Killing Of A Child By Another Child

The killing of a child by another child is akin to a serially re-born monster which appears in all generations of the world. It is an occurrence that the global society frowns at. It makes our seated hearts to knock hard against our ribs. Homicides committed by children transcends logics and understandings that renowned criminologists are used to. It is always a senseless incident that a child killed another child. The motives are hardly known. They are either nonexistent or totally unreasonable. Children derive no gain from the killing of other children. Children's actions are in some cases beyond their comprehension. They cannot explain why they take some bad actions. There are children who want to experience the sensation of killing someone, not because the victim offended them, but just because they want to do it. The UK's Paradigm case of 1968 is an example. In that gruesome incident, two ill-fated innocent boys, aged two and three years respectively, were cruelly strangled to death by an eleven years old Mary Bell. She told the court that she just wanted to kill them! The judge said, " She killed them solely for the pleasure and excitement of killing. She was seeking for a depraved thrill." Now, she got her depraved thrill but hollowed out the hearts of the two bereaved parents who least expected such thing to happen to their children. Human beings are not born with morality amd forthrightness. We learn them by the agency of our parents if the parents are the concerned ones. Indifferent parents are almost like physically dead ones to children's development. Children learn to distiguish between right and wrong, chalk and cheese, and maize and guinea corn, right from the cradle through the aid of parents. From the age of six, children develop a more knowledge of morality and empathy, and proceed to apply moral reasoning and critical thinking in specific social settings. Unfortunately, in all these developmental stages, the ability to understand the feelings of other people, including their parents and peers and playgroups, are completely missing out. That is why, when children do wrong things, they do not know how bad and painful those things are to others. The age at which children are held responsible for their wrong actions in law varies across Europe, from 10 years in Wales and England through to 14 in Germany, 15 in The Netherlands, and 16 in Portugal. For example, Silje Redergard, five years old, was beaten by two six years old boys and left to freeze to death in the snow in Trondein, Norway. Since children under fifteen years are not prosecuted by law in Norway, Silje's death was left with both families to settle. As Silje was murdered in Norway, so are other innocent children killed in other countries of the world. Below are some examples of children found guilty of murder: 1. George Stinney was the youngest person executed in USA in the 20th century. He was a black American, electrocuted in March, 1944, at the age of fourteen, for killing two white girls (Betty June Binnicker, aged eleven, and Mary Emma Thames, aged eight). 2. Christa Gail Pike was the youngest woman sentenced to death in this modern world for the killing of nineteen years old Collen Slemmer on January 12, 1995, in Tennessee, USA. She was eighteen years old when the murder was committed. 3. On February 7, 1868, the thirteen years old black girl, Susan Eliza, was hanged in Henry County, Kentucky, USA, for killing a child that she was babysitting. 4. Paula Cooper was fifteen years old in 1985 when she murdered 77-year-old Ruth Pelke in her Indiana home. She was sentenced to death. 5. Lionel Alexander Tate, born on January 30, 1987, is the youngest American citizen sentenced to life jail without possibility of parole, though this sentence was eventually overturned. He killed Tiffany Eunicks, a six years old girl, when he was only thirteen years old. Till today, he is still languishing in the Federal Prison. Under a deal, he pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was put on probation for ten years. He returned to prison in 2006 after he was sentenced to thirty years for gun possession, a probation negation. This is a proof to what the Scripture said that the leopard cannot change its skin. Lionel Alexander Tate showed that he is an unrepentant criminal. When the US Government was trying to help him out of jail, he voluntarily turned it down. 6. Brian de Drapper was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a young lady whom he stabbed twenty-nine times. After this, he was charged with killing his school mate called Cassey. 7. Joshua Phillips was fourteen years old when charged with first grade assassination of his eight years old next-door neighbour, Maddie Clifton, whom he stabbed to death. 8. Eric Smith at the age of thirteen was sentenced for the killing of four years old boy. 9. Kenneth Young was also sentenced to life imprisonment for homicide. 10. Two UK boys, John Venebles and Robert Thompson, beat two years old boy, James Burger, to death. Poor parenting causes juvenile delinquency and other innumerable social vices. Let every hand be on deck to raise children who will live and let live! To be continued... Kindly share with your friends and loved ones. Your comments are required too.