Rowland wrote:
>
> The man who stabbed her (Gunter Parche) should have been punished -
> a two year suspended sentence is no punishment at all. It would have
> been better if he had been hanged.

I think a life-sentence in prison would have been commensurate with
Günther Parche's crime. Prison is a life-threatening place anyway, if
the one in Home and Away is anything to go by!

I do not believe in capital punishment, because it is a blatant
violation of the Fifth Commandment. Saddam Hussein did some pretty
bad things in his time, but his hanging was the cowardly murder of a
helpless old man.

The only circumstance in which it is acceptable to take a human life
is when someone is too dangerous to be left alive. An example might
be the Home-and-Away character Johnny Cooper. He was the leader of a
violent gang and a complete nightmare of a guy, but when he went to
prison, he became even more dangerous, as he was extremely well-
connected, and could order murders by his gang-members on the outside.

Then he escaped from prison and stabbed Sally Fletcher for the second
time! She had previously been stabbed by Johnny's brother Rocco, who
had then been murdered on Johnny's orders for his failure to finish
the job. And her foster-son Ric was wrongly convicted of Rocco's
murder and sent to prison, where he was seconds away from being
murdered by Johnny when he was set free!

I must say that Home and Away's portrayal of the aftermath of Sally's
stabbings was completely unrealistic - she showed barely a glimpse of
the trauma that Monica went through, and was completely blasé about
her security after she heard that Johnny had escaped from prison and
was coming to get her.

Johnny is still at large where UK Channel Five is up to in Home and
Away.

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/