h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Man who raped a 13 month old baby originally got 5 years, now hes got 8 years. Still not enough.

Okay the girl was in fact between 13 months and 5 years, but still not enough.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3686236.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1278507,00.html

No, it isn't enough, Kaz.

Gut reaction says to me - I want him dead! But of course we can't say that sort of thing, can we?


az

I think we can say it here though.

It would have been better if he had never existed.

Yeah, but they do exist, unfortuately.

Frankly, anyone who would rape a baby (imho) has already forfeited any human rights to exist in society as we know it.

And I honestly don't believe they have the right to exist anymore. But I admit that is a very emotional feeling on my part.

What? They should be given therapy? A chance to come back into society? And do what - suddenly become an upstanding member of society?

What about that baby they raped? That innocent life they have destroyed?

Statistics show that paedophiles do not respond to therapy and usually go back to their old habits once released from prison.

I really cannot say much on this topic without becoming too emotional.

az

Yes....

The nice thing about being a pagan is that I have no sense of forgiveness.

My more proactive mind has turned to the subject of Wood-chippers and the words 'feeding' and 'slowly'.

There again we druids do have our wicker man to fall back on

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

>Gut reaction says to me - I want him dead!

And that achieves what? A deterrent to others? The sort of person prepared to do that sort of thing is hardly likely to be dissuaded by example.

That's disgusting.

Of course I don't want him dead, yet - what I would like, is for that to have never have happened.

I would like to see him handed over to medical science to be studied and forfeited his human rights like he forfeited that little girls rights and destroyed her innocence. She may forget, I hope she does.

He should be pulled apart in whatever way it takes - to find out, for the good of others, why his mentality made him do such a thing. Perhaps it might help us eradicate that from our gene pool, or perhaps help us to stop that kind of mentality developing and be able to recognise that danger in children before they are grown adults.

There are all kinds of moral issues for the above paragraph, but for that kind of sexual mentality, I am swayed to think that perhaps we should do something extreme to get rid of this behavoir once and for all.

It could be argued that in *nature* this happens all the time. Ok, it does - there are also many cases of incest in nature. But for us, altho we are animals we are also very aware and for that to be any kind of excuse is not acceptable.

In short those years in prison are not enough.

But, how do we keep him out of society and also be of any use?

There are not enough prisons for all the bad people in the world and not enough money to keep them there if there was.



Perhaps people should be vetted more thoroughly before they have children?

That is also a very controversial issue, but to fix problems such as these, you have to find out when it starts and why there are so many that do this, and take perverse pleasure from it.

Was this guy abused as a child, or was sexual as a child early on and still fancies kids into his adult life...all those kind of questions.



Predicting this type of behavoir is not easy. I only wish it were.

KerrAvon

I am a survivor of incest and some of the people who reply in my journal are also survivors of abuse. All those who reply here, know of this and we all understand that our reactions are coloured by our experiences. It is a safe place for us to feel revenge and anger, as it is a place where no-one will judge us for this. It is also a necessary outlet for us, headlines like this trigger memories and fear, we need to have our safe place to speak, and this is one of them.

I hope that explains anything which you needed to have explained.

I don't support the death penalty. I have no problem with castration chemical or surgical. I don't see why it isn't used more liberally in extreme cases.

Maybe i am incredibly dim or unimaginative in regard to sexual stuff. I somehow doubt it. But i just cannot see how it is actually physically possible for a grown male to rape a baby without the baby actually being so injured in the process as to be killed. Even if she somehow survived the internal damage, there would surely be massive trauma & surely the mother, or "carer" would start screaming for help?

I am "lucky"; i was "only" physically abused, not sexually, but i have been closely involved with a (male, it's not solely a female thing) victim of childhood rape & the main problem he has been left with is "WHY didn't my mother DO something?"

As for the "person"(???) who actually did this, i just cannot comprehend; no matter how hard i try. Older children, yes, i can understand that they might, to a certain type of person, be seen as some kind of target sexually but a baby???? Oh, come on, there are limits surely even within the evil world of paedophilia? What next, "let's shag the guinea pig"?

zdt

Unfortunately this sort of thing is not rare.

Babies are horrifically scarred and damaged internally.

Did you see the pic of Prince Harry holding that 11-month-old baby? She had been raped by her mother's boyfriend.

You don't have to take a test to become a parent, and it's not usually the parent who does this kind of thing, but an opportunist babysitter.
There's a fine line between being a protective mother and wanting time off to just be yourself.
Who do you leave the baby with?
Some kind soul who offers?
Someone qualified but you have to pay?

Roll the dice...

I recall a case where a 5-year-old was raped by the 21-year-old lodger (Mum, Dad & half-brother aged 18 went to the pub)
Upon return, the two men held the lodger down and Mum poured a boiling kettle over his private parts.

Outcome:
Mum, Dad & half-brother in court for GBH.

Little girl taken into care as parents in jail.

