The right answer, the wrong reason
Raymond Horne (not, as the Daily Mirror insists on calling him, Raymond Thorne) is to be deported from Australia on his release from prison in a couple of weeks. Horne is a paedophile; I would venture that if he is still a ‘clear and present danger’, it might be best for him to remain in prison. The Sun is outraged that he might come back to Blighty:
A CHILD sex monster is being deported to Britain – even though he has lived Down Under for 40 YEARS.
The nature of his crime is somewhat irrelevant to the case, though. I don’t mean to sound heartless and I have the greatest sympathy for his victims. Horne is given as 61 with a 43 year history of sexual crimes against minors in Australia; he’s been in Australia for a long time and certainly since his youth.
Learco Chindamo murdered headteacher Philip Lawrence; on his release, he will not be deported to Italy, as reported by the BBC. I wrote about it at the time, as did the Ministry of Truth. The case has similarities, although I think there is greater culpability in Horne’s case as he was not a minor. Throwing a criminal out because they happen to have been born overseas is not necessarily the right action. For one thing, it comes close to an arbitrary deprivation of citizenship and results, with different penalties, in all not being equal before the law. Secondly, a crime does not necessarily obviate the ability to acquire citizenship. As I have said before, citizenship cannot have multiple categories and cannot be dependent on good behaviour or we would see a return to exile as a punishment; from a strictly utilitarian point of view, this is a bad idea.
From the point of view of protection of people (which is not the same as victims’ rights by a long sight), the UK authorities are familiar with Chindamo in a way that the Italians authorities are not and the Australian authorities with Horne in a way that the British are not. Deporting Chindamo to a country where he could not speak the language would not help inclusion and so prevent recidivism, but make it more likely that alienation would lead to violence. Equally, all of Horne’s old tricks would become new again on removal to the UK, increasing the risk to people in the UK. The Sun seems to agree with that much as it vents its (copious) spleen in the same piece:
Even his own doctor has said the move will put UK kids at risk.
The questions are about risk – whether the risk is greater in the UK or Australia – and whether an Australian child is worth as much as a British child. Petty nationalism has no more place here than it did in the Chindamo case.
xD.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Who’s paying for his flight (or will he be on a slow boat)?
March 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Does it matter?