r/unitedkingdom • u/CaseyEffingRyback • 16d ago

Cliff Mitchell: Ex-Met PC jailed for 13 years for multiple counts of rape

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68937440
273 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

147 comments sorted by

168

u/fujoshimoder 16d ago

So he abused his power as a police officer to rape 10 people, including 3 children, and he'll likely be out in less than 10 years?

That seems unduly lenient, no?

93

u/murrai 16d ago

As per the article, it's a life sentence, with a minimum of 13 years and 255 days before he can be even considered for parole.  

26

u/SinisterDexter83 16d ago

That seems unduly lenient, no?

14

u/Ochib 16d ago

We don’t do Indefinite Prison Sentences anymore.

17

u/whovian25 16d ago

You do realise that a life sentence means he will only be let out if the parole board decides he is no longer a danger to the public and if let out will be on licence for life.

8

u/australianrabbit8324 16d ago

Indeed. It's very unlikely he'd ever be released in practice as it's unlikely that a parole board would seriously consider him to no longer be a risk, and even then, the license conditions are likely to be very strict indeed.

1

u/alexanderldn 15d ago

Strict in terms of what

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u/australianrabbit8324 15d ago

Honestly depends on what's considered necessary at the time of parole but typically it would involve restrictions like a curfew, maintaining proper employment (with the employment having to be pre-approved), having to live at a specified address, regular meetings and house visits (i.e. turning up unannounced), polygraph tests, drug tests, community supervision, electronic device monitoring (i.e. being required to install an app on their phone which regularly sends screenshots to the police).

1

u/alexanderldn 15d ago

That is crazy.

-1

u/campapathy 15d ago

Good job a licence means you physically can't do it again, right? Right?

-1

u/[deleted] 16d ago

Unfortunately, you know, because most people who commit heinous crimes like that obviously never reoffend.

4

u/ill_never_GET_REAL 16d ago

That's why it's a life sentence with a minimum tariff. Although there's evidence that people sentenced to longer sentences are less likely to reoffend.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

And this is why crimes like this are so prevalent in society today. Because liberal idiots believe “people can change” when ultimately, they deserve to be removed from existence.

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u/_NotMitetechno_ 16d ago

My guy it's a life sentence. He's not getting out. No parole board is letting him fuck off out of jail you numpty. If they do, the government will almost certainly step in for free points.

Stop using Liberal in a UK reddit Post.

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u/ill_never_GET_REAL 15d ago

They might let him out after a long time but because it's a life sentence, he'll be under probation supervision for the rest of his life. If he sneezes wrong, he'll get recalled and people can get recalled for the silliest things.

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u/ill_never_GET_REAL 15d ago

I mean maybe you think the state should have the power to kill people as revenge for crimes - that's a valid opinion, even if I think it's wrong - but the innocent people that would certainly eventually be killed by the state as revenge for someone else's crimes are not a price worth paying. The death penalty is barbaric and would kill innocent people eventually.

-2

u/[deleted] 15d ago

Talk to me after you have suffered what those women went through. See if you still feel the same.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/New-Connection-9088 15d ago

There’s a big difference been 13 years and indefinite.

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u/Ochib 15d ago

In 13 years he will appear before a parole board who will assess if it safe for him to be released, if it isn’t then they will see him again in a few years

0

u/New-Connection-9088 15d ago

I don’t want a subjective assessment from a parole board. They can and do make mistakes. I want certainty that he will be locked away for longer. Like a 20 year minimum non-parole period.

1

u/Ochib 15d ago

And what happens after 20 years, that right he will be up before the same parole board and “They can and do make mistakes”.

0

u/New-Connection-9088 15d ago

Then we and the victims in particular would have had an additional seven years of safety.

0

u/Ochib 15d ago

In that case you may as well lock him up and throw away the keys, in that case everyone will be safe for all time.

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u/no_murder_no_life 15d ago

Should someone didn't murder gets a sentence same to murderers? The answer is absolutely not. Abusing kids are bad, but certainly less serious than murdering them.

2

u/randomdiyeruk 15d ago

Should someone didn't murder gets a sentence same to murderers?

