I've made it quite clear to my parents that when the time comes, I've organised a two for one deal with a hitman in Bournemouth.
Yes, one day, all their debts will be mine!

I have no problems with this decision. Let him rot.

I hate the fact that some high profile criminals are viewed as national treasures of some sort. They are scum who believe they are entitled to take a shortcut to fortune, at anyone's cost but their own.

I know someone who absolutely adores the Crays. I don't imagine she would view it the same way if her dad was a shopkeeper, forced to pay up on a monthly basis to keep his shop, and his face, intact.

I still believe that this is posturing by Jack Straw.

We have prisons that are bursting at the seams. We have "recommendations" that certain criminals appearing before magistrates and judges are not given custodial sentences because of the overcrowding in our prisons. yet this "Justice Secretary" chooses to disregard the view of the parole board and rule that a pathetic, sick old man should remain incarcerated.

Yes... Mr Mills was assaulted during this robbery and I have no doubt it had a lasting effect on him. I don't however think it contributed towards his death.... some 7 years after the event. Having said that, I in no way support

There will always be those who want to "hang 'em high" but really.... do we need to treat convicts of this type in this manner ?

Nope, just kill 'em and be rid of them.

Not the reply I would have expected from a so called intelligent poster.

I believe it. He's a politician and he's doing what he thinks the population wants. D'you really expect him to release Biggs and face the backlash that would entail?

The bald fact is Biggs did a runner to Rio to avoid the sentence placed upon him for a crime he definitely did commit. 30 years later the only reason he came back at all is he's pretty much stuffed physically, can't afford private medical treatment and Brazil doesn't have much of an NHS. A few years later, after he's had about as much medical treatment as is going to work for him, all of a sudden he should be let out?

If he'd stuck around and done his time, he'd have been out of jail years ago, he'd have got better medical care earlier and therefore would be in a more fit state. What goes around comes around. Biggs made his own bed, he can lie in it.

I heard an interview with Biggs's son this morning. According to him, it wasn't even Biggs's fault he escaped, it was the fault of the guards who didn't stop him. He honestly didn't think the fact the guy buggered off to Rio rather than serve his sentence should be held against him. The level of hubris is just astounding.

Jon

I don't want to sit on the bus next to someone who has raped and killed people, that's all.

I wouldn't want my kids to either.

But if they've "seen the error of their ways" or "turned over a new leaf" that makes them lovely people does it?

No thankyou, you kill someone you should die. You rape and humiliate someone you should be raped and humiliated. You do it again and again and you should be taken out of the community - this includes not having the taxpayers pay for you to have food, shelter, tv etc.

What, even if they've been in the army?
(I'm not saying all our soldiers are rapists, or even killers, but it's naive to think aren't some...)

</devil's advocate>

I think that's an exception. I should have said "murdered" because that's more accurate a description of what i'm trying to say. People who have killed people aren't always to blame.

And soldiers shouldn't rape people. There's no excuse.

Sadly its seen by many as a weapon of war.........

"many" being the people who are stuck in the past where terror and demoralisation were much needed tactics, as war relied on men facing men and fighting hand to hand, to protect their land and their womenfolk.

Nowadays you can wipe out an entire regiment with a tactical air strike, and army units are much smaller and more efficient than their historic counterparts thereby reducing the need for psychological warfare and replacing it with technological superiority.

Yep..... and you my friend would have been at the front of the mob, bawling for the execution of Stefan Kiszko. Screaming for capital punishment in your self righteous fervour.... Kill those murderers and child molesters huh.

But of course you're neither old enough to remember nor wise enough to think through the consequences of your tirade I suspect.