Rekha Kumari-Baker had gone shopping the previous day to buy the knives with which she stabbed her daughters a total of 69 times. Her actions appear to have been premeditated and cold-blooded. This week, the jury took a mere 35 minutes to consider its verdict. The members rejected Kumari-Baker's defence of diminished responsibility, despite the fact that she had previously been treated for depression – rightly so, in my opinion.Eh...? I didn't even know Bindel had a medical degree!
Instead, they were persuaded by the prosecution case, as I am, that she killed the girls in order to destroy her ex-husband's happiness with another woman.But a minute ago, you were complaining that she was mad, not bad. What changed?
What a wicked, wicked woman and what a heinous crime.
I only have one question to ask of this case. Why was Kumari-Baker sentenced to serve a minimum of 33 years in prison, one of the longest tariffs ever handed to a woman in England?Why not?
Ah, but here comes the rub. You see, in two cases, the male killer of children has received a lesser sentence. So, it's all about the sexism, isn't it?
Except, it isn't. The two cases quoted aren't in English courts:
Paternal filicide is at least as common as maternal filicide (depending on how the statistics are compiled). The plea of diminished responsibility on psychiatric grounds by John Hogan, who killed his son and seriously injured his daughter by throwing them off a hotel balcony in 2006, was accepted by a court in Greece; and the Crown Prosecution Service has indicated that no further action will be taken now that he has returned to the UK for treatment. Earlier this year, Ashok Kalyanjee was found guilty of stabbing to death his two sons. The judge sentencing him at the high court in Glasgow reduced his tariff from a potential 28 years to 21, because of Kalyanjee's early guilty plea.Simples!
And most of the reason that she's getting a good kicking in the comments. Not that that will prevent the old bat writing yet another column about how foul the male species is as a whole...
"The members rejected Kumari-Baker's defence of diminished responsibility, despite the fact that she had previously been treated for depression – rightly so, in my opinion."
ReplyDeleteI think she's saying it was right that the jury rejected the plea, rather than it being right that she had been treated for depression? She's only a highly paid writer for a national newspaper after all. I mean, it's unreasonable to expect clarity.
The annoying thing about this is that I had actually written a post predicting that one of the feminists in the media would write an article along the lines of how unfairly Kumari Baker has been treated by the courts/media compared to men who had committed similar crimes.
ReplyDeleteI didn't press publish and deleted it instead because I thought that on reflection I was going over the top and caricaturing their positions. I now realise that this is not possible.
I feel pity for the Mother. My pity extends to the long years of self torture she must endure if her mental illness is ever cured.
ReplyDeleteRemember before you cast your stones that this woman belongs neither to the living nor to the dead.
20 years, 33 years... It's a bit academic is it not?
ReplyDeleteI suspect the judge gave a high tarif (and that is high) because she carried out the act for the most cynical reason imagineable. To stab someone to get back at someone else is appalling.
If she had stabbed her ex then she would have got less and perhaps even the diminished responsibility angle would have flown.
Also was Bindle in the court for all three cases? No. So she doesn't know the exact circs does she and in such cases the specific cases matter. I mean if Julia says something nasty on my blog and I ambusgh her and kill her with a hammer then it's rather different from me grabbing a hammer and doing some bloke because I found him in bed with my wife is it not?
Julia, I'm not planning any hammer murders unless Lord Mandelson comes round wanting to borrow some sugar. Then step into my parlour said the spider to the fly...
Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteAlso what Staybryte says, that para isn't exactly clear, is it?
Ross, you should have published it! I love your Victimhood Poker stuff, it isn't actually a parody anymore - these WV players have crossed the 'parody threshold' and have reached 'parody singularity' where a parody of the original is the same as the original.
WV: himinall
ReplyDeleteWhich is like a male criminal, I suppose.
Paternal filicide is at least as common as maternal filicide (depending on how the statistics are compiled)
ReplyDeletePretty well anything is at least as common as anything else, if you include the qualification "depending on how the statistics are compiled"...
Julia, I think you may as well rename your site 'LooneyWatch' and have done...
ReplyDelete"I mean, it's unreasonable to expect clarity."
ReplyDeleteWell, it'd be a first..!
"I didn't press publish and deleted it instead because I thought that on reflection I was going over the top and caricaturing their positions. I now realise that this is not possible."
I'd hate to be a 'Daily Mash' writer. The pressure on them to top reality must be enormous...
"Remember before you cast your stones that this woman belongs neither to the living nor to the dead."
I think she probably belongs to Pentonville, now.
Oh, wait. To whom were you referring? The murderess, or Bindel?
"Julia, I'm not planning any hammer murders unless Lord Mandelson comes round wanting to borrow some sugar. Then step into my parlour said the spider to the fly..."
I'll hold your coat, and provide a mop afterward... ;)
"...'parody singularity' where a parody of the original is the same as the original."
ReplyDeleteThere could be a space-time rift if they keep it up...
"Pretty well anything is at least as common as anything else, if you include the qualification "depending on how the statistics are compiled"..."
Awww, bless. She can't be expected to worry her pretty little head about that sort of stuff, can she?
;)
"I think you may as well rename your site 'LooneyWatch' and have done..."
I'm considering it!
remonstrate with a child.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry.. WHAT was that? "remonstrate with a child."???
BOLLOX. A good slapped arse is what the bastards need.
"Remonstrate" Weare NOT talking international diplomacy here we are talking about disciplining something with less brain thatn a 2 year old chimpanze fer FEKS sake!!!
Apologies.
ReplyDeleteYet AGAIN my post ends up on the false page!!!
She got the absolute arse-kicking of all time in the comments. I couldn't resist a sly little enquiry on page five...
ReplyDeleteTen years ago this shit would have been boilerplate Guardian stuff, with no comment or dissent allowed from the proles. The simple addition of reader comments has exposed these loonies to a hurricane of criticism and abuse, and I think it is great.
Terrible ideas are never beaten by censorship, they are destroyed through debate, reason and outright mockery.