David McGreavy: triple child killer cleared for release

The current trend of believing that people can never rehabilitate is pretty bad too.

He's got a 45 year gap in his CV and a really bad rep. He's unemployable. He won't have a social network to fall back on. He's probably written out of his parents' wills. He'll probably get beaten up by vigilantes every so often. Might be blocked from using online services (if he even knows how to operate a computer) due to the nature of his crimes. Not sure about pensions but he might have a few years before he's eligible.

I bet he will turn back to crime, not only because he can't be right in the head but because he surely doesn't have another option.

Wouldn't it be kinder for everyone involved to just keep him in jail?

The current trend of believing that people can never rehabilitate is pretty bad too.

I'd say it's the opposite tbh.If you can murder 3 children and stick their bodies on spikes then you are unlikely to be able to be rehabilitated.Humans don't change that much.

They should bring back execution for people like this - then they wouldnt have to waste money on housing, feeding, looking after them etc as they obviously will go back to crime after prison

Capital punishment, if used with the flimsiest pretense of human decency, requires so much expense in legal fees and additional security measures and personnel that it's cheaper to lock the person up for life.

And since when do we put money over human lives, anyway?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-46437471
This honestly disgusts me so much; someone who has murdered children is clearly not right in the head.

People say that, but that's calibrated on the US model of big showy trials and appeals on top of appeals at the state and federal level. There is nothing to say it would be the case in an English model.

If you, as a government, are going to pretend that what you're doing is right, you have to allow multiple appeals. An innocent person shouldn't be executed on the basis of a single trial or even two trials that find them guilty. I don't know about ''big showy'' trials, but you have to invest enough resources to be absolutely sure that the law has not gone astray. We could compromise on that and have a cheaper capital punishment justice system that found more innocent people guilty and executed them with less expense. I'll extend you the benefit of the doubt and assume you wouldn't be in favour of that.

Personally I'm against capital punishment in any form, because I consider it unacceptable if the government executes even a single innocent person.

The current trend of believing that people can never rehabilitate is pretty bad too.

People say that, but that's calibrated on the US model of big showy trials and appeals on top of appeals at the state and federal level. There is nothing to say it would be the case in an English model.


He might not be, but you don't know the support he has been given -- over 45 years -- by shrinks and others to manage his demons. It might have helped him behave and think in a near-normal fashion.

And that's why you're not in charge of the parole board.

Oh that poor mother.
She's already undergone over four decades of the most terrible suffering possible, I can't imagine what she's going through now.
Baby daughter battered to death, four year old son strangled and two year old daughter's throat slit open.
All three children murdered in their own home and either mutilated after death or left to die in agony impaled to a spike.

Another shameful and catastrophic sentencing decision from the parole board.

Three murder convictions, the sentence served seems to equate a life sentence for murder with 15 years x 3.
Bereaved mother "begged" for the child murder who stole her children's lives and devastated hers to remain locked up for life and is ignored.

The Monster of Worcester makes known that he prefers parole to being a convicted murderer incarcerated for life, parole board appease him.
Truly astounding.

Horrifying events and absolutely dire for the credibility of British justice.

The media have developed an unhealthy habit of tapping into 'controversial releases' for a story and that is bad news for the justice system, we end up with people like Warboys being dragged into the public arena to feed the 'public outcry' and therefore being dispensed 'popular justice' instead of what it should be. He never stood a chance at his last hearing, the pannel terrified at the prospect of the populace camped outside for his head. This is not the way the justice system is supposed to work, the question is whether this is how the people want it to be like.