Forum Topic

Bute Murder

Again not a Putney issue, but pondering.  A dreadful and inexplicable crime and so awful for her poor parents and family.  One opinion on the news was the boy should not be named, as it may impede the only reasonable hope we can wish for, that he can/will be eventually rehabilitated (after paying the price for his crime of course).I tend to agree, what is the point in involving the baying mob in such a truly dreadful situation (which I may well be doing now, lol).

Bunny Payne ● 2819d22 Comments

The Mail Online has already published the name and photograph of this child murderer.  I have absolutely no sympathy for him .All I can think of is the beautiful child that he so brutally murdered.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

And who are this “braying mob”, Bunny?  If you mean tax paying, hard working, responsible, law abiding people like me, then I am proud to be called one of this mob.  I wanted the Bute child killer named and I hope they will also name the 17 year old who murdered the teenage girl in Wolverhampton.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

None of us have any sympathy for him Martine. The issue is whether children who commit murder should be named. Personally I don't see the point of naming him - apart from satisfying people's curiosity. It just means that he will have to have another identity when and if he is released. It also means that his family will be subjected to the glare of publicity. It seems that his mother first alerted the Police, so why put them through it too?

Caroline Whitehead ● 2819d

Caroline, Yes I was curious.  I want to see what this disgusting monster looked like.  I hope he is never released from prison.  He had evidently tried to kill another child before and is a psychopath, in my opinion.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

Do you feel any better now you know what he looks like Martine? He looks fairly ordinary to me. I have come accross a few psychopaths in my time and none of them looked particularly out of the ordinary.

Caroline Whitehead ● 2819d

No offence meant Martine.  I have read quite a lot about the Mary Bell murders and also Jamie Bulger.  My interest is in children who murder and why.  I think it's very important to try and understand this, as well as punishing the perpetrators.I guess this is a different thing, as the boy was 16 and apparently had (at some time) drunk alcohol and smoked pot.

Bunny Payne ● 2819d

Do I feel better, Caroline?  No I don’t.  I feel sick at the crime he committed.  I really do not understand why his identity should not be revealed.  Why should he remain anonymous?  I read everyone on Bute knew his identity and it was only a matter of time before it came out.  Why do you care about him and his anonymity?

Martine Guy ● 2819d

Bunny, Can I say I really understand what you mean about Mary Bell, she had a dreadful life.  I feel I should not comment on the Bulger murder, out of respect for the terrible suffering of his parents.I do not understand at all why the Bute murderer should have got anonymity, nor the teenage Wolverhampton murderer.  These young men are not children.  I do not care one jot about the killers,what I see are the innocent faces of the girls that have been brutally murdered. 

Martine Guy ● 2819d

Well I guess that he isn't the only 16 year old who has drunk alcohol and smoked pot! I care about this Martine is because the law protects children who commit crimes from being named unless a Judge rules otherwise. It stems from the belief that, if they are eventually to be rehabilitated, it will make it more problematic if their identity is known. I can't really see why it is "in the public interest" to name them.

Caroline Whitehead ● 2819d

Caroline, I don’t care about his future rehabilitation, that is his problem when he eventually gets released.  He has a future, that beautiful little girl that he savagely raped and murdered on Bute has none.  Really I don’t understand your caring about a 16 year old who has murdered and has tried to murder before.  Really why are you bothered about his anonymity?

Martine Guy ● 2819d

Caroline, I was trying to distinguish, rightly or wrongly, between a teenager taking mind altering substances, or children who apparently were not.  No judgement on either side, just highlighting the difference.Martine, you and we HAVE to care about rehabilitation or at least understanding.  Otherwise we have a pointless judicial system.

Bunny Payne ● 2819d

For me, this is just another sign of how this country has lost it's way. No time or public money should be spent keeping, let alone rehabilitating this piece of scum.The only debate that should now be taking place, is which method should be used to terminate his life.

Mike Harris ● 2819d

Bunny, I do not care, sorry.  The murderer has no rights, he forfeited those when he brutally raped and murdered an innocent child.  He is alive, she isn’t.  I wanted to know who he was and see his face.  I hope he gets 30 years inside minimum.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

So not much difference between Begum's view and here in the UK?  Come on people, isn't it better to learn and work out how these things happen, than to stamp something underfoot?

Bunny Payne ● 2819d

Why should releasing the murderer’s name interfere with learning why this teenager became a murderer?  We have seen the innocent face of the murdered child all over the newspapers and internet, yet you are concerned about the anonymity of a psychopathic murderer.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

@MikeHear hear! 👏🏻

Sue Hammond ● 2819d

Alesha MacPhail, age 6, was raped and murdered by Aaron Campbell, age 16.

Martine Guy ● 2819d

For all the time and money spent on him rehabilitation didn't work on Venables, did it?

Barbara Shillabeer ● 2819d

This case is as blood curdling and horrifying as were the assassination of James Bulger and the Dunblane shooting. Devastating is not a word big enough to describe their effect on me.Should we name the perpetrators?  In my view, with James Bulger's case particularly, was yes and please, lock the Venables and Thompson for life and through the key away.  A similar feeling or reaction is with Aaron Campbell.At the time of James Bulger's case, a very staunch Catholic colleague of mine at work said, why?  You will not bring James back to life if you lock the perpetrators up for ever.  But that is the point, is it not?  Why do we side with the perpetrators and not the victims?But the truth is that the victims will not know, but the relatives of the perpetrators will be "attacked" as if they were the guilty party.So, we have the victims, James Bulger, Alesha MacPaill, their families but also the family of Aaron Campbell, who did not have a clue (at least I hope not) as to what he was capable of.In my view, capital punishment is not the answer.Venables and Thompson were 11 at the time (mind boggles) but Aaron Campbell is 16 and he calculating lied at the trial.  At the age of 16 he can have consensual sex and join the army though not vote yet.  In his case, through out the key please and name him no more but please do celebrate Alesha MacPhail's very short life and let us help her parents endure this tragedy as best as we can.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2819d

No, it did not.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2819d

Though it appoears to have worked for Robert Thompson.

Caroline Whitehead ● 2818d

Martine, I am quite sure you are a tax paying, hard working, responsible, law abiding person. Unfortunately many people aren't, which is why new identities have to be given out when a young person leaves prison, to avoid vengeance from the public. But I guess I do see the point in naming and shaming, if only to give some comfort to the girl's family, if it does?

Bunny Payne ● 2818d