I was so disgusted by the case that I wrote to the Queen.

A couple of days later the family's Solicitor read out a report on tv that the case had been dropped and no charges pressed.
The family had been reunited.

Never underestimate the power of the pen, you don't need to change laws or think bad thoughts about perpetrators.

I know that little girl will be a woman now and I often think of her - I hope she has no memory of the event but rebuilt her life with the love and guidance of her parents and extended family.

It's a crying shame that you trust others and sometimes the trust is violated, but by then it's too late.

Raping a baby causes great physical harm.
It often results in bledding to death deathfrom the destruction of the bowel, organs and other tissues.

Just about anything else would be kinder...

Good you wote that letter GB

Yes GB, it was a great thing to do.

Hi people. A very emotional subject for me as well.

What's worse than this sort of thing happening ... if not people actually being told there's nothing wrong with it, and *encouraged* to do it??

Here in South Africa I guess we have a pretty bad level of 'baby rapes'. The babies are of course grievously injured in most cases and sometimes die. Why do people do such things? Well I can give you *one* reason.

Here in South Africa we have a very high level of AIDS. There is a huge stigma about the disease. Also there's an *extremely* high level of ignorance about the disease. Incredibly this even includes our president, Thabo Mbeki, who has on many occasions disputed the fact that AIDS comes from a virus, and that it is transmitted through irresponsible sexual activity! Also instead of proper medications, he and others all support various 'alternative' methods of 'curing' AIDS or protecting oneself from infection. Some of the more 'innoccuous' methods include diets such as ones featuring lots of garlic. These might not actually help, but at least they don't harm.

But there are also more 'nocuous' methods encouraged. BE SURE: our president is NOT one of those who encourage this particular method. But some traditional healers (certainly not all, though!), or quacks, or rumour-mongers, or whatever, *are* encouraging it. They say that AIDS can be cured or prevented by having sex with a 'virgin'. And the best chance of finding a 'virgin' is to find a child young enough to have, probably, not had any sexual encounters yet. Of course this whole bit *increases* the number of sexual encounters children have which means it becomes harder and harder to find a 'virgin' which means that the chosen 'partners' are becoming younger and younger. Until, finally, you have rapes of children even under the age of two.

If that's not bad enough, there's more.

How about poverty? How about parents renting out their children as prostitutes because that's pretty much the only way to get an income? Again, child prostitutes here in South Africa sometimes include very young children. There was a case of a couple of girls of about two years of age were taught by their parents how to give oral sex.

There are people who defend child prostitution on the grounds that eliminating it will take away many families' and young people's source of income.

There's also the question of the 'market'. If there's a supply, there will be a demand, or does the supply *cause* or otherwise boost the demand, or does the demand *cause* the supply? Or, the supply *legitimizing* the demand ... or the demand *legitimizing* the supply... '... if so many people want this, then maybe it's OK for us to give them what they want' ... or 'if so many people are offering this, then maybe it's OK for us to take up this offer of theirs'...

Supply and demand often works both ways. In this case it is totally heartbreaking.

I personally put a lot of the blame on so-called Christian missionaries working in Africa who are telling people that condoms do not help in the prevention of AIDS.

I mean, logically, having sex with a virgin means you are at less risk of getting AIDS, but only once. After this poor child has been used she will be used by others, then the AIDS risk is there.

How do people actually get to the point that sex is so important to them that they will rape babies?

And how about poverty? My heart aches for those kids that get sold off. And I'm sorry, I have no pity for the parents. I would rather starve than ever do this to a child of mine. Poverty is *not* an excuse. Ever.

What is needed is education. Proper education. So that people actually understand how the AIDS virus is transmitted and can then take steps to get it under control.

<>

I spit on all those people.

Better to be dead.


az

Hi azahar!

I look at this situation and it seems like society itself, civilisation itself, is coming apart at the seams. I sit here in South Africa and despair for my country, and then I hear about these sort of things happening in other places as well, and I despair for the whole world.

Whatever happened to humanity, kindness, compassion, consideration, responsibility?

hi Willem,

It seems that profit is more important.

It also seems that Africa remains the 'dark continent' in terms of global understanding of what that whole place is all about.

I have a friend working in the Sudan for the UN at the moment; previously he had worked in Cairo helping refugees from the various African wars.

All of his stories filled me with horror.

<>

It is still there. It is always there, even though we have to fight against those that say these things don't matter.

I think that every act of basic humanity and kindness has a huge impact and works against all the other stuff, because it gives us hope. And when we have hope, there is nothing we can't do.

Well, maybe not really, but it gives us the strength to keep trying.


az

<<>>



That's all we can do. Writing that letter, giving our last pennies to a beggar, cooking a meal & sharing it with a friend who has even less than you do; whatever. All we can do is try & redress the balance a bit. The fact that was maybe done to us BUT we have survived with decent feelings intact, even though we may be scarred in many ways, IS hope.

to all concerned. Keep on keeping on.



Terri