Is this sentence long enough?

[daffy654]

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documen tid=6447777

Is two years each a long enough sentence for these boys? I personally think they should have gotten longer,they'll be out in about a year so will be able to brag to their mates about how they practically got away with murder. Does anyone know what the maximum sentence is for what they did?

[wizard69]

2 years is a disgrace. I know they are only kids (and I certainly wouldnt advocate a life sentence) but for god's sakes...2years?
What a joke

[sarnieken]

No, not by any means is this sentence long enough.
Doing an adult crime should result in adult time.

The sentence normally handed out depends on circumstances depending on pre-meditation, state of mind etc.. Rest assured, it certainly isn't a year!!!!

[Booldawg]

They'll probably be very good at PS3 and Nintendo Wii games when they get released. I can only hope the brevity of what they did will hit them in their 30s, maybe when they are parents themselves and give them the kind of guilt that will guarantee them the lifetime of imprisonment they deserve - in their own minds.

[IggyB]

the family thought justice had been served though so thats something good.

its a difficult one as they had zero intention of killing anyone they were just being nasty yobs, i think prison will be a shock for them and 2 years at that age is a long time - i think it'll act as a deterrent so all in all i think the sentence was about right

[Booldawg]

you'd get more for fiddling your tax bill. The sentence should be based on the implications rather than what 'they thought they were doing'; thats carte blanche for every idiot to run amok.

[brionon]

It's their Parents who should be punished. This would be a deterent to all those who let their kids run wild.

[neo.]

personally I would get a vigilante mob together and beat the scum pieces of sh!t to death. Im sick of these things happening. Every week there seems to be teenage gangs murdering some old person.

legalise vigilante revenge killings I say.

[VillageVicar]

I listened to the original news feature when this sad event occurred. Indeed it was outrageous and profoundly sad. I also was overwhelmed with sadness when I learnt the ages of the assailants.

My �emotional side� feels the sorrow, pain, and suffering of the family who lost a husband and father. And I hurt deeply for the child who will never have his father again.

My �reasoning side� listened to the horrific events and thought of the young assailants. One was ten years old � barely at the age of reasoning. I tried to imagine how had those children�s parents raised them. And I thought of the ten year old, having been subjected to video games that treat death and dismemberment with comic disregard. I thought to myself, �what would the courts do with these children?�

With the ten year old particularly in mind (who is now twelve) I feel the two year sentence is appropriate. It allows sufficient base time for the boy to not only understand the concept of accountability, but it also allows our corrective system to implement important psychological and societal programmes, in the hopes of salvaging this young life. Regardless of what they do, the child�s life -just as with the family he affected, will never be the same. But perhaps the child�s life can be saved.

Continued:

[VillageVicar]

Part 2

Our judicial system is built upon three principles: Punishment, Accountability, and Rehabilitation. The impact of the sentence, in a child�s eyes, will seem like a lifetime. Being removed from the nurturing (hopefully) formative years of his family, will certainly stand as punishment. The wife of the deceased victim has stated that she is satisfied with the sentence. I see this as she feels the assailants have been held to account. And I have no doubt she has agonised and thought about what would she have wanted if it were her own children who committed this heinous crime. The rehabilitation will (hopefully) be started in such a way to impress upon the child the consequences of his actions. And this will serve as the guideposts towards his future development. In some ways, that child may end up being the model citizen we long for every time we see gangs in our communities.

If the sentence were longer, I�m afraid all that would happen is that we would create a dependency in that child, where as a teen and young adult, he will lose the tools and opportunities to become productive in society � instead, relying on society (us) to feed, clothe and house him. That too could become another crime against society, as we become the owners of that child�s life.

Every facet of this story is tragic. There is no nice ending for anyone. Perhaps it will serve as a wake-up call for some whose children are standing at the precipice themselves.

Fr Bill

[Kleiber]

No - it's not enough.

[Theland]

It is cases like this, that are the culmination of our collective refusal to punish effectively when young kids step out of line.
Yes, I am talking about bringing back corporal punishment, and allowing the police to give a, "clip around the ear," when necessary.
Why should we just hope that parents will get the message, when so many of them can't or won't address anti-social behaviour?
Schools didn't have nearly so many problems when there was corporal punishment.

[Kleiber]

I totally agree, Theland!

