IS the UK a civilised country? if it is how can it jail a mother for three years then admit they were wrong?

territinsel

I think it is disgusting that so many mistakes have been made towards parents who have supposedly harmed their children , too much interfering by childless social workers. Nanny state gone berserk

Ryan

I think the fact that they admitt they are wrong is a sign that they are a civilized country. There are many places that would not go so far as to release her, or to even look into it further after her false conviction.

As for monetary compensation from the government, I'm sure there are lawyers working on that as we speak.

MoiMoii

Very unfortunately wrongful imprisonment occasionally happen. A combination of witnesses' accounts, coincidences, human errors in a great variety of analyzing evidences, misinterpretation of words..... The fact that they admitted their mistake is itself being civilized. Have you not heard of To Err Is Human?
Such miscarriage of justice is not unique just in UK.

Diana

Every nation has blood on it's hands, no one nation is better or worse than the other. The US let a woman free that killed beyond a doubt five of her children..I don't know what is worse.

A True Gentleman

I, for one, am sick of hearing people precede their sentences with a "How, in 2007 can something like this be possible?" or your "How can we call ourselves civilised when something like this happens?"
Just face it, Britain is NOT a civilised country, it's every man for himself. We have been forced this way by New Labour taxes.

jet-set

There are miss carriages of justice in every country. So called 'expert witnesses' have a lot to answer for!

avian

I think the only way one can view this case (and others like it) is to accept that no system of law and its associated trials/verdicts is perfect. However, if a legal system allows a verdict to be challenged and the individual to be released where appropriate, at least there is an 'escape route'. Regrettably, the procedure to challenge the guilty verdict in the UK seems to take an inordinately long time, during which the innocent person has to remain in jail (...and lawyers make a lot of money).

Fortunately, the UK does not have the death penalty, therefore a wrongly convicted person is not executed, unlike in the USA where, in recent years, DNA evidence has shown that quite a few innocent people have been executed. So which do you think is the more civilised country in that respect? And don't even start to compare the UK with say, China, or any of the "..istan" countries!

But I do agree with you about the apparent lack of formal support for exonerated people. No doubt the (usual) governmental excuse would be that it costs money to provide counselling, etc..
.

William D

mistakes happen and testimony at trials is sometimes either faulse or misleading, has any country managed to get the balance of guilt and innocence correctly in every case they deal with.

Barbara Doll to you

civilised doesn't equal perfect.

ANDREW H

I agree with you.

This nation is in a shameful mess & it is rotten to the core from top down.

Blair on a prime ministers salary buying a Â£5m house, HOW?

We have just had Red Nose Day, where does all the money go?

I had a friend who worked as a charity secreatry for a celeb & 50% that was collected goes to the celeb then all expenses are taken out & where does the balance go?

We will soon have 'Children in Need' pushed down our throats & after all these years of seeing the so called do good celebs appealing to us, where does the money go?

We have TV staff all of a sudden getting taxis from Manchester to London & all the big expensive hotel bills etc

Yet we BRITISH came bottom of the world tables when it comes to looking after our children.

So much said for the Celebs Children in need & Blairs government who promised to abolish child poverty.

We pay enough taxes but the goverment cronies are feathering their own nests & getting big paybacks from big business such as Tesco & casino operators.

The thieving B******S

The only Charity that you should give to is the Salvation Army. everything you give goes to the needy, they are wonderful dedicated people.

jeff k

I totally agree with you.

Carpe diem

Of course they are, just ask the Irish....

MANCHESTER UK

The 'Expert Witness in this case Prof Meadows was, at the time the case was heard, an eminent man in his field. The Jury had to deliver a verdict, based on the evidence heard in Court' and after hearing the evidence, decided to convict. Put yourself in any of those Jury people's shoes and I am certain you would have come to the same conclusion.

Now, having had clear evidence that Prof Meadows' evidence was discredited, this being adduced by others, the Court had no doubt or hesitation in releasing the prisoner and clearing her of blame.

What happened in between her conviction and release must have been horrific. In prison, people convicted of any offence against children is treated very badly by other prisoners. Some unspeakable horrors are committed against such prisoners and it is this that Authority should have weighed in the follow up to release.
Are we sure this was not offered? I understand that the exonerated person was very upset (who wouldn't have been) and the psychiatrists should have stepped in to try to bring the person back into society.

Until this is cleared up, I reserve my judgement.

st.abbs

The "expert" witnesses in these kind of cases should be permanently struck off of whichever body they belong to and should be personally sued for damages.
The U.K is only civilised when it suits them, and very uncivilised when it comes to miscarriages of justice.

Avner Eliyahu R

The West in general, not only Britain, has something rotten inside it and inside its mentality. today I heard something which is both interesting and shocking: Lewis the 14 of France, the "Sunny King" wanted to have his daughter married to Ismail the Bloodthirsty of Morocco. And I DON'T think he planned that out of generosity, to get French who were kidnapped & enslaved freed. When this marrige didn't came to reality, the "sunny king" of France gave the blood thirsty king of Morocco two super expensive clocks instead. By the way, Ismail the Bloodthirsty is known to have had about 500 wives.

jenz

that kind of thing happened here??woah...that never happens in what they call "3rd world" countries.

LoVE LiFE

she could be a very good actress.

if she was innocent, she wouldn't have been under suspision in the first place

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