[jaysay]

Originally Posted by gynn

Of course Huntley is the lowest of the low and deserves all the outpouring of hatred and vitriol that this claim for compensation that has provoked.

There is, however, an important point of principle involved here, and we have to put aside our emotional abhorrence for a moment to see it.

This is a civilised, democratic country, which deals with its wrongdoers by means of courts listening to the evidence and giving an appropriate punishment. In this case, Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment, nothing more and nothing less. He wasn't sentenced to have his throat cut and he wasn't sentenced to having boiling water poured over him. Those were themselves criminal acts which the prison service, through its negligence, permitted to take place. In any civilised society, the prison service must be accountable, and Huntley's compensation claim is part of that process. If he wins, then the prison service has been shown to be negligent and must take the necessary steps to ensure it doen't happen again. Any financial settlement should not favour Huntley, but that could easily be solved by paying the money over to his victims' families.

Of course Huntley doesn't deserve such considered treatment, but it is the UK prison system we are talking about, not any individual.

Just a thought. If it had been Stefan Kiszko we were talking about, who spent 16 years in prison for a child murder he couldn't possibly have committed, would we feel as enraged?

A democratic country when it suites, No Government will give the people a referendum on the return of capital punishment because they know they would lose big time