9 ½ Years Seems A Bit Steep To Me. What Do You All Think ?

[Canary42]

9½ years prison seems a bit steep to me. She may have messed him up mentally, but it sounds as though the lady is in sore need of psychiatric treatment herself, not rotting in jail. What do you all think ?

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/sarah-campbell-jailed-made-boy-sexual-plaything-had-baby-091032408.html

[davebro]

out in 5 - seems fair

[ToraToraTora]

Damn savage.....etc

[cashier]

Not long enough. What would you have said if it were a man with a young girl?

[barry1010]

Fed him cocaine, too. Many sex abusers were victims themselves but they still need to be punished. She was fully aware that what she was doing was very wrong and took steps to avoid detection. She deserves to be locked up

[Ken4155]

She got what she deserves. Had that been a male teacher, and he had sired a child by an underage student, he would most likely have got much longer.

[barry1010]

Another boy had previously reported her but she was not charged. Hopefully that case will be investigated again

[Deskdiary]

Let's change the banner headline a little bit...

Dad, 40, made girl, 15, his 'sexual plaything', and made her pregnant.

Would you still think it was "...a bit steep..." and he should be receiving treatment rather than jail?

[jno]

playing a 15yo with cocaine and cannabis before abusing him? As cashier suggests, if it had been a man and a girl people would be screaming "grooming".

[FatticusInch]

Seems proportionate to me, sentence reflects the crime.
I’ll refrain from adding the ‘that said, this is Liverpool’ remark that some might.
Oh wait……

[davebro]

We had a guy in our class at boys grammar school who was decidedly more advanced than the rest of us physically & probably emotionally. He used to trade catalogue goods to some of the (few) female teachers. I don't think he would have been damaged by a teacher/pupil relationship.

[david small]

Ludicrously excessive sentence. Poor woman.

[barry1010]

Excessive for statutory rape and supplying class A drugs? A 15 year old became a father due to her behaviour

[Atheist]

Becoming a father is a bit different from becoming a mother.

[barry1010]

You're right about that, he couldn't insist she have an abortion but she could still claim maintenance when he is old enough to work, if she gets to keep the child.

[cashier]

She knew what she was doing, she obviously didn't insist on a condom. Maybe she wanted to get pregnant. He presumably was so doped up, by her, he didn't think about the consequences.

[Spicerack]

Pretty tough, I think.
Rightly or wrongly I tend to cut an older woman/young lad more slack than I usually would with the sexes reversed.
I think they develop real feelings for the lads involved. A 40yr old woman can easily get sex if that was her only interest.
And having been a 15yr old lad, I know they don't need much coercion.

[anneasquith]

I do wonder where the child is. Can you imagine if in the future he becomes aware of who his parents are ?

[Canary42]

Thanks for your responses, some as expected inevitably. The "genders reversed" argument I find difficult to accept but that's possibly (probably!) because I am male.

Apart from the mental/emotional consequences (and STDs), the consequences of "forced" intercourse are usually more severe for the female (i.e. pregnancy) so when the victim is female the "crime" is IMO surely that much worse.

On the other hand enforced fatherhood cannot be glibly dismissed as harmless.

But 9½ years (even reduced to 5) is still a helluva long stretch, especially for one who probably has severe emotional problems herself. What does it achieve?

[jno]

four points behind punishment: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution. (A fifth is restitution but it doesn't seem to be involved here.)

Deterrence: a warning to adults that sexual abuse of minors is considered a serious offence and they shouldn't try it. Tick.
Incapacitation: lock her up so she can't do it again, at least for a few years. Tick.
Rehabilitation: don't know, British justice doesn't seem to be big on getting people fit to re-enter society. She's allegedly sought counselling in prison, which is good but I don't know if it was part of the sentence.
Retribution: punishment for being bad. Tick - though I think she was more bad than you do.

Overall, that's what the sentence achieves.

[Gromit]

It seems comparable to other sentences for paedaphiles. Probably about right.