never have been in that role.

It's unbelievable how the judiciary are just allowing this bullshit to go unpunished.

Oh, he's such a good worker (accessing potential victims) - such a shame he won't be able to do that job any more (not for the potential victims, you almighty cockweasel!)
Oh he didn't mean to choke her to death, she likes rough sex - yeah, not THAT fucking rough. She DIED. Doubt she wanted that - but hey, let's give him a slap on the wrist because he "didn't mean it".
Raped someone? Oh sure, he didn't mean any harm by it, but no one would go out with him so he had to get sex somehow!
Assaulted some woman? Well but now he's a woman so he can go free because it's hard enough being a TW without having to go to prison for it.

It's a war on women and women's rights and it's getting worse and worse.

A predominantly male judiciary. And even when women do make it up there to the heights of crown court cases, it's probably predominantly women who haven't had children, because taking time out for maternity leave disrupts your career!

For example, in this case, a male judge can not review the evidence with any firsthand experience of the reality of childbirth in mind, and being a man, unlikely to have female friends chatting to him about it. Even before I had children, I knew what an episiotomy was and about tears in the final stage of labour. So I want this man out of the midwifery profession just for wanting to see category A material even if he doesn't download it.

I will bet you an entire pack of Hobnobs that the judge did not think about any of this.

I read it in a "You let yourself down, you let everyone down" kind of way, not sympathetic at all.

@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.

Sure, but people are arguing that no men should be midwives and have asked why any man would want to. That goes beyond this individual.

I don't think we should be focusing on the reasons why men want to work in this area as if that's the most important factor. The aim is for care to be patient-centred, not provider-centred.

I'm very uncomfortable about this focus on whether men go into midwifery because they want to help.

That's a bit of a self-centred thing, isn't it? The focus should not be on satisfying your own desire to help, but on whether your support will be beneficial to the recipient.

Midwifery is a job where you see and touch women's genitals at a very vulnerable, painful point in their lives. An unknown number of labouring women in a maternity unit will have been subjected to sexual abuse from people with male body shapes. Some of them will be there because they were raped as recently as nine months ago, and their baby is the result of rape. And some of them will be trying to manage the emotional effects of sexual violence while not admitting to themselves that it was rape. Which means they are not in a good position to advocate for their own needs at all, and won't be able to just say "I'm a rape survivor and I need a female midwife".

I'd rather like to be a midwife too because I'd enjoy supporting women. But, crucially, I know I have the personality of a sleep-deprived hedgehog, and I doubt many women would feel supported by me!

I'd also like to support women after FGM, because I feel passionately about that. But I will always be an outsider to that issue. My support wouldn't be perceived as support by the people who are most important- FGM survivors. So I simply donate to support the women who can perform that role effectively. I rather wonder about people who centre their wish to help over the recipients' welfare. People in need of support don't exist to meet your own vocational needs.

The male midwives thing is a reasonable strand of this conversation.

That conversation doesn't take away from the discussion about the bizarre comments from the judge.

The focus should not be on satisfying your own desire to help, but on whether your support will be beneficial to the recipient.
I think that's sophistry. Someone saying they want to help is likely to be saying so from the point of view of wanting their support to be beneficial to the recipient.

PurgatoryOfPotholes, there's no reason to snipe at me. I was responding in my post to someone saying they didn't get why men wanted to become midwives, not talking about this particular case.

And I did google it 'really hard' (again, why the tone?); I did come across unedifying stories too. But the majority are not sinister.

I think the sad bit is how it feeds into the myth that men working in female-dominated professions have suspect motivation. And that nobody called out the judge on that appalling comment, of course!

Nooooo just whether it's in women's best interests in general to have male midwives. A very very different discipline to any other.

Any comment on this guy liking extreme porn?

This reminds me of the Judge in the Ted Bundy trial.
"You're a bright young man. You would have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself."

A man who tortured and murdered young women and girls.

WTF

Do male midwives have to have a CRB check or whatever it’s called these days?. They are working with the vulnerable.

And another woman saved his arse from jail I mean can you even comprehend that your husband or boyfriend he’s caught red-handed with that material if that was me he’d be praying the prison officers got to him before I did