The letter of the law…

VTA · May 7, 2013

While we were on the subject of those jerks in Boston, I'd said the law is misused for people who don't deserve it. Obviously it's my viewpoint that that's the case, but for what purpose is the law in the end? Why keep someone like this around, allow him a bargaining tool in his defense and then give a determined time to release him again?

This is a horrible person who surely won't be rehabiltated in prison and deportation won't mean anything except a group of kid's of different nationality are in his view when released. He may have been caught before the act, but his determination and attempt to acquire a child to torture, rape, kill and eat were as real as can be. At the very least lock him in a concrete room for good.

A Briton faces up to 27 years in a US jail for plotting to kidnap, rape, kill and eat a child, authorities say.

Agents found the basement of Geoffrey Portway's Massachusetts home equipped with a steel cage and a child-sized home-made coffin, in a raid last year.

The 40-year-old had spent months discussing the kidnap and murder online with an American, Michael Arnett.

Detectives said Portway used programmes such as Skype to communicate with Michael Arnett over several months, asking him for help with the kidnap and setting out his preferred age range.

They said records of the conversations revealed the two men discussed real children - by name and photo - whom Arnett claimed to know and have access to.

According to US court documents, Portway had solicited several people for help in obtaining a child, including Arnett.

The dungeon was described in detail by Portway in recovered chats as a place he intended to use to keep kidnapped children”

Police believe he began making inquiries from at least 2010 and was informed that Arnett had previously helped others with such requests and had "experience" with the abduction and sexual abuse of children.

During their web conversations, Portway boasted of his intention to lock children in his basement, referencing scalpels, butchering kits, freezers and castration tools.

Detectives also found material showing that the men had shared child pornography and images of injured, mutilated and dead children.

During last year's raid, federal agents found a locked door in the basement, which led to a second door that opened into a dungeon lined with sound-deadening material containing a small makeshift coffin with external locking devices.

Nearby were a steel cage with multiple locks, and a steel table top with steel rings at six points, which police believe were intended to restrain victims.

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peplaw06 · May 7, 2013

Do you propose that Massachusetts just lock him away for the rest of his life without a trial? Or do you propose the death penalty?

And who makes the decision?

Just trying to figure out what you're really asking here.

peplaw06 · May 7, 2013

Just to add... the nature of a "right" is that it's something you get whether you deserve it or not.

VTA · May 7, 2013

What I'm asking is what good is the law if it doesn't really accomplish complete justice? He didn't get to follow through, so I could understand no death penalty in this case, but where does he get to bargain his sentence in a plea deal? Shouldn't justice in obvious cases simply come as a fitting consequence?

I don't really like the idea of having a defense affording a proven criminal any kind of bargaining power, simply because he makes an admission.

And rights can be diffused when they are abused in this fashion. By allowing someone convicted of something entirely horrible to have a say is something I can't wrap my head around. My impression is that when you trample anothers rights, you've forfeited your own. Granted this case hadn't reached that point of him getting a victim, but in the general sense, I think our rights need to be a little more wisely protected.

VTA · May 7, 2013

Or maybe I'm just saying, this guy's actions/intent makes me so sick I feel like beating him with a lead pipe....

peplaw06 · May 7, 2013

Maybe he doesn't have a "say." I find it impossible to speculate based on what information you have provided here. If you get a strong prosecutor who doesn't deal an inch on this, then what's the beef?

VTA · May 7, 2013

The terms of his sentence were set according to his plea deal.

peplaw06 · May 7, 2013

That doesn't tell me what the maximum sentence was. This was a federal case, which means he has a sentencing range... He's going to be in for 18 to 27 years, then he's going to be deported. For a 40-year old that's pretty close to a life sentence in the pen.

The feds don't really make "deals" like state prosecutors make, at least not in my experience. The sentencing guidelines are used, and it's a strict point system which determines how much time the guy will serve. The only bargaining power he has is a couple of points for cooperating with the process an accepting responsibility, which is of little consequence in the grand scheme.

And in the federal court where I've practiced, you don't waste a lot of time and taxpayer money in the process. They move very quickly.

I don't see what the advantage would be to force it to a lengthy drawn out trial.

VTA · May 7, 2013

I don't either. Maybe I'm on to something with the lead pipe...

The letter of the law…

VTA

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peplaw06

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peplaw06

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