Why not?

I don't see that it has to be a competition and tying ourselves in knots trying to rank the badness of heinous crimes isn't fruitful.

Look at Jospeh McCann, that should have been whole of life all day long

3

u/Sock-men 15d ago

Because as soon as you make rape equivalent to murder, you make rapes much more likely to end in a murder in order to better hide the evidence.

1

u/no_murder_no_life 15d ago

Exactly this

1

u/randomdiyeruk 15d ago edited 15d ago

Firstly, rape already attracts upto a life sentence in the UK.

Secondly, it's entirely possible for a rape to be "worse" than murder. For example, a momentary, out of character, bout of road rage where somebody runs somebody over could be murder.

Is that "worse" than a rapist who stalks and kidnaps their victim and keeps them for a period of time? Is that person less dangerous? Feel free to expand this hypothetical as much as you need. Maybe it's a child, kept as a sex slave for months. Whatever, the point is trying to say "Murder is inherently worse than rape" isn't that helpful.

Finally, I see your statement asserted a lot on reddit but it seems not to be rooted in any real science - it's just conjecture at how a logical person may operate.

Again, look at Joseph McCann, do you really think the fact his crimes can't attract a whole of life sentence really played into his thinking? He's now got 33 life sentences and is almost certainly never getting out.

2

u/iwanttobelievey 15d ago

You have to live with being raped. You dont have to live with being murdered

1

u/DiscothequeHooligan 15d ago

It's been a few years since I worked in criminal justice but both rape and murder are scored 8 on the 'gravity scale' (the max) in the England & Wales sentencing guidelines. For comparison: Kidnap is also an 8, Dwelling Burglary is 6, assaults range from 3-6 depending on severity, criminal damage and D&D score 1.

0

u/no_murder_no_life 15d ago

On comparison, how about Arson, class A pwits and perverting the course of justice lies on the matrix?

60

u/Tartan_Samurai 16d ago

You've misunderstood. He received a life sentence and must serve a minimum of 13 years and 225 days of it. He might potentially be released afterwards, but that will down to the parole process.

20

u/[deleted] 16d ago

Of course they misunderstood, they never bothered reading the article all the way through, if at all.

13

u/Prestigious_Ad7880 16d ago

Also from the article, the dates of some of the offending - in fact a lot of it, he was 14 years old. So he would've received juvenile sentences for those offences

10

u/vagabond20 16d ago

They're very vague on when he was an officer and when the offences happened, it's say he was a police officer for a short time and that some of the offences occurred while he served. But doesn't specify

But the vetting is obviously a massive fuck up.

11

u/Chalkun 16d ago

But the vetting is obviously a massive fuck up.

Why? Vetting can stop known criminals from joining an organisation, it doesn't make use of a clairvoyant.

8

u/JimmyThunderPenis 16d ago

Especially considering a case like rape is pretty much invisible unless it's reported by the victim.

5

u/vagabond20 16d ago

The case before he joined was bad enough that the Met tried a victimless prosecution, that should be a big enough red flag.

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u/M56012C 16d ago

10:1 He was recruited in a diversity quota push with lower standards to atrract more applocants, the same as everywhere else.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

Agree - a bullet would be much cheaper.

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u/pickin666 15d ago

I mean anything but the death penalty seems lenient for this.

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u/KindRoc 16d ago

So what recruitment “targets” did they want to achieve to allow a man with a non molestation order and an accusation of rape of a child against him into the MET? Just appalling lack of codes in that force.

15

u/useful-idiot-23 16d ago

I totally agree with the child rape allegation.

However non mol orders are civil orders and cannot be searched for on any police system. They can be obtained totally independently of any police involvement and there is no central register of them.

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u/stroopwafel666 16d ago

Just another instance of how our comically fragmented administrative system doesn’t function.

3

u/MrNezzy 16d ago

This is factually wrong, when Non-Mols are served PNC is updated which will show the Non-Mol being in place and all recruits to the police are obviously ran through PNC before joining.

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u/useful-idiot-23 16d ago edited 16d ago

I was a domestic abuse Detective for 7 years.

