Louise Woodward

I have to say that Meg Ryan looks especially attractive in this movie - youth is a wonderful thing! Yes , I know that people will argue that age brings a certain (I was going to say J' ne .... something or other - but my French wasn't up to it - come on Colin your expertise) but I do agree that many people can be even more attractive later in life - if they're lucky (or maybe, if they can afford it). [%sig%]

Emma, he murdered a German taxi driver for £8 whilst doing National Service. He left a young girl destitute and fatherless. i believe he served 6-7 years in military prison for his crime but never showed any remorse for his actions and when he became rich and famous never tried to make recompense to the family (he didn't even offer to return the £8) In my book he's a scumbag, I won't watch him on TV, I won't read about him in the papers or mags, in fact I detest him more than any other personality. I hope one day to open my paper and see he has been brutally mugged for his wristwatch.

oooooooooooooooh, and me an Eastenders fan, too.................... I knew he'd been in prison, but I didn't know what for. I skip Eastenders more often than not these days, better things to do;-)

He's also recently been caught doing naughty things with a web cam and saying nasty thing about the cast of eastenders.........less wood in a woodmill or something like that.

oooooooooer

You're not sitting on the tumble dryer again are you Emma?

what a waste, when the weather's hot and sunny :-)

I have seen two thing that have brought this country to a standstill. The day Princess Diana was killed, and the night Lou was convicted. I lived two doors away from Louise and her family in Elton. The night of sentencing, the whole village was in, The Rigger pub. The press had been a pain in the arse for the whole six weeks, you couldn't leave your door without having a camera stuck in your face. Kids were stopped on their way to school, anyone with an available bed was expected to give it up for the press to camp out. The village hall was used as a command center and I know that over ten thousand donated chart Cd's were given away to childrens charities. In one interview Lou said that she liked Ferrero Rocher, the following few days, thousands of boxes arrived. They were all given to charity. Kids gave their five pounds pocket money and business men donated thousands to her appeal.Those six weeks were cazy. It was like Disney land meets Stepford Wives. There was a feeling of carnival but all the time there was a sinister presence of obsenity. Millions of pounds came in. Sue and Gary, confronted with all the money and gifts, were tempted and used some of Lou's fund for personal use. This jeapordised the public support for her. It broke their marriage. One day we went round to Sue's for a drink, all the travelling to Boston and the emotional strain of seeing Lou manacled had taken its toll on her.. Audrey, my next door neighbour and Sue went out in disguise to get some wine. They were spotted and the next morning pics in all the papers showed her sneaking wine bottles into her home and insinuated that she had a drink problem. Expensive jewlery was sent by at least three men proposing marriage. And for every ten sacks of money there would be one of hate mail. Death threats and vile words. We sifted through these and reported anything close to home to the police.For six weeks my evenings consisted of making miles of yellow bows. When the verdict of Guilty was given, you could have heard a pin drop. Nobody reacted for over thrity seconds, we were all just watching Lou. I don't htink many people could forget the expression on her face. It was a crazy time. We had another, much happier crazy time when she came home. I think that girl deserves everything she has worked for. She will writ a book. There will be a film. she'll be okay. But for he rest of her life, that guilty verdict is going to shadow her and people will always wonder ... yeah, I know but, what if she did?

I know Lou. She babysat for my son with the girl who lived next door to me. I am friends with Sue and Gary, her parents. She has worked bloody hard to get her qualifications. she's had to go to the court of Eurpoean rights. The last I heard, she has what she needs, but still isn't allowed to practice. On top of all the work she had to do and all the legislation and arse licking, she has had to face monumental predudice. In theory I agree with you. She is a convicted killer she shouldn't be allowed to practise law to save other potentially guilty killers. However... There were things about that rial that never came to light and should have done. Lou worked for the family through a harsh Boston winter. Sunhil and his wife used to leave the house early. I think I'mright that Lou only had Matthew to look after because his brother was at school. when the family left, the heating went off. She had to sit wrapped up in coats and dessing gowns until they reutrned home. Their baby was in the cold house. It as proven that Matthew had a broken arm, that had never been attended to in a hospital, which dated to several months before Louises arrival in Boston. The family had been investigatd by the authorities the year before. It was proven and Mrs Eapen stood trial for physical abuse and battery of the eldest son. She suffered post natal depression and because her job as a peadiatric doctor was too stressful she had to be 'sidelined' into opthalmics. She spent several months in a psychiatric unit bcause of her mood swings, PND and aggression. On the run up to the trial Mrs Eapen was secetly filmed 'coaching' the elder lad (I can't remember his name) as to what he should say when interviewed. That kid had been knocked about all his life. All this was stuff that Lou's barrister uncovered and had documentation to prove in court and yet .... NONE OF THIS WAS ADMISABLE OR ALLOWED TO BE USED IN EVIDENCE. they said it bore no relevance to the case. How the hell can the fact that, a murdered baby's brother had been beaten by his mother, could not be given in balance to the 'wild child' lifestyle they portrayed Lou as living over there? Just wanted to show the other side of the coin. In my opinion Louise Woodward didn't harm Matthew Eappen. She's one of the most courageous people I've ever met.

