What is Britain coming to?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.guardian.c...er-life-sentence-comb

Here we have yet another teenage killing, this time we see a 15 year old girl brutally kill a 16 year old girl with ' A HAIR COMB' which we are told are now a 'fashion accessories'?????????????

This murder was simply over a text message and boys, and now yet another two young lives have been destroyed, one forever, and the other will have this young death hanging over her for all her life.

/// Julie's family had moved to Britain in 2006 from Sierra Leone, where her father, Raouf, was a policeman. ///

/// He told the court in a statement: "I am left to wonder why I brought her here and if I hadn't, she would still be alive. ///

Is this the face of 2012 Britain, that we wish to show the rest of the World?

[Mick-Talbot]

should I read the link or have you hilighted the most relevant facts from the link in your OP ?

[emmie]

from their website

The European Union holds a strong and principled position against the death penalty; its abolition is a key objective for the Union’s human rights policy. Abolition is, of course, also a pre-condition for entry into the Union.

[NOX]

When I was a lad the weapon of choice if you didn't want to risk 'carrying' was to take a newspaper, spread it out and roll it horizontally then twist it in the centre- hard as a baseball bat and responsible for many nasty happenings- anything with a bit of imagination is a deadly weapon and combs are certainly nothing new.

[emmie]

perhaps the point is how many very young people are being killed, by other very young people. Guns, knives, and deadly combs, it's bizarre. As to the fact the girl will do a minimum of 10 years, that seems laughable.

[hc4361]

Abolition of the death penalty had nothing to do with the EU. Labour pushed for it in 1965 and it was voted on in 1969.
A person found guilty of treason could be hanged to death until 1998, when Britain ratified a part of European Commission of Human Rights.

[hc4361]

em, I have already mention Mary Bell.

[emmie]

the girl in the link, the one who killed the other young girl. 10 years minimum, for murder, a joke.

[ChuckFickens]

The death penalty issue often makes me laugh. it's normally the same people that call other countries barbaric for killing criminals that throw their arms up and say the death penalty should be brought back a few day later.

I wish they could make their minds up about if it's barbaric or not.

[emmie]

i wasn't advocating to bring back capital punishment, but the sentences given seem to be often absurd. you kill someone, in anger, in a robbery, and the likelihood is you get a relatively short prison sentence.

[FredPuli43]

Had the girl found guilty been an adult , the sentence would be a minimum of twenty years, not ten. That's how the law works, it seems.

[FredPuli43]

Incidentally, the Prevention of Crime Act was passed because people were using everyday objects as weapons, or adapting them for that purpose, and carrying them to use as such in assaults and fights. Metal combs, bicycle chains and all manner of other objects were being carried as weapons. And when was that mischief to whch the Act was directed? 1953. That sort of thing has been going on for at least some 60 years.

[emmie]

that may be so, but how does the law equate the savage murder of a young girl, to a minimum of 10 years for the murderer. It's like saying life has no meaning at all. Derisory sentences, maybe we don't need the death penalty back, but sentences that take into consideration of the true nature of the crime.

[hc4361]

She has been sentenced to life and must serve a MINIMUM of 10 years - it could be much longer.

[jake-the-peg]

She's received a life sentence but "only" 10 years minimum.

There will have been a number of reasons for this principally her age - she is only 16

Second it was a rage offense and we generally reserve harsher punishments for murders carefully planned before hand

Thirdly her background apparently she'd had a difficult violent upbringing.

Before anbody gets all self-righteous and points to lots of law abiding citizens that have also had difficult upbringing's that's not an excuse but it's easier to become a well balanced individual if you've had a comfortable upbringing in a leafy suburb than if you've been beaten and ignored half your life.

There may well be other factors two - but the fact that she was 16 was probably the major one

[FredPuli43]

The law distinguishes between adults and juvenile offenders,em10. That's why we didn't hang a juvenile but did hang his adult co-accused. This thinking pervades our law; we have juvenile courts, it's why rehabilitation of offender periods are less, why the minimum sentence, if set, for firearms offences are less and so on. Those are statutory provisions. If you would have hanged a juvenile, that's fine, but the law's logic is that juveniles should not be exposed to full adult penalties or disposal, because they are young.

And it is a minimum term, em10. We use different words for the mandatory life sentence for a juvenile but in terms of time and release it equates to an adult life sentence, but it is initially served in an institution for young offenders. She will not be released for at least ten years. She could be detained longer.

[anotheoldgit]

"Please don't shoot the messenger"

Amazing, absolutely bl**dy amazing, here we witness yet another savage and heinous murder of a young 16 year old girl by a younger 15 year old girl, and do we see anyone except em10 address the reasons why we should all be concerned.

We have had the usual trip back into the annuals of history, with examples of murders committed in Victorian times to the 50s and 60s, and the different weapons used.

Is it any wonder why these increasing juvenile murders no longer reach the headlines? In fact we all know of such murderers as Christie, even though some were not around at the time, but how many remember the names of these young murderers even a few minutes after reading of these murders?

Did anyone also note that I used a Guardian link instead of a Daily Mail one, so that the 'Mail Bashers' could not also get their pennies worth in?

[hc4361]

Mary Bell served 12 years for the murder of two boys in the 1960s. This sentence seems no more nor no less lenient.

[maggiebee]

//annuals of history//
Surely should be annals of history? Steel tail combs were often used as weapons in the 60s, most girls with "beehive" hairstyles used them and their boyfriends used them for a different purpose. Gang culture abounded in most large cities in the 60s whether you were part of them or not. Here in Dundee, the area you lived in could be identified by the "colours" of the jumpers you wore and many a little wee lady made money from knitting them to order - Kirkton Huns, Fintry Shams, Young Mary Boys, Lochee Fleet amongst many. Mostly bravado and my daughter was most upset when I wouldn't let her wear our local "colours".
I don't condone violence now any more than I did then, but sadly things haven't changed very much, probably just reported more and the ages seem to be dropping.

[anotheoldgit]

maggiebee

Was there any need to point out my typo mistake?

But then any diversion from the subject matter is used by some to dilute the seriousness of these (yes let's stop 'beating round the bush', 'treading on broken glass' etc, etc.) 'black on black' killings, that no one can deny is a 21st century problem.

Were there an escalation of such crimes in the past, 'NO' and it is not because these days we hear more about them, as some would have us believe.

We actually had TV, Radios and Newspapers in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s,you know.

[hc4361]

Plenty of white on white killings and rapes though.