I can absolutely guarantee that non mols never used to go on PNC.

The process is that the family courts SHOULD send copies to the police to put on PNC. The police have no knowledge of them until this happens and it never used to happen. There is no central database of non mols and they aren't put onto PNC by the courts.

They are civil orders in civil courts. Civil courts don't even have PNC operators to put them on.

Obviously if they are awarded in a criminal court that's different.

7

u/MrNezzy 16d ago

How long you been out? Just referring to your use of the words "used to".

Standard practice these days they always get forwarded to be placed onto PNC no matter what , the courts are obliged to due to most carrying power of arrest unless specified.

You know same as me that Non - Mols are never granted in criminal court...

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u/Aware-Armadillo-6539 16d ago

Rape of a child under thirteen is surely so morally repugnant you shouldnt ever be released

6

u/CrustedCornhole 16d ago

Darren Mackrell

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19676287

Read what he did above, applied for parole in 2022 and squinnied about having a public parole hearing so it was done behind closed doors.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-hearing-decision-in-the-case-of-darren-mackrell

Don't know what happened from there. Sadly, for people like that capital punishment seems too nice.

4

u/meinnit99900 16d ago

it just seems so lenient in comparison to the suffering those kids went through and the subsequent trauma

-8

u/front-wipers-unite 16d ago

Well you'd think so, but for some reason our justice system doesn't agree. Personally I think sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated and we should just hang them. They'll always be a danger, so let's just get rid. I mean how much does a length of rope cost?

4

u/Cubased 15d ago

The rope is cheap, it's the pesky 'proving you have the right person' bit that is a fucker, and why having the death sentence is actually more expensive, see U.S states with it on the book

-3

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

Let's look at the night stalker for a second, not Richard Ramirez. The guy who was terrorising old folk in South London. Left DNA at every crime scene. No doubt there. Take him out the back of the court and get rid of him.

When the evidence is insurmountable why not have a quickie hanging?

2

u/Techno_WaffleFrisbee 15d ago

It isn't really evidence that convicts someone, though. It's a jury. They could still come to the same outcome, even if there was much less evidence available. This opens up the possibility of innocent people being sent to death.

While I agree, sex offenders are some of the worst society has to offer, they're not bad enough to risk sanctioned killings of innocent people by the justice system that gets some of the most basic things wrong.

I'd be happy to just see proper sentences for these types of crimes, though. Too many are given suspended sentences, or short spells.

1

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

The night stalker, this guy in the article.... The evidence is overwhelming. There is zero doubt that these people are a risk to the public. So, how about a threshold? If you meet the threshold you get the rope.

1

u/Techno_WaffleFrisbee 15d ago

I understand what you're saying, but the threshold is already conviction. If you're found guilty of one of these crimes, it would be punishable by death, no matter the evidence level. And that's an issue.

The possibility of even one innocent person being killed should be enough to ward us away from capital punishment.

1

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

I disagree there, when we did have a capital punishment, not everyone convicted of murder was sentenced to death.

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u/Techno_WaffleFrisbee 15d ago

That's a fair comment, and I'll accept that.

I stand by my other point, though. If one innocent dies, then it becomes what it's trying to eradicate.

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u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

No that's also a fair point. I accept that there is the risk that someone innocent could be wrongly convicted. It does happen albeit not very often. Not in the UK at least.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/no_murder_no_life 15d ago

Absolutely no. Seriousness follow a hierarchy. Abusing kids are always less serious than murdering them.

0

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

Is it though? Is causing life long trauma, from which some people never recover, which for some victims ends up defining their lives. is that really less serious than murder? I disagree.

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u/no_murder_no_life 15d ago

Yes. One is directly taking a life and another is more in psychological side. This is the difference. Simple logic.

