Man Charged with Lighting Fires that Killed 21 in Victoria

[Jaythulhu]

My biggest issue is that public money and police officers are being used to hide him away in a secret location. The accused should not be getting any kind of special treatment, he should be held in a lockup, solitary confinement if necessary, until his first committal hearing. The use of police officers who could be doing far better work assisting the victims of his alleged crimes is, in my opinion, wrong.

I don't particularly care if someone knifes him in prison after he's convicted (if it's proven that he did in fact light the fires), but damned if he should be given a special hiding place under 24/7 guard outside of a jail.

 

[MrLefty]

Yay for lynch mobs!

Boo for the presumption of innocence!

Yay for prison guards turning a blind eye to accused people being assaulted in custody!

Boo for fair trials!

Yay for publishing suspects names online and making it less likely they'll get a fair trial!

Boo for defence lawyers insisting on a person's right to a fair trial.

 

[tsmi1983]

"You think child porn is proof of being an arsonist?! It is generally accepted he is guilty of viewing child porn but i don't personally see the link between that and lighting a fire do you? No of course you don't because there isn't one!"

My understanding is that he must've confessed to lighting the fires...he was picked up i believe taken in for questioning and then on friday he had a court hearing, where they said he was mentally unstable..then from what i had read on monday he will be sentenced.
I have been advised that you generally don't get charged with something especially without proof unless you have confessed...and this man was charged with 3 things, one count of arson causing death, one count of intentionally lighting a bushfire and one count of child pornography...

 

[Booze Zombie]

Don't get me wrong, I am damn glad they've caught one of the son of a bitches responsible for these horrific crimes, but I'm equally disgusted that he's being given special treatment and round the clock police protection. I don't really want to rile people or preach mob mentality, but these have been events that have affected the nation and when the criminal is given greater rights than the victims, enough is enough. Where does it end?

Tell me, how is this criminal been given greater rights than anyone else? If someone is under threat of death, they normally get protected, be it witness or villain, they get the same treatment, just for different reasons.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Tell me, how is this criminal been given greater rights than anyone else? If someone is under threat of death, they normally get protected, be it witness or villain, they get the same treatment, just for different reasons.

I'll put it to you this way: One of my home state's worst pedophiles, after being released from prison from one conviction and waiting a trial for new charges was held in solitary confinement in the prison he was released from. He wasn't given a secret hiding place and police minders.

I fail to see how this alleged arsonist deserves better than a pedophile facing over a hundred charges of child rape. As I said in my last post, he should be put into a solitary confinement cell and left there until his trial date, not kept under police guard in some secret location out in the community.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I fail to see how this alleged arsonist deserves better than a pedophile facing over a hundred charges of child rape. As I said in my last post, he should be put into a solitary confinement cell and left there until his trial date, not kept under police guard in some secret location out in the community.

300 or so people died in that fire, right? That's a lot of angry relatives... which might just make a big angry mob, and hey... someone in a jail might just know someone who died in that fire, right?

The law is about justice, not about letting angry people murder someone before it's even decided if he's guilty or not.

No matter your view on justice, I don't think it's too hard to understand that you have to make sure someone has actually done something worthy of punishment before they are punished.

 

[Maze1125]

Tell me, how is this criminal been given greater rights than anyone else? If someone is under threat of death, they normally get protected, be it witness or villain, they get the same treatment, just for different reasons.

I'll put it to you this way: One of my home state's worst pedophiles, after being released from prison from one conviction and waiting a trial for new charges was held in solitary confinement in the prison he was released from. He wasn't given a secret hiding place and police minders.

I fail to see how this alleged arsonist deserves better than a pedophile facing over a hundred charges of child rape. As I said in my last post, he should be put into a solitary confinement cell and left there until his trial date, not kept under police guard in some secret location out in the community.

Wait wait wait.
You can't see how directly raping 100 children, and being found guilty of at least some of them, is worse than indirectly killing 21 people and viewing some child pornography, of which he hasn't been found guilty of yet?

And, anyway, ignoring the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing, which you all obviously think is a load of crock, if he was left unguarded someone might break in and kill him. Now, as we're assuming his guilty, that wouldn't be a bad thing but that person who killed him would now have to be arrested for murder, which would leave a 'good' person in jail. Equally, unless they just left him on the street, he would still be in a holding cell somewhere, and letting his location be known could well result in a riot at that location not only endangering his life but the lives of the police officers there.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

I'm imagining what will happen, parts of me want to vomit other parts want to laugh. Months of savage, savage beatings while he serves life in prison, with only 1 hour of outside time every day, which is taken up with the beatings. It seems as close as justice as that **** deserves, may he rot in hell. (If it was intentional, though he did still have child porn so fuck him (not literally))

Oh and he's been blamed for the deaths the fire he started caused, those people may have died anyway but he still deserves hell for speeding up the process, and having child porn. I have jumped to conclusions but he did cause deaths, and he did have child porn which he deserves to suffer for. I'm uncomfortable saying that but you can't act like that and expect a reassuring hug and probation.

 

[recalcitrance]

Death sentence or life imprisonment.

If you KILL

You don't deserve to LIVE.

And so using that logic if our justice system kills it too doesn't deserve to survive.
That's how I see it; the death penalty should not be enforced for any crime. He should have a trial just as every other accused person and he should be protected as every other citizen is before this time.
It disturbs me that people seem willing to abandon morality so they can kick this guy in the face along with the rest of the crowd.

 

[recalcitrance]

Yay for lynch mobs!

Boo for the presumption of innocence!

Yay for prison guards turning a blind eye to accused people being assaulted in custody!

Boo for fair trials!

Yay for publishing suspects names online and making it less likely they'll get a fair trial!

Boo for defence lawyers insisting on a person's right to a fair trial.

Well said

 

[CrafterMan]

That's my opinion, sorry if that offends you, but it stands.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I believe that if the culprits are found guilty of lighting any of the fires, then they will be given Life. Which is fair ... mass murder deserves the harshest penalty. It will also be deemed that he is too unstable to ever be released back into society,. so will be permanently deemed unable to be rehabilitated ... thus he'll probably never see the light of day again.

I'm not a huge fan of the Death Penalty ... mainly because Capital Punishment is far too soft for such criminals ... but also there are ethical issues as well.

Solitary confinement is a million times worse than being executed .. as most criminals attempt to kill themselves over and over again after a decade or two ...

If you really wanted to punish them, then you just stick them in a soundproof cell under permanent watch to stop them before they kill themselves .. and instruct all guard personnel never to speak with him.

After 5 years of that treatment, they become a blank state... it's cruel ... but monsters shouldn't benefit from the hospitality and civil nature of Man.

That being said, I agree with historical 'Capital Punishment'-esque treatment of prisoners. During the Second World War, Australian soldiers found proof that the Japanese had cannibalised many Australian troops as well as used prisoners for bayonet practice ... so the Australians ignored the Geneva Convention and hung every enemy soldier they found outside their base camps.

I'm not sure ... maybe i'm fence-sitting a little bit ... although I believe cannibalism to be a worse crime then even mass murder.