Political Crossfire Forums

DSwain · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 3552

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/6076112.stm

Arguably, this woman will be serving a sentence for the remainder of her life. And yet - a three year community supervision order? For murder? For wilfully misleading the police? As pointless as I know it would be re this tragedy, a custodial sentence of some length should have been handed down.

thundertaker · Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:21 pm Post subject:

She wasn't convicted of murder though. She was mentally ill at the time, she needs help more than anything else........

Boneman · Joined: 24 Feb 2006 Posts: 511

If shes that mentally ill she needs locking up, for the saftey of the rest of us if not anything else.

DSwain · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 3552

thundertaker wrote: She wasn't convicted of murder though. She was mentally ill at the time, she needs help more than anything else........

Not that mentally disturbed that she wasn't able to set up a convoluted and rather elaborate cover story for her crime, which she maintained for some months, fooling the police; shame that she didn't direct all that calculation to getting the baby adopted. I just think that there is rather more to this woman than being 'ill'

Spitfire · Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Posts: 96 Location: Manchester

I used to work on a womans ward in a psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately out of the six patients, four were there for the murder of their children. The thing is that ALL of these women killed their children then immediately told someone, either a family member or the police, what they had done. Even though they had a clear history of mental illness and none of them actually stood trial for what they had done as they were seen as being not in control of their actions under MacNaughton Rules. They were all 'sentenced' to compulsory treatment within a psychiatric hospital for an undetermined time.

I find this case pretty disturbing. From the method she chose to kill her child (most women kill their children through drowning or suffocation), the way she determinately covered up what she had done and the extremely lenient sentence. I agree with DSwain - she can't have been THAT mentally disordered to mislead the police in the way and for the amount of time that she did. Granted, if she is mentally ill then prison is not the place for her, she needs professional help and support in a psychiatric facility - not community supervision.

Ssushi · Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 5667

Quote: The court heard Wails had started the fire in the Cowgate area of Newcastle to try to win back the baby's father Robert Gallon, from whom she had split after a series of rows.

There's nothing more attractive in a woman than the tendency to commit arson and murder...

ToonArmyIsComing · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 5888 Location: Ontario

DSwain wrote: thundertaker wrote: She wasn't convicted of murder though. She was mentally ill at the time, she needs help more than anything else........

Not that mentally disturbed that she wasn't able to set up a convoluted and rather elaborate cover story for her crime, which she maintained for some months, fooling the police; shame that she didn't direct all that calculation to getting the baby adopted. I just think that there is rather more to this woman than being 'ill'

Post-partum depression occurs in some women after giving birth, which if left unsupervised could lead to dangerous situations for the baby and/or the mother.

Having said that though, this woman needs intensive treatment for her psychiatric disorder, not a three year community supervision nor a life sentence.

Clarino · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 3173 Location: Oop North

My own mother had post-natal depression after the birth of her first child (my sister). She did not kill her.

Killing a child (whether it is your own or not) should always result in you being permenantly removed from society for the protection of others (whether this is psychaitric incarceration, prison, or hanging is a different debate).