Fascinating.

No Emily, you do what you feel is right for you, but leave out the royal 'we'.

Thanks for this information. (Whew!)

She is a child murderer that got away with it, because of politics. How wrong has our country gone??? !!!!!!! We let baby killers go free because it is always somebody else's fault. Never should we hold the perpetrator accountable in this (liberal) society. God forbid. Oh, I shouldn't have used that term. I mean after all we have no morals or obligation in this country any more! [%sig%]

Cindy, this all took place in America, not here; read what Sooz wrote, please. Not that we're that much better in the UK, with a string of completely false convictions of women who lost babies on the strength of one "expert" on child cot death who presented dubious "statistics" to sway juries (may not be able to be more specific on libel grounds).

Cindy - did you actually bother to READ this thread through from the top - because your post suggests not.

Everyone's entitled to it

too much is given to convicted criminals. They have broken the laws of society and should have their rights taken away as such....

yes, but what if they are wrongly convicted?

You have a point but until someone is proved wongly convicted they are a criminal and that is where the law is clear.

What are your feelings about Leslie Grantham?

ok, boss.

Sooz: Hiya. Am sure have read, heard recently that there is a massive cloud over Loiuse's and other child killers brewing. As in it has now been established that there are other reasons why a child can have massive hematop....bugger it can't spell it (blood clots) on the brain. If this is true as in the so called 3 2 1 must be murder rule of Professor what's his name, then there should be reinvestigation of all these so called murders. Et al re: Lesley Grantham, he did his time, for the crime. So what's the problem?

I understand there are people who are wrongly convicted but lets not lose sight of the fact that there are many others who deserve their convictions.

I was recently reading the account of a British lawyer who took on American miscarriages of justice as a charity. Not surprisingly he was very busy, as Americans seem to view justice as a commodity, the more you can pay the more you get. What Sooz says is enlightening but not surprising; Louise had a huge amount of support in her home village and the whole case had the hallmarks of a cover-up; let the Brit take the rap and get her out of the country ASAP, it being inconceivable that a middle-class professional couple could harm their kids. It's not just America of course, a lot of Brits are in prison overseas because they wouldn't pay a bribe or were made scapegoats for things the authorities won't admit to (Saudi bombings, for instance).

I don't think there's any evidence that Brits abroad actually get treated worse by legal systems on the grounds that they're British. The American legal system has many flaws but it's generally Americans that are on the receiving end of them, particularly those who can't afford to buy 'justice'. Similarly the Saudi justice system is much worse than American one but when Brits get convicted on spurious charges and sentenced to floggings and beheadings, these generally aren't carried out. I imagine your average Saudi, who doesn't have the British Foreign office batting on his/her side, is not so lucky.

To what?

Neil, Cindy IS in America, I think you'll find.

I once saw Leslie Grantham in a West End play, I think it was Casablanca. I had free tickets OK! and that was overpricing them. He was fucking awful! He made the Woodentops look animated. It was only my British reserve that stopped me walking out after 15 minutes. We did leave in the interval and were in stiff need of drink. Maybe he gave his greatest performance in his trial, because no matter how you cut it, 6-7 years for murder in pursuit of a robbery, is getting away with murder. By the way what's Chanel 4? Is it a new perfume?

Good point George! I think he has been suspended for his recent misconduct but no-one seems to care about his previous misdemenours (I can't spell it - is that right?)!

Tell me what he's done, I don't read the rags...

Good point George? George is obviously a Princess.Richard wrote: > I see convicted childkiller (manslaughter) Ms Woodward has > become a Solicitor. The future for Maxine Carr (not a child > abuser) can`t be too bad, I suppose.

Sorry Jim, too ratted to get your point - Leslie Grantham's conviction for killing a taxi driver doesn't seem to fit any of your criteria but I expect you were making a point that, considering I'm watching Meg Ryan fake an orgasm on Chanel Four, escapes my attention at the moment. [%sig%]