UK's most recent serial killer
 

i say most recent because this isnt the first and wont be the last psycho to prey on vulnerable people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6171319.stm

Hmmm...vulnerable? I think it's safe to assume they weren't playing bridge.:litebulb: How about unarmed.

I think definitions one and two work. Unarmed doesn't. A serial killer can kill armed people.

That's true, but what chance do you have if you can't defend your self?
I'd take maybe dead over dead, but hey, that's just one of my quirks.
The choice is yours. :D

Is prostitution legal in the UK? Just curious, the articles didn't say one way or the other.

and more

We've been watching this on the news here. I hope they catch the bastard!

No it is illegal. That is the problem. There was some talk of creating areas where they could work indoors and not have to put themselves at risk, but our cowardly government didn't want the flack so close to elections.

sorry, Dana, but prostitution per se is legal. Kerb-crawling and soliciting ARE illegal, but paying for sex, and offering sex for money, are legal.

However, that misses the point.


Five young women have been murdered. Their profession is irrelevant to any sane individual.

Of course it doesn't make their deaths any more tragic, but it clearly is relevant to how this sicko is choosing his targets and is likely instrumental in how he gets them alone. But I only asked because the articles mentioned that one of the later-murdered women had been interviewed earlier saying that she wasn't going to stop advertising, so to speak, just because the first few murders had occurred, and I had found that a curious statement to publicly make if prostitution were illegal.

Ah, I see where you're coming from, clodfobble (btw,just when are we going to get that ass picture?).....

Prostitution is not illegal in the UK. Thus, a woman can clearly claim to be a prostitute and demand that the police forces protect her.

However, you are probally right in that the perpetuor/s is/are some kind of morally deranged 'vigilante' person/group.

What kills me (no pun intended) is that you are forcing me (legistlatively) to become more vulnerable to make yourself feel better when my being armed is actually a deterrent to either of us being attacked since the attacker has no way of knowing which one of us will blow his head clean off and which one will basically assume the fetal position.

I mean if you were an attacker, hypothetically speaking of course, which city would you set up shop in: a city where only criminals have guns or a city where a lot of people in your "target market" can kill you. Exactly. Hence the crime rate in DC.

ok.

some ground rules.

the UK is not, by & large, an armed society. Nor, in general, do we wish to be.

and Suffolk is not DC.

Take your 'guns are glorious' thoughts elsewere.... this is not the right thread for that discusion.

If staying on point is your point then I recommend leaving CF's ass out of it.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Jay on this one. Aren't there plenty of other threads where people can discuss gun laws?

No, it seems all the other threads have Aussies and Brits ragging on Americans for being gun-happy.

It's not just australians and brits UT. Some of your countrymen feel the same way.

In any case, the point here is that what has happened to these women has been shocking.

I am afraid Jay does not have the right of it. One prostitute with one pistol and one or more well placed bullets -- that ends the threat to their lives, does it not? Armed self defense is as natural a right as unarmed self defense would be, and one that Parliament tyrannously tore away from you, and which you are going to have to wrest back, and permanently, if you desire to live in a free society and not A Clockwork Orange.

A counter-argument possibly being found in a movie quote ...

"If God didn't want them sheared, He would not have made them sheep."

*Loving and healing energy goes out to all whom suffer through this time and who have lost loved ones*

Maybe, but what other group of women will steal off to a secluded place with a stranger, willingly?:confused:

have you been out on a Saturday night recently? a few drinks, a bite to eat, a taxi home ... cheaper than paying a prostitute but no less worthy of a judgemental statement.
there are many, many reasons for women (and men) to turn to prostitution. there's a story behind every woman's decision (not always a choice) to enter into this "profession". the least society could do is everything possible to protect them.

What relevance is that?

We should have gone with the 'safe-zone' idea. It was shelved to avoid adverse publicity. Girls who work that trade are no less deserving of consideration and protection than anybody else. If a mine caves in and kills a bunch of miners, we do not wag our collective finger and say, yes but what other kind of men would steal off underground and put themselves in danger.

News reports here say that the police have a suspect in custody, a grocery store worker who lives on the edge of town.

What's the latest on this? Have they beaten a confession out of him yet?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/6189409.stm

hopefully the perpetrator and not a convenient scape goat. its too early to know, and i really hope the media hype is not going to jepardise (sp?) what should be a fair and thorough trial.

mmmm.... One the one hand, it does cast our serial killers in a better light, in that without the ready access to fire-arms, they have to work harder to co-erce/cajole the victims into the life-threatening situation. And then of course there's the method of despatch itself... without fire-arms, one has to be much more inventive. Strike one more for the Brits (and Aussies). I guess that the readily and widespread availablity of guns in the US has, to a large extent, removed the elegance and originality from homicide as it is practised in the USA.

Ali, what Jay was saying is that this thread is fine for discussion of gun issues, but only if you have opinions that Jay agrees with.

sorry, UT, I was gettin' bored....



































(mmmm..... now, if only I had a gun, I could perhaps make you agree with me...)

Don't be silly Jay, you live in England. If you had a gun surely it would have been stolen by now. :P

lol! true enuff...... I live halfway between Manchester & Liverpool.... my possessions are fair game for all & sundry!

Whoa, back the fuck up. What the hell are you two babbling about?
Jay suggested the killer might be targeting prostitutes because he's a moral vigilante. I countered with, that's the most likely group to go off to a secluded place with a stranger. That makes them the easiest target
Who's being judgmental, not me. :eyebrow:

Okay, sorry, misunderstood.

He was a cop, he could have gotten an fire-arm if he chose to. Most serial killers in the US don't use them. I can only think of one that used them to get their victims to cooperate. They don't like them... not "personal" enough.
Trying to make this a gun discussion won't work.
They don't use them. If anything it would show that an armed populace would be better served to protect themselves.
However, I just don't see why it is really relevant to this discussion. The laws are the way they are and the poor people are dead and we need to focus on that.
More, openly, legalized prostitution with safer access for them and safer places to practice their jobs would help with this immensely.
We must remove our puritanical ideas from sex, it is a sickness that is killing people like this, with abuse and STDs every day all over the world.

They've arrested a second suspect:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16277149/