A judge has come forward and spoken to the press to say that current guidelines for sentencing paedophiles are far too lenient.
Under the current legislation, Judge Ticehurst felt he had no choice but to let a paedophile who had over 2 million child abuse videos, walk free.
The article tells us that the collection of videos was so large officers were unable to categorise them all. Shortly after being bailed, the suspect then went home and downloaded a further 2,231 sexual photos and videos of girls aged 8-16. The suspect told the police that he did not view the girls in the videos as human.
Judge Ticehurst wanted to impose a jail term and a rehabilitation order, but suggested that he could not do both. As a result of national guidelines, he could have imposed a two year sentence, but the convicted paedophile would only have to serve six months – not enough time to complete treatment within a rehabilitation order.
Whilst some might argue that people who wish to look at child pornography should have the right to do so as long as they don’t assault children in the real world, the act of watching what is really child sexual abuse fuels a demand and places children at risk of exploitation in order to satisfy that demand. The law has been put in place to try to address this issue and deter people from watching and downloading images and videos of child abuse. But the law is not working.
Part of the reason why the law is failing to protect children in this context has to do not only with the overly lenient sentences which still exist, mainly because they don’t allow judges the opportunity to imprison convicted paedophiles for terms which protect the public, in this case minors, from visual and physical exploitation, but also because the law is not very effective when used as a deterrent. We know that some paedophiles are not put off by the law, as they continue to download images and videos and also physically assault children in the real world.
There is huge debate over whether paedophilia is a mental illness, and when paedophiles sexually assault children whether they can be cured of their urges. To date, science and psychiatry have not been able to offer any concrete solutions, with controversial ideas like castration and libido reducing drugs being at the forefront of today’s debate on the issue.
The law in this area does need to be looked at, though. At the end of last year we wrote an article for Lexis Nexis about this, looking at sentences for paedophiles both in recent and non recent child abuse cases.
There’s lots of work to do.
Judge David Ticehurst
Researching Reform 
Natasha, the British law as you may well know as always been known as a law for the rich and a law for the poor, plus the fact that the British law is a laughing stock, Kill a kid maybe get 20 years in prison serve a little of the sentence then comes freedom to do it again, no justice, the whole system needs change just look at the Lords the legal teams and MPs in their uniforms from centries ago with their wigs on their heads, what a laugh times have changed and so must the people who run this so called system for justice, and no one knows better then I of the laws of the land, lose nearly half a million only for the man to plead guilty and walk out of court laughing, Barclays Bank it was proven in the court they allowed the faudster to use my ID for more then 10 years, what a joke that was, then we have thousands of families fighting for their kids in care and I was one of them, I could go on and on but there is no justice only for them up there.
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I cant help feeling that it might be better for the community if these paedos are allowed to download photos as it might possibly keep at least some of them from actively molesting young children.The same logic that says that prostitutes are necessary to save women from being raped by men desperate for sex .
Plenty of arguments against I know ;so put me down as undecided…………
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Organised paedophile Networks are now operating worldwide, and Online Child Pornography is now far more lucrative than the drug smuggling and distribution industry. With what other `mental disorder’ do those with the disorder organise themselves so cleverly and gain very large incomes from their behaviours?.
Judges must be given far much greater powers when sentencing paedophiles up to life imprisonment, as they damage and harm they are causing to children is often a life sentence of pain, suffering, and dysfunction.
Furthermore, Criminal Court judges should be given powers to seize the assets of convicted paedophiles, and distribute them among their victims. For many paedophiles, loss of assets will be a far more effective deterrent and disincentive than other punishments.
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Yes but it will also unwittingly open the door to a wave of False allegations. we now live in dangerous times where some people will swear your life away if they think they can make a lot of money out of it.
its a sad fact of life i know but unfortunately its true.
Maybe the police should introduce lie detector tests on suspects and those making the allegations. yes it sounds Laughable but look at the Jeremy Kyle show. most of the people claiming the test was wrong end up admitting they were lying later in the show. the lie detector could be a very useful tool in the fight for truth.
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i would say rehabilitation was the right decision here. i strongly suspect that most of these offenders have some kind of mental illness that drives them towards child porn etc. shurely its better to get to the bottom of why they do this rather than simply continue to build ever more prisons to lock them up for years at huge expense to the tax payer. Prison is not the answer. whats needed is for the Govt to form a think tank of scholars and scientists to come up with innovative ideas that could lead to a solution.
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For the victims of paedophiles, there may never be any rehabilitation or recovery. At best, they survive, and try to hide the scars, but the damage goes too deep for complete obliteration.
Perhaps we should let the punishment fit the crime; let the perpetrator take full responsibility for the evil they have done and stop making excuses for them.
In my wilder flights of fantasy I imagine they could be shipped to an uninhabited island and marooned there with fresh water and nothing else; their minds would be so fully occupied in trying to survive there would be little or no time for sexual diversions or deviations.
The misery these misfits cause is out of all proportion to the worst penalty that can be imposed by law. It is possible we may never find, or agree a solution, since we know that this kind of foul behaviour has been extant throughout the ages. It’s not new and has been practised by people of all degrees – from the most exalted – to the lowest of lowlife, but that does not excuse the practitioners. They deserve all the law can throw at them.
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Thats all very well and good but its an old paradigm that will not address the problem of other paedophiles continuing to abuse children in the future. solutions have to be found to prevent it happening rather than wait for an offence to happen then lock up the perpetrator. that doesnt help the victims does it.
Simply throwing offenders in jail and forgetting about them wont solve anything. Research needs to be done on why these people do what they do. prevention is better than the cure.
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Reblogged this on Musings of a Penpusher.
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Sounds all very commendable. BUT it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Paedophiles network in prison, the therapists fail to manage WHY they offended before they are released; . Mental illness – that depends how you see that term ? Well all abusers have suffered some kind of abuse or brokenness which creates harm to the young developing brain and broken neural pathways causing distorted thinking and behavioural patterns. BEHAVIOURS which are negative AND inappropriate can be seen in the early years and currently go unaddressed .
the agony suffered by those impacted by abuse is horrific and the punishment should fit the crime, BUT where ? As I say the grooming and abuse continues behind bars!!
These people are expert manipulators even to the extent they will groom prison officers and counsellors and other prisoners. There needs far greater input into personality disorders before any release should be considered. Risk assessment needs to be re assessed with what we hopefully have learnt
Is an alcoholic ever CURED?? Strategies are put in place but the addiction exists even if not practised, it is managed. It could be said A PAEDOPHILE IS FOREVER A RISK
Negative behaviours in childhood MUST be better understood and addressed in the early years. We must start to think the worst ! Neural pathways with correct therapy can be rebuilt.
This crime has been around for centuries and is part of the human condition sadly. BUT we can do a better job with a different extended view of radical education instead of reworking what is broken !
Open eyes minds and ears would go some at instead of sticking with what has not worked for decades. BUT that takes courage and an appetite to look deeply into the ISSUES .
Enough Abuse uk HAS DONE so FOR 14 YEARS AND EVEN IN 2017 DOORS ARE CLOSED TO THE DEBATE. People just don’t want to know and wish to make it someone else’s job rather than LEARN HOW TO PREVENT harm which is what we do at EAUK
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