My instinctive reaction is that the deliberate taking of a single life, let alone two by someone who is not deemed to have mental health issues, means that the perpetrator should receive a full life tariff.
Am I being over simplistic? The young ladies will never have any kind of second chance, so why should this man?
.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9661847/Colin-Pitchfork-victims-mother-hits-decision-free-double-killer.html
What punishment fits this crime?
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Sgt Wilko 92 (U5983)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by What would Stuart Pearce do? Percy Pig aficionado (U3126)
posted 22 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by What would Stuart Pearce do? Percy Pig aficio... (U3126)
posted 4 minutes ago
From what I can gather as far back as 2009 he's been steadily rehabilitated. From 2009:
"The judges said on Thursday that they allowed the appeal to a very limited extent because of Pitchfork's "exceptional progress" in custody.
The court heard that the double killer had become a specialist in the transcription of printed music into Braille and achieved a high educational standard up to degree level.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/8051513.stm
And that his "release is subject to a number of licence conditions, such as living at a designated address and being subject to a curfew."
"If Colin Pitchfork is released, he will be closely supervised by the probation service for the rest of his life and can be brought back to prison if he breaks the strict conditions he will be subject to."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57398780
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All fair enough until a dead, raped young girl turns up. Nonces cannot be rehibiltated without medical intervention.
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Which he has received.
According to the various medical professionals, psychologists, behavioral therapists (including the parole boards) who have assessed him over the last number of years concluded Pitchfork poses no risk to public safety. Hence their decision to release him.
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Thank you for your post Stuart Pearce. It still doesn't change my mind that he has an opportunity to live a life of freedom, albeit under what I imagine will be strict conditions. He'll be able to see his family (providing they have come to terms with what he has done), he'll be able to soak up the sun at a park, perhaps visit the seaside. All things he has denied the two people he murdered. I don't ask for anyone to agree with me, and accept that when he was initially sentenced, no full life tariff was available. It wasn't available when Brady, Hindley and Sutcliffe committed their heinous crimes, but they died behind bars didn't they. My apologies for the anger.
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It's an emotive topic.
Whilst sentencing guidelines are far more robust now, impossible to retrospectively implement today's guidelines in respect to crimes committed many years ago. Unfortunately even ones as reprehensible as Pitchforks.
posted on 8/6/21
Which he has received.
According to the various medical professionals, psychologists, behavioral therapists (including the parole boards) who have assessed him over the last number of years concluded Pitchfork poses no risk to public safety. Hence their decision to release him.
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Assessments aren't medical intervention. Numerous people have been assessed and declared safe for release only to re-offend very quickly.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 5 minutes ago
Which he has received.
According to the various medical professionals, psychologists, behavioral therapists (including the parole boards) who have assessed him over the last number of years concluded Pitchfork poses no risk to public safety. Hence their decision to release him.
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Assessments aren't medical intervention. Numerous people have been assessed and declared safe for release only to re-offend very quickly.
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The parole board had a host of expert/specialists at their disposal to fully assess the public health risk, following the completion of his custodial sentence a number of years ago. And whilst no assessment can ever be 100% certain, a decision was made based on years of continual rigorous evaluation.
The *only* (legal) grounds the board had to not release him was if he risked reoffending, and/or represented a public health risk.
In 2009 his sentence was reduced by 2yrs in light of his "exceptional [rehabilitation] progress"
In 2017 he was moved to an open prison. Where there was minimal supervision and little security. Prisoners often out of their cells - eg to go to work. Where he has resided ever since.
Regardless of strength of feeling of what he did, (which anyone would agree was reprehensible) either people accept the rule of law/the judiciary process, or not.
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders.
posted on 8/6/21
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
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Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 29 seconds ago
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
------
Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
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So even if they can be proven to be rehabilitated, you disagree?
posted on 8/6/21
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 2 minutes ago
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
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Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
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Whether folk agree with that type of draconian approach or not, the UK, (or any country for that matter) does not have the capacity/infrastructure (and never will) to imprison offenders who rape and murder indefinitely.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Alisson Becker, Liverpool's Number 9 (U3979)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 29 seconds ago
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
------
Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So even if they can be proven to be rehabilitated, you disagree?
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It cannot be proven, and I don't believe it can happen.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Alisson Becker, Liverpool's Number 9 (U3979)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 29 seconds ago
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
------
Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So even if they can be proven to be rehabilitated, you disagree?
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It cannot be proven, and I don't believe it can happen.
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So despite professionals with vast amounts of experience compares to you saying this particular individual has been rehabilitated to the point where he can re-enter society, you know better?
posted on 8/6/21
So despite professionals with vast amounts of experience compares to you saying this particular individual has been rehabilitated to the point where he can re-enter society, you know better?
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The professionals have released a hell of a lot of rapists who have gone on to re-offend.
"Human rights" and other such pressures forces their hand a lot of the time.
Sexual urges don't just disappear. In fact many paedophiles compare themselves to homosexuals and say it is just natural urges. Prison doesn't stop those urges, in fact it is likely to have increased them.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Alisson Becker, Liverpool's Number 9 (U3979)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Alisson Becker, Liverpool's Number 9 (U3979)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 29 seconds ago
Or we forget about even trying to rehabilitate offenders
------
Nonces who rape and murder, yes we should.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So even if they can be proven to be rehabilitated, you disagree?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It cannot be proven, and I don't believe it can happen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So despite professionals with vast amounts of experience compares to you saying this particular individual has been rehabilitated to the point where he can re-enter society, you know better?
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Whilst NHS schemes such as: https://www.rdash.nhs.uk/services/our-services/forensic-services/amber-lodge/sex-offender-treatment-programme/ are in their relative infancy (compared to long established other rehabilitation schemes) they have proven to be successful. Despite a lack of resourcing.
The below SAGE study from 2019 provides some further analysis on the effectiveness of shexual offender treatment in prisons.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1079063219871576