11 year old murdered

[MargeB]

Tragic, tragic event, I feel awful for the parents.

During the investigation, the police said they would 'come down very hard' on any perpetrator (not sure when the police are called to come down hard on anyone, but anyway). They seem to be less proud of themselves now that another high profile child killing can be attributed to basic police incompetence (think of Holly and Jessica incident). Isn't it time someone shook up the police service?

During the investigation of the missing boy, while he was probably still alive, the police failed to visit the home of the proposed offender, even though he was on bail for 8 sex offences involving children.

(I know the 'police didn't carry out the act', but if they had acted correctly he may well be alive today).

[MargeB]

sorry, didn't mean to sound callous there with the Dead Boy bit. This is an awful tragedy and a horrendous waste of a life.

[january_bug]

Good point MargeB - if you kill a young boy, killing a local suspected paedophile and making it look like suicide would seem a logical way of trying to get away with it.  Scary thought...

Nipping things in the bud... all a bit Vanilla Sky for me, but I can see why the idea appeals. 

[MargeB]

hi,

nipping in the bud? you mean acting on pre-arrest evidence? I was thinking of tagging them or monitoring or suchlike. I know there are tons of them, especially with the internet operations, but this case would have been a good candidate I think.

Put it another slightly oblique way. If the mother had just dropped off her son, and knew that a very probable active paedophile was just down the road, would she have just dropped him off 300 yards from the school and hope for the best?

[january_bug]

Probably not MargeB, but given the statistics, we all know that there's a good chance there's a paedophile in most locales.  Given that fact, mothers still drop their kids off near the town, just as people still smoke and drive without wearing seatbelts.  Human beings always seriously underestimate risks of this nature.  (Apart fromairplane crashes and train crashes, which are usually over-estimated, but that's the media for you!). 

Tagging's an option I suppose.  I really do see where you're coming from, and I'm trying to be comfortable with the ideas you (plural) are putting forward.  I just really feel that it's a risky road to travel, and that it could end up causing more harm than good.  I really do take your point though that our (as in the country's) children should be protected as best possible. 

[january_bug]

Typo central on my part tonight - sorry! I'm just getting all enthusiastic and typing too quickly.  I meant drop kids of NEAR the school, not at it.  Rather than saying drop them off near the town.  Dur!

[january_bug]

MargeB - will look back with interest tomorrow, but having taken advantage of Virgin's 4 for �20 DVD offer today, I'm off to watch a film!  Sorry for the pointless post here, but don't like to leave a conversation half way through without saying goodbye!  Will be back tomorrow!  Night night.  acw/january_bug x

[MargeB]

Don't let me anywhere near those video deals. What did you get?

Hopefully the risk to those dropping off their kids remains as small as I think, just being represented as dangerous just now in the media.

Night night!

[january_bug]

Hey,

I actually watched "Night on Earth" an amazing, but little known film, on VHS last night.  However, to answer your question, DVDs I bought were:

1. Edward Scissorhands (although I already have it on VHS)
2. Cool Runnings
3. American Pie: The Wedding
4. Bourne Supremacy. 

My usual weird mix!  I also bought a DVD of the Edgbaston test for Dad for his birthday as he missed it whilst on holiday. 

 

Back to the point....

I also think that the media overhypes it.  Also, whilst it is REALLY creepy to think about it, a lot of these people never do any real harm.  I mean a fantasy, however sick, is just a fantasy and if not carried out, then it doesn't really do any harm.  Unless we let the people get inside our heads and make us paranoid.  By "the people" I'm really not sure if I mean the paedophiles or the media!!!

Either way, I stand by my point that, if lessons are to be learnt, I hope they are learnt quietly so that the family concerned can grieve in peace.  Some statement will be needed, but in a few months time, when the press will have moved on to something new. 

[MargeB]

Nice selection! Love Bourne myself.

I'd offer my suggestions about treatment of paedophiles but I think we can't on the answerbank, it explodes into a storm of misconceptions and ignorance (I don't know if you saw that thread). While paedophilia is one of the ugliest scourges on earth, the overall situation certainly isn't helped by the way it has been hijacked as a form of reprisal and retribution: false finger pointing has gone out of control in certain parts of the UK. These idiots would have a field day if finger pointing led to going on a 'list'.

[Oneeyedvic]

Just to add my two pence worth:

 

The Sun asked readers to watch out for Robert Excell - an Australian paedophile who was moving to the UK.

A few days later, an Australian tourist Newton Thompson was killed in London. Newton thompson did look like Robert Excel in that he had long white hair, clipped beard, was of a similar age (61 as opposed to 66), and wore very similar glasses.

So another innocent person is killed - is this the price we pay for media hype?

[MargeB]

Hate these tabloids, voice of the thug.

[january_bug]

Goodness - I really didn't need another reason to hate the tabloids, but I've got one now!  What happened to our society that we have people who

1. Read
2. Believe
3. Enjoy reading
4. follow the mindless instructions of

These gawd awful papers.  I wouldn't eat my fish and chips off them, I wouldn't even let my gerbil cr.a.p on them, even if I had a gerbil!! 

I know that the broadsheets and BBC etc aren't 100% reliable and are certainly biased, and I know AB has a fair number of members who think that readers of broadhseets are equally sheltered/conned.  But seriously, this sensationalism... I wish there was a way we could stop it.  I wonder if newspapers could be sued for insiting these crimes... the vigilante behaviour, the murder of that Australian tourist etc.  The judge up in Scotland was at least trying to do the right thing.  I don't know how the editors of some of these tabloids can sleep at night.  I really do wonder.  *feels a new thread coming on*

[Buddy]

january_bug

What vigilante behaviour are you referring to?

The fact that normal law abiding people would have wished him caught alive to face up to his crimes is hardly vigilante behaviour.Whatever he sufferered subsequently after conviction hell mend him!

[Oneeyedvic]

I beleive January_bug is referring to the case I mention in my previous post.

[january_bug]

Indeed oneeyedvic.  And also, you may recall a couple of summers ago when villagers/townfolk somewhere (sorry to not be specific) tracked down a local paedeatrician and yelled outside his/her house, threw stones at the family car and eggs at the house etc. 

I'm really not so stupid as to think that wanting justice is vigilante.  Perhaps, just to illustrate that I understand the word, I should copy and paste a definition...

vig�i�lan�te  

One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one's own hands.

I presume, Buddy, you see the irony of suggesting that I think law abiding citizens are vigilantes!  I do get it, I'm neither unintelligent, or illiterate, nor uneducated.  Thanks.  :-)

[Buddy]

Phew!!

I only asked.No offence was meant.