Three people are serving sentences for ‘allowing the death’ of a young child. They tore out his fingernails, cut off his finger tips, and broke his back amongst many other forms of general abuse. The mother’s partner has been described as being fascinated with pain.
When they are released they are likely to need protection from members of the public. This will cost nearly £1,000,000 a year for the rest of their lives. Cite.
In the eyes of the law, they have been punished for their crimes, and on completion of their sentences, are free to continue their lives afresh. Many members of the public are so incensed by their crimes that they feel that only by making the perpetrators suffer, or die, will justice be seen to be done. I suspect that many feel that the only way to assuage their feelings of outrage and disgust is by attacking the perpetrators. The state feels that it has a duty to prevent further crimes being committed.
Does the crime remain with the criminal indefinitely, and if so, is it right that ‘justice’ and retribution should be meted out by the mob?
Th police should definitely punish the individuals who terminate their worthless lives. That doesn’t mean they should protect them any more than they would protect any other citizen.
I’m generally in favor of the police preventing crimes, but not in this case.
No, the citation does not say this: it is the extra cost in prison for the next year only.
Upon release in 5 years, the mother will receive a new identity but not necessarily greater resources in terms of protection (Maxine Carr no longer requires a fortune in protection resources AFAIK). The boyfriend directly responsible (and responsible for other horrific crimes) will be put away for long enough that he will no longer be easily recognisable after release.
We do this all this time in the UK. Choose a coupe of hate figures, whip up a media storm so that the public mood is to string them up from the nearest lamppost, and then act outraged when money is spent protecting the targets from the mob.
Same happened with Thompson/Venables and Maxine Carr.
I have no sympathy at all for such vile people, but I don’t want to live in a society where mob justice is allowed to run free.
The police have a mandate to prevent crime. Attacking ex-criminals is a crime. We no longer have the medieval device of declaring people outside the law, setting their wergild at zero or some such.
If the police think that installing a panic button in these people’s homes will prevent crime, just as would be the case if the target (eg. a witness in a high profile case) had a clean criminal record, I’ll trust their judgement.
The trouble with that is that the next of kin is the murderer. I don’t believe in it because justice and retribution should be impersonal and dispassionate. And allowing a member of the public to be an executioner is Not A Good Thing.
(Disclaimer: I hope I’ve understood the laws correctly.)
I don’t think Telegraph readers would ever get round to actually doing anything. You see, they’d have to form a committee, elect a chairperson, write to the letters page…
What’s so great living in a third world country is that if that happens here and a scumbag like him gets incarcerated in the National Prison, I would not spend $500 and that scumbag will get his just deserts inside his cell. And no, I don’t apologize for thinking that would be a great thing.
This is what I was wondering. So you think that ‘the people’ (in this case, other inmates) should decide on a sentence - possibly death - and carry out that sentence?
Installing a panic button in my house might prevent crime. I fail to see why these people deserve it more than I do. (Witnesses are a special case: they are putting themselves at risk by providing a service to the justice system, and the justice system therefore is obligated to take reasonable measures to alleviate that risk.)
No. I get to decide on the sentence and would have the other inmates execute it. It is not unheard of for the family of an aggrieved party to forgo a criminal trial in lieu of extra-judicial actions which would afford them a lot more in terms of torturing the scumbag.