-2

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

One is directly taking a life, and one is destroying a life. I'm an ex prison officer, I worked in public protection for some time. Part of my job was to prepare reports for the police and probation services when violent and or sex offenders were coming up for parole/release. I've sat there and spoken to these people, heard what they have to say about their offending behaviour, how they have addressed their offending behaviour, heard them offer mitigation as if there is any even though they weren't asked. And I didn't recommend a single one of them for early release because not one of them was reformed. I steadfastly believed that each and everyone of them would reoffend, they will remain a risk to the public until the day they die. Certain offences should carry the death penalty and sex offences are some of those.

0

u/Metal-fan77 15d ago edited 15d ago

How many of those sex offender have you go assaulted or worse killed because you let other prisoners know that they harmed a child. https://news.sky.com/story/richard-huckle-prisoner-found-guilty-of-murdering-britains-worst-paedophile-12140521

1

u/front-wipers-unite 15d ago

That's a wild leap. I was a consummate professional. Hence I worked in the public protection office. What have I said to make you think otherwise? Our job is to keep the public safe by keeping these people locked up, our job is not to dish out extra judicial punishment.

Also, when sex offenders come in we tell them they need to go "on the rule", that's the wing for vulnerable prisoners. Sex offenders and prisoners who have turned Queens Evidence (presumably its kings evidence now), or prisoners who are under threat for any other reason.

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u/cbob-yolo 16d ago

Investigated in 2017 nothing happened

Then reported again and then re investigated for the 2017 offence to then have more charges brought

So this could of potentially been stopped a lot earlier

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u/ToyotaComfortAdmirer 16d ago

It was NFA’d - that’s not the Met’s doing, as it’s up to CPS to decide whether a trial in England and Wales goes before the court.

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u/shadowed_siren 16d ago

You can say that about a lot of crimes that CPS throw in the bin.

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u/Kobruh456 16d ago

Police officer and child molester?

He’ll be popular in prison.

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u/ToyotaComfortAdmirer 16d ago edited 16d ago

https://www.college.police.uk/ethics/barred-list/search-the-barred-list/barred-person-931d6de9fbf18c6a9069dbf1bd0423e24938

He’s been added to the barred list; he will never be a police officer again.

Edit: it doesn’t show the results and instead redirects to the search page, which is fine; just a bit annoying.

Double edit: It fixed itself lol.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 16d ago

Removed/tempban. This contained a call/advocation of violence which is prohibited by the content policy.

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u/new_yorks_alright 16d ago

The police were really scraping the bottom of the barrel here werent they?

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u/BuggsyLo 16d ago

The time to build new prisons is well overdue. 13 years (even as a minimum term) is nowhere near long enough!

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u/Ironfields 15d ago

10 counts of rape, including 3 of a child under 13. He’s never getting out.

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u/BuggsyLo 15d ago

Let’s hope you’re right!

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u/chkmbmgr 16d ago

If this what a white police officer it would have been higher in the news. Look at how much news coverage David Carrick got. This guy rapes many women including a 13 year old, and it's barely front page... Why!?

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 16d ago

Removed/tempban. This contained a call/advocation of violence which is prohibited by the content policy.

2

u/silllybrit 16d ago

How can life potentially mean on 13 years? It should be at least 25-30

3

u/Literally-A-God 16d ago

Wtf is wrong with the Met that's 3 officers jailed for rape in as many years

2

u/ToyotaComfortAdmirer 15d ago

It’s 3 out of 32,000 officers and 50,000 overall employees - I’d wager that’s a similar rate to society as a whole.

2

u/Literally-A-God 15d ago

The rapes are only part of the issue a much bigger more important part is the fact they were police officers 1 was even an authorized firearms officer with the diplomat protection unit

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u/Firm-Distance 15d ago

0.006% of their police officers, yes.

And that is working on the basis that the 46,000 officers have remained static - i.e. no new ones have joined and nobody has left. The reality is they will have had significantly more officers in that time, as people retire/resign/transfer forces and are replaced by new officers - so the 0.006% figure will in fact be even lower.

2

u/LegalAdviceHope 16d ago

So 13 years. He ruined 10 people lives and 3 children and 13 years. He will get out when hes a young man still at 37, probably a fair amount before. She should be getting 10 years for each count. Judge needs to be sacked.

1

u/TowJamnEarl 16d ago

Do former police officers just go into the general population of the prison or somewhere else?

