Am I alone in thinking the world's gone mad? They didn't really do anything that harms society, and to spend £600,000 keeping them both in prison for 6 years seems rather a waste of money... seems like they could be taught a lesson in a different way & we could save the prison space for a couple of thugs.
Does seem steep.....rapists get less
any type of money fraud seems to be dealt with more harshly, , more value than human life ? ???
They will be out in a couple of months, but the six year sentence will hang over them, any small crime will see them back inside.
Mind you it is a life sentence that they will have from their sons and relatives.
Insurance will be expensive, won't be able to work where they have to be CRB'd, difficult to get bank account, references etc - how far would anyone trust them?
What price for telling your sons that their Father is dead?
Priceless - they'll hate their parents for evermore, and who can blame them?
I'm going to grow a beard and disappear too!
And your family would never forgive you for the hell you put them through when you reappear. Would it really be worth it? And who would tend your allotment when you're gone?
Anyway, a beard wouldn't suit you. :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\
they will probably get a big bucks film deal when they get out!
I really don't know what to think, if they were my parents and had caused me that much grief i propbably would want to see them in prison.
However as someone else earlier, would they cause harm to society? Steeling a dead baby's identity is worth a prison sentance, think of the grief caused to that childs parents. But they are not a danger. They perhaps could work to pay off the insurance money, saying that i bet their assets have been seized.
warble blah warble blah
I shouldn't of had that third beer on a school night - but i'm hot(not moaning loving the warm weather so are my beans, strawberries and toms!
bye !
I thought they got off lightly with 6 years! They committed a huge fraud as well as upsetting their sons and families. Look at the costs to the search teams too. This must have cost thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.
I would have made an example of them to deter others and would have given them at least ten years.
I think they got of lightly she should have been given more. Our coast line not renowned for being kind to the rescue services who put there lives at risk every time they go to sea, and they were out for days on end.
His father Ronny 89 years old then, was down the sea front every day hoping his sons body would be washed up, she must have seen him and let him go through that torment every day. Ronny and his wife were plagued by the press and had to get away for some rest.
She even had the nerve to throw flowers into the sea to mark the anniversary of when he was supposed to have drowned
I think they got off very lightly.
Fraud is treated as a 'non-crime'. Almost as if it is something heroic. They cheated the system. Next time your insurance premiums go up by an astronomical amount, say thank you to the Darwins.
Anyone in the Prison Service, say thank you to the the Darwins for raiding their pension fund.
I think this self seeking pair should be put away for a lot longer, and the other thing they should be made to do is pay back every penny of their ill gotten gains.
After six years, (maximum four years) they will be released, and able to enjoy the fruits of their crime, ie the money they have salted away, they will be able to enjoy the lifestyle they planned.
I can't imagine that they will be able to look their sons in the eye.
valmarg
Hopefully VM, action will be put in place to recover as much as possible from selling property etc. With a bit of luck, the greedy sods will be broke when they get released. Also, a block will be put on to stop them making any money from their story too.
One lives in hope RC, but one can't help but feel sympathy for sons.
Greed is about the nastiest of the seven deadly sins.
valmarg
I don't believe this pair should go to prison. They are not dangerous. It will simply cost the tax payer even more. By all means make them pay back. make them do community service till it's coming through their ears. Take away their passports for n years. Take a percentage of their income. But what useful purpose can possibly be served by sending them to prison except satisfying a need for revenge?
Grawrc, you say that this pair were 'not dangerous'.
Admittedly they are not in the same league as the slobs and yobs that are stabbing/shooting and killing each other, but that is not the point.
They were a pair of scheming, conniving self seekers. They robbed the insurance company and the prison service pension scheme.
You make that sound acceptable.
In this country we are too soft on fraud. Had they perpetrated their crime in the USA, the would be facing much, much longer sentences.
Fraud costs all of us.
valmarg
I think they should go to prison, you commit a crime, you do the time. I'd like to think their real sentence will be the fact that they've lost their sons forever, but to be honest, if they can do that to their own children, I really don't think they have that emotional capacity. >:(
I would send them both out to sea in a canoe with no paddle or is it oars and not rescue them.
Quote from: OllieC on July 23, 2008, 22:07:10
I'm going to grow a beard and disappear too!
ollie please dont, i have promised o lok for you if you do and i would realy rather you didnt
i think sending them to prison is a waste of resorces, when child abusers are given suspended scentences why send these people to prison
I do think there is a tendency to look at these things far too simplistically. Not many child abusers are given suspended sentences. If they are, then it there are usually circumstances that deem it necessary or suitable (too many variables to discuss here), maybe a long time spent on remand or a barking judge. These are not Robin Hood type characters. They has expensive lifestyles and lived beyond their means. They were struggling to keep up with and rahter than downsizing like the rest of us, they lied to family and friends causing great pain and upset, they put the lives of the emergency services at risk and cost the taxpayer money, they raised all our insurance premiums and she showed total contempt for everybody by trying to lie her way out of it. I actually think he should have got a little less for the remorse and putting his hands up - she got what she deserved.
Personally I think they deserved what they got and that is still not enough, they have fiddle the system which at the end of the day I have to cough up for in more insurance premiums, but then again him being a former screw will love it inside ;) ;)
I think to those of you who think the Darwins should not have gone to prison should ponder this - if, while you were on holiday your home was burgled, and your house/property stripped of all your assets, and when you got back all you had was the house -minus all copper piping, fixtures and fittings. Would you be quite so magnanimous.
I think with Mr Darwin, he is between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Having been a prison officer, and raided the prison service pension scheme for the death in service benefit, (and Mrs Darwin claiming the widow's pension for several years). I think they will have a well deserved uncomfortable stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure ;D
I just wish fraud would be taken more seriously in this country.
valmarg
I keep changing my mind!... but I keep thinking we need to ask, "What do we want to teach someone by sending them to prison" and secondly, "will it achieve our aims"... thirdly, "How do we achieve our aims in the most cost effective manner".
I'm not for one second suggesting that we should "go soft", but surely they could be punished in a more effective & financially prudent way. I think that's what I think... court for me on Tuesday makes me think of such things a bit... this will be where I find out how much I believe in the system!
if you think thats bad, a young bloke from near here got done for dangerous driving, he drove his mums high powered 4 by 4 on the wrong side of the rd ploughed into a car putting parents in hospital and disabling the baby in the back for life, so the family have a life scentence, guess what the idiot got ??? (yes hes a rich b@stard) better i post the website and let you sign the petition to change the law... had that little girl have died hedve got more time, but she didnt, shes clinging on, and his family have been refusing to pay for things she needs to live at home with her parents, and the settlement they got is on an ongoing basis incase she dies, worlds gone mad if u ask me! >:(
www.cerysedwards.co.uk
he got nothing like the scentence etc he deserved! the laws absolutely wrong!
Ollie have I missed something? What are you in court for?
on second thoughts.. sorry, it's none of my business really.
could please just clarify where i stand, i have no problem with these people going to jail, my problem is that if they deserve 6 years then i know people who deserve many more, including the woman i already mentioned who got 2 years suspended for abusing her 3 little girls for all of their lives
lbb
olliec, just to let you know, we'll be thinking about you on tuesday, all the best, manics :)