A terrible case

[vinni]

its basically prostituting your kid ,sick if you ask me .

[sovietsong]

I'm not a parent, however my basic point is who are we to say what they've done is sick etc with only basic facts.

I don't agree with it but aren't so ignorant to say I can't understand them taking a pay off.

As mentioned the court case could be hard on the kid and all the other unknown factors etc. 

If it was more money would that make a difference?

If he'd paid £1m would everybody have the same reaction?

[kinboshi]

I read once that a high proportion of kids who are abused become abusers themselves. If that's true then it seems that the parents actions are indefensible on 3 counts:

1) They leave the original offender free to abuse again.
2) They leave their child with a higher chance of become an abuser and no extra help - which (3) also leaves children of the future a bit more likely to be abused.

1) They didn't leave him free. He went to court and pleaded guilty but got let off. It was the justice system that left him free to abuse again.

2) How do we know they haven't sought help? Maybe that's what they're using some of the 18k for, private help?

3) Not their problem unless it's their child who is the one doing the abusing. As I said in (2) we don't know that they haven't sought help.

Erm, as Bongo pointed out, they did 'leave him free'.  He paid the £18K, moved to Birmingham where he was free to do as he chose.  Of course you want to protect your own family, but there's also a social responsibility to help protect others too.  Otherwise why would any bother being a witness in a case where the victim wasn't a member of their family.  I'm sure we'd all do our damnedest to make sure a child-abuser is successfully prosecuted and hopefully removed from situations where they can abuse other children.  The justice system only came into play years later when details of what happened became apparent to non-family members.

There's an outcry (quite rightly) with this case by most, but the institutionalised child-abuse within the catholic church has gone on for decades and yet has largely been left to the church itself to manage.  It's a disgrace that the church has protected and even facilitated child-abusers, and in most cases they seem to be operating outside the law (of the countries where the crimes have been taking place).

More of the same from the catholic church:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8573829.stm

[The Camel]

I'm not a parent, however my basic point is who are we to say what they've done is sick etc with only basic facts.

I don't agree with it but aren't so ignorant to say I can't understand them taking a pay off.

As mentioned the court case could be hard on the kid and all the other unknown factors etc.  

If it was more money would that make a difference?

If he'd paid £1m would everybody have the same reaction?

As corny as it might sound, becoming a parent does change things in this area.

I'm about as pinko liberal softie as you could possibly find.

Before Jake was born, I would support very liberal punishment for paedophiles, claiming it was illness not crimes and they should be rehabilitated and treated not punished.

Then I was playing some stupid game with Jake when he about 6 months old, and the thought suddenly struck me, if a bloke even laid a slightest finger on him, I would take care of him.

The thought really stunned me but proved to me most parents would go to virtually any length to protect their children

But, that's why I think parents on the whole would view the actions of these parents with total and absolute disgust.

[Claw75]

Before Jake was born, I would support very liberal punishment for paedophiles, claiming it was illness not crimes and they should be rehabilitated and treated not punished.

this is a massive grey area though, and probably not helped by the word paedophile being widely used nowadays to describe child abusers.  Not all paedophiles are child abusers, and not all child abusers are paedophiles.

[Royal Flush]

I'm about as pinko liberal softie as you could possibly find.