[aims1202]

It is tragic and so sad for the family of that man.
But i do not think that children should be locked up at all. Children who come from secure, loving and happy homes do not behave in this way. Putting them is prison will more than likely make these children even more angry and have even less self worth than they have now and could result in them doing even worse things when they get out and in their adult life. There are a lot of adults in prison who were first locked up as children. I do think there should be consequences for them for what they did but what they really need is people to help them to change.

[Booldawg]

I'm not sure if this 'blame the parents' ethos is ever correct; what parent brings their child up to beleive that chucking bricks at someone is ever right? I cant see that as ever being 'so'

[aims1202]

I agree, we should not blame the parents but instead help the whole family. Things must have gone wrong somewhere in these families for whatever reasons and they should all be helped and supported in order to change the childrens behaviour. The ideal would be support and help for the parents when the children are very young to help prevent this from happening in the first place.

[sambro]

Children who commit adult crime, are still children. They do some stupid, dangerous things sometimes, particularly when egged on by their peers. Where do you draw the line between treating children as children or as adults? Yes they have to be punished, but how aware were they of the consequences of their actions at the time? I do not agree totally with the person who said that children from good loving homes do not do this sort of thing. Sometimes a child from a good stable family background with two loving parents, living in a nice area, not abused or deprived in any way, can succumb to peer pressure. This happened to my son. His bad behaviour started at secondary school and continued right up until the age of 18. That was when we decided that if he was going to continue with his bad behavior he was going to suffer the consequences of his actions. he was arrested for stealing some computers. He said he needed the money to pay debts for cannabis. i know we were naive but we did not know he was smoking cannabis. He certainly did not do this at home. Cutting a long story short, we refused to let him be bailed to our address. He was kept in custody overnight and the next day was sent to a bail hostel. it was an awful place full of all sorts of low life. We went to see him quite often as it was not far away from where we lived. he used to say to me "Mum, I am not like these people in here". I said " But you are, otherwise you would not be here". We used to come home and cry about seeing him in this situation. It was the hardest thing we have ever had to do, refusing him bail, but it turned out to be the best thing we could have done for him. he had to stay there for 12 months. But he has behaved himself since then. That was nine years ago.

[sambro]

Unless your child has done something very, very bad, it is impossible to get any help. When my son first started behaving badly, we were not soft on him. He was grounded. His spending money was stopped. He did not go on one school pleasure trip at secondary school because he was always on "punishment" for some misdemeanour. That was our decision, not the schools.
when I caught him stealing from my purse. I took him to the police station and sked them to give him a good talking to without my being in the room with him. It frightened him for a while, but he soon went back to his old ways. He had some counselling for one term at school with a visiting counsellor. And he seemed to be doing well. But because of budget constraints the school stopped having the counselling.
I contacted social services to see if we could get any help.
His behaviour was not deemed bad enough to warrant it so the answer was no!
I asked the teachers at his school to tell me where we were going wrong. They could not. I asked social services to tell me were we were going wrong. They either could not , or couldn't be bothered.
Of course we know now that the cannabis was most probably the reason for his behaviour.It changed his personality. He changed from being a nice friendly. lovable boy, into this monster, who could not see what all the fuss was about . He couldn't give two hoots for anyone other than his "mates".
If we knew then what we know now! If social services had been there for us then! It was a nightmare.
So please do not be so quick to blame the parents. Of course there are bad ones that let their kids run riot. But sometimes, The parents are doing the best they can in many cases. But sometimes their best is not enough.
Dont underestimate the power of peer pressure And cannabis. It makes my blood boil when I hear peoplw say it is harmless. It is NOT!!!

[aims1202]

I am sorry if it was me who you thought was blaming the parents. I was not at all. I do not think it is always their fault when their children behave badly. What i was saying was that these children and others who behave in a serious violent way and end up killing someone when they are so young have more than likely not had a happy, loving home. Their parents may or may not have loved them but if they did then the children probably did not feel loved or liked by them. I think even those parents who do love their children and want the best for them are not always able to know how to deal with the things they do, even at a young age. As a teenager myself i got into drugs, smoked cannabis a lot as well as other things. I know now as adult that my mum loved me and tried her best but she did not always handle things right and we argued a lot. I had low self esteem and felt unloved. I was never violent towards anyone but i did steal. I changed as i got older and my relationship with my mum got much better. She had always stuck by me and loved me no matter what. But this sort of thing is not the same as what these children did. For a 10 yr old to be so violent it is very unlikely that he has had a stable upbringing. I dont blame the parents but i do think they should be helped and supported, ideally before things like this happen and while the children are still very young.