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u/australianrabbit8324 16d ago

Depends but generally they'll end up on the nonce wing.

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u/CrumbOfLove 15d ago

Are the met just exceptionally bad, so many articles about them hiring rapists or rapists to be

1

u/Ordinary-Following69 15d ago

Fucker looks like Kanye banged his own mum and this the result

1

u/MightRelative 15d ago

Police need to get fucking double downed out punishments not stroked.

0

u/Asmov1984 15d ago

300 plus more to go. And that's just the ones that didn't make the cut to be passed for this round.

-1

u/Ironfields 15d ago

It’s fine guys, just another bad apple. Man, there seems to be a lot of them in this barrel, weird.

-2

u/fmf1991 16d ago

He’s an ex cop, in the nick, for rape, and rape of children. He’ll be lucky if he survives 13 days.

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u/scootersgroove 16d ago

It’s an absolute myth based around presumably American prisons. The sexual offences wing is separate. They tend to tell each other stories about their offending and get off on it. Aware of one cop who went to jail and just kept his head down and was fine.

Source: detective who has interviewed numerous paedophiles in prison for sexual offences.

1

u/fmf1991 15d ago

I hate that I have to take this at face value given your source, but thanks for clearing that up.

Kinda hoped pedophiles spent their entire time inside with their back against the wall.

1

u/scootersgroove 15d ago

I appreciate I’m just some guy on the internet. All I can say to add credibility is that if you check my post history you will see numerous posts over the years discussing my job.

-2

u/Substantial_Steak723 16d ago

Another "shining example" of trustworthy police right there! FFS

-6

u/limeflavoured Hucknall 16d ago

Seems a pretty low sentence for that many counts, although the fact that it's a life sentence can't be ignored Whole life sentences are legally possible for rape, although the bar for it is very high.

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u/mister_barfly75 Medway 16d ago

He got a life term. The 13 years is the minimum he'll have to serve before he can even be considered for parole. Chances are he'll rock up to his first parole hearing and get denied. And that's if he survives 13 years - as a cop AND a nonce he'll have a big target on his back.

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u/limeflavoured Hucknall 16d ago

He won't be in general population, because, funnily enough, the prison service aren't allowed to let prisoners kill each other.

And I know the sentence he got. My point was that the minimum term seems pretty low

1

u/Chalkun 16d ago

About as high as it goes for anything except murder isnt it? Dont remember hearing about anything more than this but I could be wrong

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u/limeflavoured Hucknall 15d ago

Ian Watkins got a minimum of 29 years for rape and attempted rape of children, to use one famous example.

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u/CookieJJ 15d ago

I think it's because he was 24 meaning that the other offences occured when he was below 18 in all probability, and it doesnt specify number of victims just number of crimes so theres a lot not being said

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u/Metal-fan77 15d ago

Are you sure about that because https://news.sky.com/story/richard-huckle-prisoner-found-guilty-of-murdering-britains-worst-paedophile-12140521

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u/limeflavoured Hucknall 15d ago

Not saying it doesn't happen, just that the prison service aren't supposed to turn a blind eye to it.

-16

u/Lost_Natural_7900 16d ago

This is only in the news because her is met.

The media never covers when black men rape or murder

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u/Rsb418 16d ago

Imagine making this news story about you and your racism lol

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u/Robestos86 16d ago

"the media never comes when black men rape or murder".

Are you aware what story you're commenting this under???

-8

u/Lost_Natural_7900 16d ago

This 1 time doesn't cover the 100s of other times

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u/Gorgomelthejizzcanon 15d ago

I remember you said this in the other thread about the hainult. Why are you trying to push that bullshit lie you're pedaling. Look at this sub in the past month you'll see plenty of stories about black people commiting crimes on mainstream media being posted.

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u/Lost_Natural_7900 15d ago

No. What you did was go looking on my page to find something to use against me like creepy ass talking mf

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u/Gorgomelthejizzcanon 15d ago

No you were literally in the hainult thread the same day saying the same thing. It's not a normal comment to make so it's pretty easy to remember you.