What the Great British Public...

really think of the mentally ill:

She is madder than a box of snakes, if she is living rough in London area its just a matter of time until pc plod feels her collar.

This particular woman obviously has serious psychiatric problems

please remember that for every one nutter out there, there are thousands of us that wish you all the best in the world. Don't let this mad woman ruin your life!

Amazing how such people can operate with impunity, yet normal, decent law abiding people can be shut down, destroyed and disenfranchised so easily by the authorities.

Fatter and older? It appears that a Greater Power has already started her punishment.

tay safe and with our help we will get this nutter. There are always loons out there too bad one has latched onto you.

she has been a constant pain to me and others in the area and i think she is complelty sick, for what she has been doing to you.

Well done: staying true to yourself in the face of the nutters.

she may be walkin', but she is a cripple!!

Well done. Let's hope that one day she realises just how unpleasant, mendacious and batshit mental she is.

More to come.

Response to

this:

Thank you, Iain Mullen, for your analysis of the case. My concern is that a mentally ill woman has not or will not receive the help she needs. The facilities for mentally ill offenders in this country are woefully inadequate.

A similar situation occurred on Usenet a few years ago. The 'Cyberstalker' in this case was from the US - Madison County, Wisconsin. IIRC the authorities were quick to act and forced him to accept treatment. Again, IIRC, he was suffering from a personality disorder. Ironic that the US criminal justice system, much derided in the UK, seems to be so much more enlightened than our own when dealing with these cases.

And Another...

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

I hate to rain on your parade but Ms. Lowde will probably only serve about three months of a six month sentence. It would have been better for Ms. Lowde and her victims had she been given a treatment order. This is far from a ‘get out of gaol’ free card. She would have been detained for an indefinite period and her release would be dependent upon a psychiatric assessment. I was attacked (physically, irl, not over the ‘net) two years ago and my attacker got a suspended sentence but he was also sectioned and was detained in hospital for longer than he would have been detained in prison.

She is highly unlikely to receive the help she requires in prison.

In Response to

This:

I too look forward to Ms. Lowde's appeal. Only because she may get a half decent legal representative who should argue that this woman had little chance of a fair trial given the kind of heavily biased media coverage she was subjected to before her arrest and subsequent conviction.

(And, yes, I know this won't be popular and, no, I really couldn't give two hoots.)

Yet Another Response

to this:
(Scroll down to the comments section)

Post 1:

What is the world coming to when 'mentally ill' people are permitted to use the internet? You are aware that statistically 'mentally ill' people are more likely to be the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators? No, I didn't think you were.

Post 2:

My post was not an attempt to defend Ms. Lowde but rather a comment upon the rather disturbing views on the mentally ill. As I said most mentally ill people do not behave like Ms. Lowde. Most mentally ill people are more of a risk to themselves than to others. Will you not open your mind to the wider implications of people's comments on this case? I myself have a mental heath problem that is controlled by a small dose of medication. I have never nor would I ever deliberately harm someone.

I would also like to know why, if Ms. Lowde is deemed to be mentally ill is she not in a secure hospital rather than a prison. I was physically attacked two years ago and that crime was not deemed serious enough to warrant a prison sentence. And there was I thinking we had equality before the law.

Finally, to the person comparing Ms. Lowde's crimes to those of Hindley and Brady - seriously, get a sense of perspective.

These Strange Days

I am not in the business of gloating over anyone's death and I will not make an exception for Bernard Manning. I will, however, assert that he is no great loss to contemporary comedy. But that is merely my humble opinion. I will also admit to deriving some amusement from the praise being lavished upon him in the media by people who claimed to despise him. Everybody loves you when you're dead. It could even be asserted that it is an excellent career move. Even more amusing are those who try to justify his racism by emphasising his Jewish ancestry. I don't buy that. Was Merle Oberon any less racist when she forced her mother to pretend to be the maid because she was ashamed of her Indian heritage? Absolutely not. If anything it makes her racism even more reprehensible.

At Last

The establishment shows some backbone. Read about this miracle here. Some readers have commented that Salmon Rushdie's knighthood was only conferred upon his to inflame the Islamic world. Gotta love collective paranoia. There is an alternative suggestion: maybe he was honoured because he has succeeded in producing an extensive and compelling body of work. Why should we let any religious group dictate who is 'honoured'? This is supposed to be a secular society. Why should we capitulate to the hysterical demands of religious extremists?

Intellectual freedom, anybody? Sanity prevails for once. A true miracle indeed.

I Really Am On a Roll

In response to this:

When Jade Goody was relentlessly abused by the Tabloid Press in the first series of Big Brother in which she appeared many columnists in the Guardian and other broadsheets it was suggested that there was a racial motive behind these attacks. (She is of West Indian descent). Fast forward to CBB5 and this was completely forgotten. Shilpa Shetty initiated the hostility in the Big Brother House by making derogatory comments about Ms. Goody's class origins. Bigotry is bigotry and, as far as I am concerned one form of bigotry is just as reprehensible as another. And, as if it matters, I am from a working class background and have experienced prejudice based on my gender and my class. The Guardian used to be a newspaper that championed the cause of the economically disadvantaged but I guess its response to this episode illustrates that broadsheet journalists are just as susceptible to the whims of fashion as everyone else.