Home Politics & Debate
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨

"Danger to public" rapist gets five years

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6158416.stm

So even if you do get the conviction, you don't get justice.

Five years for that...it should be life, without parole.

Just to make this a discussion, does anyone actually think that the rape laws in this country are worth the paper they're written on?
Beep boop. I'm a bot.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6158416.stm

    So even if you do get the conviction, you don't get justice.

    Five years for that...it should be life, without parole.

    Just to make this a discussion, does anyone actually think that the rape laws in this country are worth the paper they're written on?
    BBC wrote:
    A rapist who was caught by a group of people after he attacked a woman on a footpath has been jailed for life.

    :confused:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bbc wrote:
    must serve a minimum tariff of five years and eight months.

    make more sense?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :confused:
    Judge Tim Hewitt said he was a danger to the public and must serve a minimum tariff of five years and eight months.

    I know its the minimum, but there is no way they will keep him there for a life sentence.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    make more sense?

    Ah ok, i missed it on the first read.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    Kermit wrote:
    Just to make this a discussion, does anyone actually think that the rape laws in this country are worth the paper they're written on?

    Nope.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As i'm living in a country where the sentences are absolutely ridiculous (sweden), i usually tend to lean on wanting to have harsher punishments for rapists, muderers and the like. I don't think they should call it a life sentence anymore, unless the convicts actually spend a major part of their life in prison (which they never do over here).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As I understand it a life sentence means that they won't release him if they think he's a danger to the public. The 5 years is the minimum tarrif, but he may not be released for a long time after that.

    That said I still think 5 years is way to low for a minimum tarrif.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That said I still think 5 years is way to low for a minimum tarrif.

    Its FAR too low for such a horrible crime!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It means that he will be eligible for parole in a little over two years, taking into account the remand he's been on.

    I appreciate that its a life sentence, with the various life restrictions that entails, and I don't normally think that life should mean life, but a minimum tariff that low is a disgrace.

    It's no wonder most rape victims don't bother reporting.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    I understand that "life" can be "life", but agreed that it's ridiculous that 5 years are the min (for whatever crime leads to a "life" sentence). It should be at least 20...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    It means that he will be eligible for parole in a little over two years, taking into account the remand he's been on.

    I appreciate that its a life sentence, with the various life restrictions that entails, and I don't normally think that life should mean life, but a minimum tariff that low is a disgrace.

    It's no wonder most rape victims don't bother reporting.

    I thought with life sentences the minimum tarrif is the amount before they can be considered for parole? has that changed?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    How fucking awful.
    I guess just have to wait and see how long he actually does serve.
    It is an insult to the victim though
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    J wrote:
    Why should it? Where do we get that idea from?

    But he raped someone.

    And:
    At an earlier hearing Walsh had admitted two charges of rape, one charge of assault by penetration and one charge of attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle with intent to rape.

    And the judge in that article describes him as a dangerous man.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I thought with life sentences the minimum tarrif is the amount before they can be considered for parole? has that changed?

    It's always been half the suggested minimum tariff, as with all other sentences, AFAIK.

    "assault by penetration" means he raped her anally too, for the record.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    makes me want to cry :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It makes me want to bring back the death penalty.

    And the reasons why I don't think rape and murder should have attract a death sentence are purely practical. The death penalty costs more, the judicial system makes mistakes, and its often more torturous to leave someone locked up for eternity. Plus, with rape if you have the same maximum sentence for rape as murder you'll find that rapists will start to get their money's worth, as it were, and kill their victims- it makes no difference to them.

    Rapists and murderers deserve to feel real agony and they deserve to be wiped off the planet. I don't know how anyone can disagree with that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    Rapists and murderers deserve to feel real agony and they deserve to be wiped off the planet. I don't know how anyone can disagree with that.

    Two wrongs don't make a right, a long jail sentence will suffice me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I reiterate the fact that our justice system is a joke. Life should mean life. Fuck all this " minimum served " nonsense. It's no wonder criminals laugh at the poilce, they know they'll get off scot free one way or another.

    Fair play to the people that helped capture him but the court's just wasted all that effort.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    How about chemical castration for rapists? Surgical castration is perhaps going a bit too far.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    .
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    I just realised -it says he's been in court before, for similar or worse things. How come he wasn't imprisoned then?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I just realised -it says he's been in court before, for similar or worse things. How come he wasn't imprisoned then?

    Out of touch liberal judges probably.

    We should elect some of our judges as is the case in some US states. Wouldn't be a bad idea to elect police chiefs too. (Those too lazy to give a shit at the moment might be brought into line if their bosses jobs depended on it).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Out of touch liberal judges probably.

    Unlikely, there was something in the legal press a little while ago about how the general public tend to give more lenient sentences than judges because they are taken in more by the bleatings of the defendants.

    Castration (chemical or otherwise) wouldn't work because the rapist would just use something else to cause harm- rape isn't primarily done for sexual thrill.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Out of touch liberal judges probably.

    Unlikely, there was something in the legal press a little while ago about how the general public tend to give more lenient sentences than judges because they are taken in more by the bleatings of the defendants.

    Castration (chemical or otherwise) wouldn't work because the rapist would just use something else to cause harm- rape isn't primarily done for sexual thrill.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    It makes me want to bring back the death penalty.

    And the reasons why I don't think rape and murder should have attract a death sentence are purely practical. The death penalty costs more, the judicial system makes mistakes, and its often more torturous to leave someone locked up for eternity. Plus, with rape if you have the same maximum sentence for rape as murder you'll find that rapists will start to get their money's worth, as it were, and kill their victims- it makes no difference to them.

    Rapists and murderers deserve to feel real agony and they deserve to be wiped off the planet. I don't know how anyone can disagree with that.
    They may deserve it (which I think they do), but that doesn't mean it is right to do it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bluewisdom wrote:
    They may deserve it (which I think they do), but that doesn't mean it is right to do it.

    I don't think it would be right because mistakes happen and its hard to pardon a dead man, but if there was a way of proving guilt 100% I wouldn't have any moral or ethical problem with executing them in a suitably painful way.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    if there was a way of proving guilt 100% I wouldn't have any moral or ethical problem with executing them in a suitably painful way.
    This is where we disagree - I have moral objections with the concept of the death penalty - for whatever crime or action, no matter how horrible. But that's a different debate than this one I guess.
Sign In or Register to comment.