Guilty or Ill

Yes, I know what you're saying bluebelle: my own daughter has had her share of problems and done things that have been very far removed from my own values, and those I tried to instil. Not my doing, and certainly nothing that I would make light of, or take responsibility for as her parent. But everyone has to face the consequences of their own actions, as this girl must, whether she is a repugnant liar, or someone who needs help. It seems that somehow her being ill mentally should let her off the hook, when I don't agree it should.

Maybe she has what would be diagnosed as a 'personality disorder', in which case, according to NHS Choices,

"Treatment for most personality disorders usually involves a course of psychological therapy. This normally lasts at least six months, often longer, depending on the severity of the condition and other co-existing problems."

I feel it's unlikely that she will get a long course of treatment like this in prison, I believe it is often not successful anyway...

Problem is Missadventure if she has a personality disorder she won't have the ability to think ahead and think of consequences

Whilst I can understand people's anger it is not ALWAYS parents fault, yes some kids can be very let down by family but I have known very caring and extremely well adjusted parents have a child that 'goes wrong' and it is very easy to say I wouldn't have had that when you don't know what you would have done in the situation we all think we know we would have acted this way or that but when in the middle we don't know at all. Things are never as black and white as we would like or expect them to be
Gillybob you are still seeing it though a well adjusted persons eyes and how you would behave and how you would expect your kids to behave but obviously this young lady was not well adjusted and as Anniebach originally said must have if not a mental health problem certainly a brain that functions differently to normal and some disorder as it s not rational behaviour

If it were my own daughter, I would expect her to be held to account for her actions. She was as a child, and that will always be the case. Its how decent people are.

I don't think it's fair to compare the suffering of her family caused by her actions. False accusations that she chose to make, with the suffering of those poor men and their families who were victims of her evil lies.

I suppose its something to take into account before committing a crime: your own family will suffer.

Yes I know that Annie I don't know why I added that comment, just feel angry to be honest.

Whether she is ill makes no difference to the fact that she is guilty, and can't be allowed free to do this to other innocent parties.
Hopefully she will get any help she needs, as I would say that nobody in their right mind would enjoy this kind of attention.

Gilly, if one has a daughter with a mental disorder sadly it is not as easy to halt their behaviour by saying get a life .

I agree the men and their families suffered but if this woman has family who care for her they too will have suffered

If she were my daughter Annie I would have picked up on her "issues" long before she reached this stage. I would know her very well and would have been able to work out that the accusations were false. I would have told her to get a life and hopefully to lose weight too.

Yes Gilly, but we must also ask what if she was my daughter

Petra I don't think anyone is born an 'evil bastard' we are all the products of either genetics or environment whilst growing up .... whilst I entirely agree she needs to be stopped and punished for ruining the poor men's lives she does also need psychiatric help to see why she needs this attention at others expense There is a definite lack of cognition, an inability to see results of actions and a lack of compassion which probably add up to some personality disorder

I think she is clearly a very disturbed young woman but is still totally capable of knowing right from wrong. Therefore she knew she was lying and making up allegations. She clearly loved the attention it brought her. It is sad that she needed to do that and somehow saw it as acceptable, but I think her sentence is valid - the misery she brought not only to those accused but to their families is immense.

I have no sympathy for this evil woman who ruined the lives of so many men and caused several relationship breakups with her false accusations.

She is clearly unbalanced but imagine if it were your own son or husband she had falsely accused.

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In my opinion she deserves help but how?

I think it is quite possible the she has some sort of psychological issue.

We should also remember that the reason this is getting such publicity is that it is so rare. Rape, sadly, is not.

Perhaps mentally ill were the wrong words but I don't like saying unbalanced mind - which I have now said

There was a time when 'balance of the mind was disturbed" was used for suicides , we now accept depression

No, Petra, this was not normal behaviour or even malevolent behaviour. It was disturbed behaviour, probably not mentally ill, but abnormal. However, innocent men need to be protected from her, so I support the sentence she received.

annie I agree with you in wondering why she behaved as she did whilst having more than every sympathy for the victims. No one who is mentally healthy could behave like this over such a long period of time but I don't see what else the courts could do. Her appearance can't have helped her feel OK about herself - I wonder if she's always been so grossly overweight and completing lacking in any sense of self worth so that making herself a victim gave her life some 'meaning' ? Trying to find an explanation isn't condoning

Why do we have to put a label of mental illness on some people when in reality they are just evil bastards.

Totally agree Oriel

It appears she enjoyed the attention she received playing the victim. It reminded me of the girl in the States who recently bullied and cajoled her boyfriend into killing himself. The judge there said she enjoyed playing the bereaved girlfriend.

Some people are just plain bad. From what I've read I don't think this woman was mentally ill. I think the sentence was totally justified - she's ruined many lives.

I hate women like her. She ruined the life of those men. I will not waste a moment of my time wondering what made her tick. Glad she is going to jail. Hope she serves as a reminder to other women who have this on their minds not to do it.

It is possible to have much sympathy for the victims but still question why the allegations were made .

No sympathy from me. What about the men whose lives she ruined?