Liverpool - woman who distributed indecent images of children over WhatsApp has walked free from court.

[BoreOfWhabylon]

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/woman-distributed-indecent-images-over-26190141?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

"...officers seized a Samsung mobile phone on which they discovered 84 indecent images in category A - those graded as showing the most serious forms of abuse.

These included pictures and videos showing children aged as young as four being raped. Also found were 30 category B images and 35 in category C, which had been collected since October"

Except of course, the offender, Ketan Shende, is not a woman.

It will be editorial. The Liverpool echo think they are ever so progressive so any articles about the TQ part of the rainbow is always very biased. 95% of the readership aren't on board, the comments section is usually brutal.

Sturgeon will be the first to say "But they haven't abused and offended against women so what's the prob? Stuff them in the showers with women three quarters of whom have been sexually abused, it'll be fine."

This sort of thing has to be heavy on the mind of judges now when trying to balance risk to community with risk to the women these men are dumped on and the issues to the prison service.

And yet just 0.1% of the population, according to the census. Hmmm...!

As horrific this seems. The court has all the evidence to make the decisions and we only get sensationalised reports.

Unless you are in that courtroom you are basing judgements on reporting.

I was a magistrate for many years. The reporting versus actual facts varied enormously.

Having said all that. If it was accurate then this is appalling

Setting aside the pathetic sentence given, it's the fact that this is being reported as a woman and it is clearly not. That's what we are so angered about. These are not our crimes.

Yes, it's not the sentencing, it's the reporting.

Yes. And then in the future there will be even more idiots popping up on MN to wail "but women do that crime too,".

Hope this makes it in "this never happens"

This makes me so angry.

I'm usually able to have quite calm reasonable discussions with friends who disagree with me about this, but the one time it got really heated their argument fell on women being capable of rape/ sexual assault too. Blatant mistruths like this only serve to fuel that tripe.

How that judge let him walk out of the room that day I'll never understand. What are prisons even for?

Fucksake

I just can't understand how women can be sent to prison for not paying their TV licenses, but contributing to the destruction of small children is ok?

What is the point of a suspended sentence? Why the actual fuck would they not imprison a man who is clearly a threat to children? Why on earth DELAY putting him away? To test him? What the fuck.

Unfortunately there are so many of these offenders that it genuinely isn't possible to send them to prison. Prisons are bursting at the seams, they are already on the emergency measures.... non-contact sex offenders are already unlikely to be imprisoned. That this particular pervert says he is trans is really not relevant to him not being imprisoned.

Unfortunately there are so many of these offenders that it genuinely isn't possible to send them to prison. Prisons are bursting at the seams, they are already on the emergency measures

And yet women are in prison for non-payment of the tv license?

Whilst I agree that non-contact sexual offenders are unlikely to be given a custodial sentence for the reasons you've given, I wouldn't be so sure about the trans status.

Put him in the female estate and there will be an outcry like in Scotland. Put him in the male estate (where he belongs) and the TRA/be kind and inclusive brigade will scream TERF bigots. Judges and politicians will be wanting to avoid the latter headache at all costs.

@PSNonsense I agree with you completely. But do bear in mind that there are plenty of transwomen already in mens prisons in England. The overwhelming majority of these "individuals " (im quoting Nicola Sturgeon here) are sex offenders. I've worked in English prisons for a long time and probably encountered two dozen transwomen.... all but two were current or previous sex offenders.

@PonyPatter44 that's interesting and good to know they are in men's prisons. Hopefully Scotland will follow suit with all transwomen, not just the ones causing Nicola a headache.

Surely the true trans, or however they wish to identify, are tired of these headlines too? This needs weeding out of their community... we've proposed solutions they don't like but what are the counter proposals? Continuing as we are, clearly isn't working.

No. Every prisoner has a right to not be assaulted or murdered in prison. You start getting bloodthirsty about one demographic, and that’s how you get transwomen back in women’s prisons.

? Shende didn’t abuse any children.

I don’t think anyone goes to prison for nonpayment of their TV license these days.

I assure you that prison staff do not want prisoners to be assaulted or murdered either, despite what you might read online. They have been looking after truly vulnerable prisoners in male prisons for many, many years, they can manage transwomen perfectly well too.

This just shouldn’t be allowed.

Journalists had be absolute privilege to report on court proceedings but it has to be an accurate report on proceedings, so unfortunately if the defendant was referred to as a woman in court, using female pronouns, their hands are tied.

? Shende didn’t abuse any children.

Sorry, what? He might not have physically abused them himself, but the distribution of images inflicts the same amount of harm. Supply and demand. It's the worst kind of offending.