7 defendants convicted in Portugal sex abuse trial

The pedophiles are going to jail.”

This crap makes me cringe. Its like saying the milkmen are going to jail. Its like saying the Smiths are going to jail.

The child abusers are going to jail. The child rapists are going to jail. If they are pedophiles, milkmen or Smiths is irrelevant, and talking like they are the same causes hystera against pedophiles, milkmen and the Smiths. Most pedophiles just sit on park benches and touch no one. Hysteria against them won't help kids and it won't help society.

I am glad to see real child abusers and real child rapists go down.

"This crap makes me cringe. Its like saying the milkmen are going to jail. Its like saying the Smiths are going to jail."

Saying "the Smiths are going to jail" makes you cringe? You should see a doctor about that. For me, saying "the Smiths are re-forming and going on tour" is what would make me cringe.

Also, I'm pretty sure if

"pedophiles just sit on park benches and touch no one"

then they aren't really pedophiles are they? They're people who sit on benches and have sexual thoughts about minors.

mokgohan, you don't know what a pedophile is. You think its the American legal definition, but you are wrong. Saying "convicted pedophile" is like saying "convicted homosexual". The latter could have been said correctly at one time, and it fostered the exact same type of hysteria.

Saying "the Smiths are going to jail" makes you cringe?

Replace it with "the Joneses" or "the Davises" if you like. The press repeating that a thousand times will cause unfounded hate crimes, similar to the guys who had the same names as people on the predator list got killed...and it turns out the guilty guy just had a 16 year old girlfriend when he was 19 and you want to call him a pedophile and child abuser and child rapist and think all the above are the same thing. Pitchfork mentality. Its no help.

"Jorge Ritto, a decorated career diplomat and former UNESCO ambassador", Unbelievable. I hope under communities all over the world will follow suit. The Catholic Priest cases have seemed to have quietened, wonder why!

correction above - ' I hope other communities '

This crap makes me cringe. Its like saying the milkmen are going to jail. Its like saying the Smiths are going to jail.

Um, they are pedophiles and they are going to jail. It's a factually correct statement.

" Most pedophiles just sit on park benches and touch no one"

Meh.....

Some pedophiles act on their desires and others don't. They are still all pedophiles.

Glad that justice was served here. Very scary to think of all the children who are being abused in institutions everywhere...

I actually agree with Mist on this one. (We so rarely agree its funny.) Pedophiles are like homosexuals, in that they are people with urges. Homosexuals give into their urges, because it is with consenting adults, and society is finding it acceptable these days. Pedophiles though cannot. If they do, they become child abusers, or rapists. And those people, belong in jail.

I don't blame those types of people for having urges, no more then I blame an alcoholic. Its when they give in to those urges, that it becomes an issue, and they must be removed from society.

Moderator: Stay on topic please. References to homosexuality and alcohol are not relevant.

"mokgohan, you don't know what a pedophile is. You think its the American legal definition, but you are wrong."

Actually I was using it as it pertains to the 6 men and 1 woman in the story above; so I guess I'm using the Portugese legal definition.

Saying "convicted pedophile" is like saying "convicted homosexual"

Well not quite, since practicing homosexuality isn't a criminal offence in most countries in the modern world. But you point that out in your very next sentence-

The latter could have been said correctly at one time

"at one time" but not now, so what was your point in writing that in the first place, as you acknowlege the situation doesn't exist anymore? Was it to raise attention to the "hysteria" that might affect the innocent, park-bench-sitting-peds everywhere? How exactly will people enact these "hate crimes" on these innocent pedophiles? I doubt they've got name tags that say "Hello, my name is Gary. I'm a non-practicing pedophile" or "Kiss me- I'm an inert pedophile!" No- I doubt anyone outside of immediate family and their psychiatrist is privy to that information. Unless they did something illegal and have their name on a watchlist accessible to the public- as seen in Knocked Up. Then, well...

Replace it with "the Joneses" or "the Davises"

Errr... those are familial relations.

>Its like saying the milkmen are going to jail

Wait- that's just a means of livelihood! Whereas pedophilia is a mental disorder; here, check it out- http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=186

but I'm sure you've already read this.

Anyways, you do seem to want to consider it in its medical context and not its legal one since you wrote that I'm wrong when I did. But I guess that means you contradict yourself- since you're trying to tell us there's no difference between pedophiles and any other random, minority group, yet medically, 38 000 doctors would disagree with that statement.

Mr. Jones can't be arrested for physically embracing Mrs. Jones, or even Mr. Davis! And milkmen can't be arrested for delivering milk, but I've heard they are the victims of the occasional hate crime- usually performed by the Titmouse, who are no doubt fuelled by that pitchfork mentality.

Moderator: Back on topic please.

There is no doubt that these abuses in Portugal are at least partly the result of societal intolerance of pedophiles, even to the point that one cannot admit to being one without SEVERE consquences.