The Gray Monk

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May 27, 2007

The evil in our midst.

This afternoon I opened my email to find one from a very dear friend, one which opens some serious questions. I am posting my reply to hers here, and the original e-mail which was forwarded, with her comments at the end, are in the extended post below. It may help to read them first.

It does encapsulate the evil at the very heart of our society and highlights the terrible dilemma we all face over these sorts of actions, and believe me they are far more common than simply this one. Remember Fred West? Well there are more like him out there and these two boys have just been licensed to carry on in his image - safely in Australia where the Australian public have no idea of the horror living in their midst.

I suppose I have a privileged view of this sort of thing, for one thing I had several years working alongside the police on murders involving fire and many of those were perpetrated by "children", kids under the age of 16. The frightening thing was that they knew exactly what they were doing and could justify themselves in doing it. This is one reason why if Peter Hain tripped and fell in front of me I would kick the living daylights out of him. One can only face so much horror.

Since the Bulger case I have had the privilege of working with three people who were directly involved in it, one a policeman who had to retire after it on stress, the HO Pathologist and the forensic scientist who provided the absolute conclusive proof of what these "boys" had done and how they had done it. All of them have been scarred by it - in fact all three say they had never before, and never since, encountered anything as evil as this. Their word not mine. What was not broadcast was that they had castrated him as well as everything else.

Then there is the matter of Justice. Little Jamie has not had justice and never will have it. What he has had is a media circus and the usual flurry of well-meaning libertarians who have campaigned to "protect" the two offenders from being confronted by their crime. Neither of the two has ever expressed remorse, and when the Psychiatrist who was responsible for the counselling advised the panel of probationary judges of this, he was swiftly removed from post and replaced by someone prepared to "make allowances for their age and 'tragic' background". I am told reliably that several of his colleagues have since refused to work with these boys at all and all have filed reports saying that they are manipulative and devious. None of this is supposed to be public knowledge, but the police are really worried about this and some of those most closely involved are quite openly saying that it is a travesty of justice.

For justice to be done, it must be seen to be done. The way these two murderers have been treated since their conviction has not shown justice at work. They have enjoyed shopping sprees, (reportedly) holidays abroad,the best private education, rather more luxurious accommodation than most prisoners get (or than they would themselves have had at home) and now have degrees and careers ahead of them. Little Jamie Bulger had his future, whatever it was, taken away from him in that single couple of hours spree of evil. During those few hours they cut off his fingers with scissors, rubbed paint into his eyes, forced foreign objects into his anus and castrated him before throwing him onto the railway lines so that a train would, they hoped, destroy the evidence. This is not "little white lie" territory, this is major calculated depravity. And our Justice system has failed to deal with it - continually fails to deal with others like this.

Jamie has not had justice and these two have not yet made any amends or apology for their murder.

The key here is that these two boys knew that they were doing something incredibly evil - but continued, secure in the knowledge that even if they were caught they would still "get away with it". That is the view of the psychiatrist whose report has been suppressed. Why? Who is trying to hide this and what do they hope to achieve by it? This "protection order" allows this pair to continue to get away with it - until one of them commits another crime, something, I am sorry to say, that is inevitable.

Lady Justice Butler-Schloss should be censured for her order, it is not justice that she has served here, but the narrow interests of the entire criminal fraternity and those who think they can "reform" them. She has now created a precedent which will be used to hide other murderers and criminals in our midst.

Like most people, I do have reservations about the death penalty, even though the one thing to be said for it is that it removes permanently any threat of a repeat offence, and it does reduce the murder rates despite the anti-captital punishment lobbies manipulation of the statistics. I have grave reservations about allowing Jamie's killers to live in the community surrounded by unsuspecting families, and I do not believe that they have been "rehabilitated". While I might not be prepared to see them hang, however much they deserve to, I do think they should be kept in detention for the rest of their lives and not allowed to enjoy the benefits they have had as a result of their crime.

I have seldom seen a hardened and very senior Detective cry, but I know one man who did - and he was one of those on the Bulger investigation. My good friend, the forensic scientist, doesn't talk about what he saw and had to handle, but he, one of the mildest and most gentlemanly men I know, has stated that he would be willing to pull the lever and hang both. The Pathologist is equally, though less pointedly, categoric about this case. Evil doesn't actually sum it up adequately.

Those two knew exactly what they were doing. That is what sets them apart in everyone's books. That is why they should not, under any circumstances, be released into the world again. Ever.

Now I know that this is all of it contrary to what my saviour tells me daily. I shall have to make amends for it to him myself when the time comes, but as I said, you can only take so much horror and then you want to rid the world of those who commit it. What prevents me? The knowledge that I would, if I once embarked on such a journey, I would soon be far more evil than they could even imagine. That is the thin line between morality and immorality.

Peace be with you,

Posted by The Gray Monk at May 27, 2007 02:05 PM

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