"Treatment"

How do you treat a Sex offender? No, I don't mean "Lock him up and throw away the key" or, worse "Hang him". What I mean is, should you try to use Psychology or Psychiatry to treat his "illness" that causes his offending?

Here in England, the Criminal Justice System has courses called "Sex Offender Treatment Programmes." These are psychology programmes that try to reduce the risk of re-offending.

They claim to be accredited - though none have been for over a year now - and they claim to be, as the name suggests, "Treatment"

But what is the illness that a Sex Offender has? And, given that Sexual offenders range from the man who twangs his secretary's bra-strap to people like the Yorkshire Ripper, how can there be a "one Size Fits All" course of treatment.

I've been looking into this at some length. And no-one in authority has been able to answer these questions. These are important - if you are treating someone, surely you need to know what is wrong with them, and they need to give consent to the treatment?

It's not enough to take an otherwise perfectly healthy person who has committed an offence and say "We think you're ill, so you must be treated and if you don't agree we'll put you back in prison, but still not treat you because we can't actually force you to agree. Then we'll let you out without restrictions and there'll be no funding for the treatment you didn't agree to. But we'd still try to make you do it and have the Police harass you if you refuse."

So, as I go into my SOTP course in the community in a few weeks (nominally voluntarily, but actually to stay out of prison), I think I'll blog what's going on, and the answers they give me to my questions and others, just for the record. I won't breach the confidentiality of other group members though, so please don't ask me to.

And, get this. My course starts on a Friday!?!!? Then runs for 10 working days before an initial re-assessment. How peculiar. What are Northants probation playing at?

Ah well, a year of fun and games then. How do they expect you to get a job (a pathway to rehabilitation) if you're doing stuff like this though?

Awayday

I spent the day down in London yesterday.

Niahm is a "Ripperologist" and wanted some photographs of the sites. And we were able to find all but Millers Court, which is now a Car Park! Hopefully, the photos I took will help her with her book.

I also found out that several "Monopoly" streets in London have been renamed, such as Vine Street (now Vine Way), and also Shepherds Bush H&C tube is now Shepherds Bush Market.

In the meantime I picked up a few computer bits from cheap sources in London - Tottenham Court Road is great for electrical and electronic bits - and linked up with a couple of old friends. Then I headed up to St Pancras to have a look at the rebuild to allow Eurostar and SouthEastern Highspeed into the station. The Bronze statue at the front of the station is astonishing, such detail and perspective cast into the metal itself.

A short walk brought me back to Euston for the train home. I got back to the station at Midnight, and started the long walk home. As I was winding my way through the alleyways and underpasses of this new town, I realised how much I still have to learn about the place where I live.


I also realised that the "Sex Offender" provisions, requiring you to give your permanent address, and tell the police at any other address where you spend more than seven "nights" are utterly pointless.

What is the definition of "spend the night"? Imagine I lived in London, but worked in Edinburgh, and caught the sleeper up on a Sunday night, and home on the Friday, to spend a full weekend at home. Clearly I need to register the Guesthouse in Edinburgh where I spend Monday thru Thursday night, but where have I spent those two nights on the Sleeper? If I don't get home till after midnight, or 1am, or 2am, and I go out to a friend at 6am, and stay there till midnight, 1am, 2am, surely their address is more accurate as to where I spend the night, because I only go home in the morning.

Alternatively, if I work nights, and sleep in the daytime, do I register my work address as the place where I spend the night? Or even as my home address?

What about long distance trunking drivers, who drive 5 nights out of seven?

The release licence conditions are even more ludicrous - I must not spend one night away from my home address without consent of my Supervising Officer. So I can't go on holiday, or even go shopping at night. Again, there's no definition of this.

In fact the whole "Home Address" concept is flawed, for various reasons. However, I will allow the reader to consider why, and look forward to any comments.

Life, the Universe and Everything

Well, today has been fun.

Once you are a "Sex Offender", you are expected to engage with Offending Behaviour Programmes to reduce your risk. And I'm due to start one in a few weeks. They will try to wash my brain of the patterns of behaviour that led to the offences, and therefore prevent further victims.

So, as a result, I've had a rather attractive blond Probation Officer asking me all sorts of questions about my sex life. Not fun, frankly. Especially since I prefer brunettes.

However, I have the support of my family and a few good friends - thank Ghod for that.


It's only when your life hits rock bottom that you realise how precious those friend are - so here's Thanks to Daniel, Niamh, Louise, Little Becky and my Mum and Stepdad for their support and help throughout my sentence and after my release.

Welcome to my world

A first blog post is always hard. But here goes.

I'm Fenrir - obviously I'm not really, but Fenrir Lukoi will be the only name I use on here, and even if someone thinks they know me, they don't. I'm a convicted Child Sex Offender, and I served a prison term of a few days less than 1/2 of the sentence I received. Born outside the UK, I am a British Citizen, and live outside London, but not so far that it's not an easy journey south from here.

I was released on licence in October 2009, and that licence continues until mid 2012. During my time in prison, I was in HMP's Blakenhurst (as was), and Usk before being moved to an open prison about 3 months before my release. I'm on the register for life

Just so anyone reading is aware, my offences did not involve any physical sexual contact with any individual, and my victims are now both adults. I was arrested some 2 months after the offences, pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and accepted my surprisingly short sentence with as much good grace as is possible. That doesn't make what I did right. And if I could go back and change my past, I would.


So, down to business.

This blog is NOT about how bad sex offenders are, or how they should be punished. Nor is it about how innocent they are, or how misunderstood.

This blog IS about how a normal person, who made a mistake and accepted his guilt, is trying to get on with his life, and I'll use it to a certain extent to talk about my feelings about various things. So it will cover my attempts at gaining normality back.

Comments, abuse and vilification is welcome - I won't always answer, but I will try to address reasoned questions, even if they seem to be from unreasonable people.

Just in case anyone wonders why I was released in October, but only just started blogging - three months in a Probation Hostel in Cornwall!

Finally, please remember that a blog is entertainment, so although I will blog regularly, some of what I post might be fictionalized, or could be a concatenation of events.

So, as they say at "home"

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