Steven Ling: Man who admitted rape and murder of woman he stabbed 60 times should be freed, Parole Board says
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/steven-ling-man-who-admitted-rape-and-murder-of-woman-he-stabbed-60-times-should-be-freed-parole-board-says-13211950
by fucking-nonsense
18 comments
Yes, that is the purpose of the Parole Board, to assess the reformation of prisoners and advocate for their release or continued imprisonment.
That is the whole purpose behind our justice system.
They have the expertise, not the public, so they should be the one’s making the recommendations. I’m not sure why Sky is trying to get people wound up about a functioning legal system.
On the face of it, do I think someone like that should ever be released? Not really, but I also recognise that that comes from a desire for punishment and that our gut emotional reactions aren’t always the best.
Oh and here’s a non-AMP link for anyone who wants it: [https://news.sky.com/story/steven-ling-man-who-admitted-rape-and-murder-of-woman-he-stabbed-60-times-should-be-freed-parole-board-says-13211950](https://news.sky.com/story/steven-ling-man-who-admitted-rape-and-murder-of-woman-he-stabbed-60-times-should-be-freed-parole-board-says-13211950)
I personally think rapists and murderers should be locked up for life. You shouldn’t get to live freely if you’ve taken someone else’s, otherwise justice has not been served.
Also I note the BBC are the only ones who aren’t calling it rape, instead saying: ‘A killer who stabbed a woman 60 times during sex’. I have to ask why that is if he admitted to rape as well?
Freedom isn’t for everybody. If someone decides they don’t want it and would rather be shunned from society, let them live their dream in solitude for the rest of their miserable lives
A decision based on funding and the fact members of the parole board wont live anywhere close to where he will be housed.
I’m all in favour of progressive prison policies and all that.
But i look at this guy and i can’t believe he should be out
Is no one going to ask the real question as to why the prisons have become so full recently???
There is only one fitting punishment for what he did. He shouldn’t be alive today to be freed. A justice system that can’t deliver this can’t deliver justice at all.
I mean, maybe it’s not a flattering angle but he looks mental.
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Nope. Don’t let this Euron Greyjoy-looking mofo out. He’s a monster and unfit to be back into society.
The absolute fucking second you “stab someone during sex” it becomes rape. Hard to believe she was consenting as he murdered her.
Here is the thing – he very may well not be a danger to society. He was 23 at the time of the murder, and its perfectly plausable he has changed in that time.
Personally, this is why I think arguements that the purpose of prison is purely rehabillitation with no punitive aspect fall flat. It doesn’t matter if he has changed, it is unjust that he is being released before he is properly elderly. He *should* have to sit out most of his life, and being in his 40s feels too young to be out for this type of crime. I don’t support the death penalty because of the chance of mistakes and a general sense of unease about giving the state the power of life and death over people who aren’t actively posing a threat. But that doesn’t mean I support having sexually motivated murderers eating at the same pub as with me and my family.
Is this just some kind weird BBC view point from living in the city all your life? Are you all just desensitised to this stuff?
The parole board are pretty good at their job. Less than 1% of parolees go on to commit serious crimes.
The board have good evidence of his remorse and safety, under the law of this land he should go free.
We are a nation of laws and it is important we remain one.
Increasing the number of whole life tariffs would include a lot of new prison spaces, costing a lot of money, for very little social benefit. Very few crimes would be avoided, and it’s simply pointless when crime prevention initiatives are starved of funds.
This is absurd…
A man was jailed for 9 years the other week for starting a fire in a bin outside a migrant hotel. Fully deserved sentence of course, but you wouldn’t have thought murdering a woman by stabbing her 60 times would only get you a sentence twice as long as that.
There’s a range of factors that need to be taken into account to help understand their decision, very little of those factors are known to anyone here. – They would account for the offence itself, how it was carried out, what the motivation was, the aggravating and mitigating factors would have3 been covered at the point of sentencing and factored into the tariff that was set.
Anyone released from prison on a Life licence will always be under the thumb of the criminal justice system – for life. That’s what life means in this country – and I can’t say that I am against it. These prisoners come out with both standard and additional licence conditions; the standard conditions, being that they ‘must be of good behaviour’, ‘must reside at an approved address’, ‘must not travel abroad’ ‘must not commit any offence’ (just some of the standard conditions every one released from prison must stick to on pain of being returned to prison.
[Licence Conditions and how the Parole Board use them – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/licence-conditions-and-how-the-parole-board-use-them)
This doesn’t take account of additional conditions, like drug testing, or being banned from certain areas or activities, or being compelled to undertake rehabilitative activities – again on pain of being returned to prison.
The difference between lifers and prisoners on determinate (fixed term) sentences, is for lifers, these rules apply for the remainder of their life. Indeed, those conditions can be amended at any time and for any further crime of any nature, that attracts a custodial sentence would usually led to a resumption of prison time, and a new parole hearing before they are released again.
Its a punishment for sure, maybe not the one people think is adequate, but nothing can undo the horrors of a crime, nobody is coming back to life no matter the punishment. We have choices; to lock everyone up for life that commits a terrible crime? I have news for you – this crime as bad as it is, is repeated across the country in whole and in part, by individuals you haven’t heard of because they aren’t reported presumably because the story behind the crime is for some reason is not of interest.
The current arrangement allows those who commit crimes and who can be rehabilitated are given the opportunity if they agree and demonstrate a willingness to address the issues which brought them into prison in the first place. That’s what the Parole Board assess and of course its not a science, nobody can predict the future – but the best educated guesses are made supported by evidence and a decision is made.
We can’t afford prison places under this system, let alone where our worst criminals, regardless whether they are rehabilitated or not, will remain inside those buildings for the remainder of their lives, only leaving in a coffin.
I prefer what we have.
Yeah he should be released into a boiling pot of oil
I, personally, think that if you commit a crime of this magnitude that you should never be released.
…sixty?
Please just take a second to understand just how many times that is…