Saturday Scandal

So, as a new 'theme' if you like, each Saturday I will be posting my opinions or thoughts on something that some may consider controversial or even scandalous. To get me started I've picked something I have BIG opinions on and I am hoping to open up a whole can of worms. Remember though that my blog posts are never intended to offend, and I'm very open minded - My opinions aren't always set in stone, if you can convince me otherwise, please try! I love a bit of debate and am happy for anyone to get involved. Any information that I put up in these posts is just my understanding, if I get facts wrong please let me know!


Today's subject - Damien Fowkes.




Now, lets just start right at the beginning. This guy is Ian Huntley:

I would hope most people would recognise his face and remember the story - but for those of you who don't, this upstanding member of the community was a caretaker of a school, and after an apparent blazing row with his girlfriend Maxine Carr, called two young girls into his home and brutally murdered them. He then tried to dispose of their bodies near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. In 2003 he was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.


This fine specimen is Colin Hatch:

Not so famous, this one, but this lovely young man had a string of convictions from age 15 for assaulting young boys, and was jailed for the murder of 7 year old Sean Williams while he was on parole for a previous child sex attack.


Now, this guy is Damien Fowkes.

Fowkes was jailed in 2001 after a knifepoint robbery to raise money for his drug addiction. Not exactly a shining example of good behaviour...


In March 2010, Damien Fowkes fashioned a 'home made' knife from (I think) a razorblade attached to a melted toothbrush handle or something - and unsuccessfully attempted to murder Ian Huntley by slitting his throat. He left a 7 inch gash needing 21 stitches but Huntley survived.


In February 2011 while waiting to be trialed for his attempt to take Huntley's life, he bound and gagged Colin Hatch and strangled him with strips of bedding.


Fowkes had expressed a particular hatred for child killers. This revulsion could have been heightened by the fact Fowkes had a daughter of his own - who knows.


Now, Fowkes is considered to have 'strong psychopathic traits' and has at no point that I have heard of shown any kind of remorse.


So - that is the story up until this point. My thoughts?
Fowkes is quite obviously unhinged, dangerous and as such should probably serve his time - to be honest the further away they could take him, the better. He has some serious issues.


That's not to say I'm not quite grateful to him for doing what he's done though. I'm not talking about trying to rob someone by knifepoint, that probably wasn't entirely necessary, I'm talking about attempting to rid the world of two men who can only bring darkness, misery and hatred into the world. The worst type of criminal in my opinion. Men who have destroyed children and families and would almost definitely not hesitate to do so again. And again. And again.


My friends and family will know this already, but I'm a very protective person. My need to defend the people closest to me is at times a little extreme - there are probably times that I should keep my nose out and I really don't. I can't help it... The thing is I can't even imagine what my reaction would be if someone was to hurt my daughter, or my niece or nephew. I don't think I would be myself anymore - I really think that a huge part of me would change dramatically and I would become someone completely different.


Fowkes obviously made a lot of questionable life choices - someone willing to rob an innocent person at knifepoint for a drugs fix must have been falling into a pretty big hole. Not really thinking about his future, or consequences of his actions. Only thinking about his need for drugs. And I can imagine (scarily), that someone with that outlook on his life, combined with a need to protect his and other peoples children, probably wouldn't think twice about ridding the world of a couple of dangerous, evil men. When in that close a proximity, given the chance, I think that actually there's a lot of people who like to think they'd have done the same thing!


I'm not in any way glorifying what Fowkes has done - but I'm definitely on the side of the fence that says he has done the world an enormous favour, and I only wish he had done a better job on Huntley.