When is information perhaps too much?

www.mygov.scot/young-people-police/

states that
"Children aged 12 to 16 can be taken to court but only for serious crimes. Most offences committed by children of this age will be dealt with by early intervention (like a warning or help from a support organisation) or the children's hearings system."
and further down in the article states:

"if you're 16 or 17 (and don't have a compulsory supervision order) the procurator fiscal can decide whether to send your case to a criminal court" so I hope and trust the boy didn't have a compulsory supervision order, and that the procurator fiscal decides to send the case to a criminal court.

I agree all the details of the case should have been reserved for the jury and not discussed in the public press.

He was 15 at the time of the crime, only 16 now. However, obviously a bad'un from a much earlier age. I did read that the judge said he might never be released, for which I would be very grateful.

Terribull You are right ..two families are shattered by this tragic case.

None of us would want to think our child would ever do such a devastating thing. It would be beyond comprehension for most of us.

Ithought the media had learnt the lesson after the furour caused when they broadcast the actual. Voice of little Ann Mcbride over the radio...there were so many people breaking down including me that they only broadcast it that one time..after that it was only in print ...with me it had a lasting effect to this day and I stiL can’t hear. The little drummer boy without tearing up...at least now we can turn tv off or not read papers but a jury has to know ALLthe nitty gritty because they have to convict. Suffer little children. God love her

I avoid reading about anything like this but it's true that the TV news seems to me to give too much information. It serves no useful purpose,in my opinion, but just upsets and depresses people. I certainly find it depressing.

Many times I have been unable to sleep thinking about some of the horrible murders in the news over the years, especially of children.

I think one family is more shattered than the other.

KaryK I remember getting a photo of Myra Hindley and tearing it into little pieces as if it was her personally. It's hard to cope with knowing details. Imagine the poor family of that little girl having to live the rest of their lives with the knowledge.

It is a really chilling, awful case. Such a beautiful, happy little girl. Her killer managed to go into her house and take her from her bed whilst her dad watched porn and smoked cannabis. He also supplied the killer with his drugs. You wrongly don’t think of such bad things happening in such a lovely place do you ?

I think we do need to know exactly what he has done for the simple reason of justifying whatever sentence he gets. There’s too many do-gooders out there that would want him ‘rehabilitated’ or saying he is ‘rehabiliated’ when he’s let out, let’s say in 25/30 years time, load of tosh, he’s a bad’un. I for one would throw the key away for what he’s done to this gorgeous wee girl and that’s because I’ve read what he’s capable of.

It's hard to grasp. I know this is a ridiculous thing to say but he looks such a nice young man.

I think we do need to know exactly what he has done for the simple reason of justifying whatever sentence he gets

But it is not up to the public to justify the sentence.
It is up to the judge.
If it were up to the public, many people would have been executed for lesser crimes than the one under discussion.
The popular thing in recent years has been to discount the views of experts and to distrust and even despise professionals.

But the public do not have a right to know everything, and my opinion is that more consideration should have been given to the rights privacy of both the victim’s and the perpetrator’ families which have been over-ridden in what is wrongly considered the public interest.

Must be awful to be on jury service too in such cases.

Oldwoman No. I wouldn't want to see someone being beheaded. Neither would I want to have seen with my own eyes that dear little girl being murdered. But, I, and I appreciate everyone is different, do want to know what is out there so I can be aware. I want to know if this sort of thing is on the increase and why.

If the media just reported, '5 children were murdered last year'. That's all. We would all be asking, Where? How? Why? What drove he/she to do such a dreadful thing?

And, to be fair to the media, I have noticed in recent times that although you do still get some sensationalism they do not show 'live' graphic scenes as they used to. As an example, I was very upset when I saw on tv the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher. The footage showed her in distress. I do not think that footage would be shown now.

I do not agree with tragic events being sensationalised in a distasteful way but I do want to know what we're dealing with. The problem is, where to draw the line. There has always been the odd horrific twisted person out there, like Ian Brady. However, in recent times it seems there has been an increase in the perversion aspect of some crimes. It bothers me. How can we stop these things unless we understand them. And in the meantime, warn our own to be vigilant.

pollynana I agree. Unless you know what he did, you could think he was misunderstood.

I think hearing that he raped a six year old girl probably gives enough information to know the serious injuries that were caused to her. There wasn't, in my opinion, any need to give explicit details.

pollyanna Do you ever wonder why a child or young person would commit such a horrific act? Is it enough to just write them off as evil, or do you think it might be useful to find out if factors in a person's early life have contributed to them carrying out such monstrous acts? I realise that this may be construed as an attempt to somehow justify such terrible crimes. It is not. But I think it is more constructive to try and understand what makes people dangerous to others and maybe have a chance of eliminating the major factors that might lead to it happening.

Rage, hatred and feelings of violent revenge might be a natural response but, other than as a way of dealing with the horror of hearing about such sickening crimes, I don't think it helps to prevent them.

Slightly off topic:-
I remember reading that an expert witness in the enquiry into the Lockerbie disaster said some of the passengers may have regained consciousness before the crash. How much kinder for the relatives if he had told a white lie and said they wouldn't have known anything about it. What harm would it have done to let them think their loved ones hadn't suffered?

'Looking like such a nice young man' may have been part of the problem KatyK he was trusted.

Sadly, children are often murdered or abused by 'such nice young men' because they have fooled people.

Someone mentioned earlier he had shown signs of abnormal behaviour. Such a pity no one had picked up on that.

Anyone remember the case of Andrew Cunanan? What a nice young man he seemed to be. Total fruitcake and serial killer but hid it well.

If we don't hear the details we can't spot the signs. And at the end of the day, we 'do' have a choice.

I would rather be informed. That does not mean I enjoy hearing it.

I agree with your comment * Eloethan*

....... and Ted Bundy, he looked alright on the outside, but rotten through and through!

Yes I was just going to mention Ted Bundy. You can't judge a book by the cover of course.

I wonder what is going through the mind of Alesha's father as he was selling cannabis to the murderer.
I agree it must have been harrowing for her mother and grandparents to hear and have made public all those awful details.

In the 19th century unpleasant details of court cases reported in the newspapers would have particularly nasty sections in latin as, obviously, ladies wouldn't be able to read that.
The Alisha case is horrible. Just appalling. The jury must be traumatised. I expect they would be excused any further jury service after that. I hope so anyway.

breeze If we don't hear the details we can't spot the signs
Are you saying that making public all the gruesome details of this case and other similar ones makes it possible to identify young people who are likely to commit horrendous crimes?
Then, when you’ve ‘spotted the signs’, then what happens?

Its at times like this that I wish we still had hanging.