Life Sentence for Sex Offender who Left Threats on Computer
“A convicted sex offender who left a chilling message on his computer threatening to rape and murder children has been jailed for life. A judge told the High Court in Edinburgh it was difficult to imagine worse threats than those made by 21-year-old David Wolstencroft. Wolstencroft was first put on probation for sex offences when he was 16. He was under 24-hour supervision when he ran away from a support worker and wrote the threatening note. He had been put on probation after an indecent attack on a female psychologist who was working with him. Police found him near student accommodation in Glasgow performing a sex act on himself. He was armed with two screwdrivers… When asked what he was planning to do he said the information was on a disk in his room. The advocate depute said Wolstencroft’s support worker went to his bedroom and found a note attached to the computer screen. A photo of a young female was attached to it and the disk was hidden behind the note.” —BBC (UK)
Recently PervScan wrote about how sometimes “written fantasies could cross the line between free speech and criminal behavior.” Shortly thereafter this story emerged from the veritable flood of news stories out there about pedophilia, child pornography, and sexual exploitation of minors. In this case, a young man who has already accumulated a history of sexual offenses wrote down threats to rape and kill children. The BBC didn’t report his actual words but another newspaper did. This is what he wrote: “I am going to **** a little girl or boy but if you try to stop me I will kill the boy or the girl or I will go for [the psychologist] so **** you all, lots of love from David Wolstencroft.”
Based on Mr. Wolstencroft’s past behavior, this threat was enough to convince the judge to give the man a life sentence. There are pedophiles whose actual crimes are far worse but whose punishments are much lighter — which implies that, in this case, a man has basically been imprisoned for words that “crossed the line between free speech and criminal behavior.”
If you pause to consider the matter, you’ll see that this is a very troubling case. On one hand, it’s hard not to agree with the judge. This guy appears to be a ticking bomb. Why wait for him to explode? Why wait until he’s killed somebody to reign him in? As the judge pointed out, Mr. Wolstencroft’s background is “appalling” and he has failed to show progress in intensive attempts at rehabilitation. So why let this psycho loose?
On the other hand, it’s difficult to accept the prospect of a young man being incarcerated for life based on one run-on sentence that he typed into his personal computer. He didn’t mail the threat to anyone. He didn’t name any specific child he wanted to kill, though he did name his psychologist. But odds are that many people have formulated the thought to kill their psychologists. Is that enough of a reason to throw someone in jail and throw away the key?
A threat is meaningless until it is sent. We all have violent fantasies or dreams, and many write them down. But in this case, the man apparently directed authorities to the message–a clear form of delivery. In that case, I would definitely consoder that he “made” the threat, and the judge was probably justified.
Heres a better idea. why not just castrate him and let him go?
Castrate him. Good idea. He would become less violent, less perverted if you castrated him. I agree. If he cannot be castrated, he should be killed however.
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