this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

The court heard he had an IQ of the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and had been diagnosed with ADHD. Another of theremoveds, also 15, was also diagnosed with ADHD as well as “longstanding anxiety”, while the third defendant, now 14, was described as having a “mild cognitive impairment”.

This seems more like grasping at straws than any truly mitigating factor. ADHD makes you more likely to proposition someone, and more likely to accept a proposition, it doesn't make you coerce someone into sex. And where does "anxiety" fit into it? Maybe this becomes part of the demonization of neurodivergence.

Someone who is simply mentally dysregulated might go up to someone and start kissing them in public, maybe needing to be pried off by bystanders but still just being a mere body in a situation. Substantial cognitive impairment is like not having a good idea of what sex is or how to approach someone about it.

Instead, there is at least one defendant who identified a victim who had

detailsbeen separated from her friends, held her at knifepoint, made her drop off her own devices, made her go to a more remote and concealed location, sexually assaulted her with the assistance of another boy, amd filmed the whole thing.

Identifying an isolated or vulnerable person, using a weapon as a threat, taking to a hidden place, outnumbering/overpowering, filming the whole thing, and having a more elaborate approach the second time around compared to the first time, shows a profound sense of personal agency and culpability. This is a ray pissed, as bad as they get, who needs to be taken out of society until he is reformed.

Also if a BAME adult did the same actions, 100% chance they would get 10+ years imprisonment.