I have to admit, Ian, that I don't feel that strongly about releasing him, only perhaps that everyone should have a little hope. But then anything I can say would be trite. Put it down to left over vestiges of when I believed he was innocent.
I doubt I've ever met a truly evil person, but I did have dealings with a sociopath at one time, and that wasn't very funny, although it took me some time to realise.. I didn't have The Internet in those day, otherwise I might have cottoned on a bit sooner.
Thanks for your thoughts Eleanor,
Yes I totally understand. I also had some dealings with a psychopath - a one time female boss of mine. I learned a great deal about truly evil, manipulative, controlling people such as her. Luckily, I came away pretty much unscathed although many others sadly could not say the same thing. It led me to thinking about all the other victims of these people. There must be literally thousands upon thousands, most of whom probably did not know they were the victim of such people. I believe that these people contribute to a disproportionate amount of crime to their actual numbers and cause untold misery and suffering to many, many people. I also believe that education here is the key. The the very thing that allows a Psychopaths/sociopaths to be so successful is stealth. People truly do not know they are being used, victimised or earmarked by a psychopath until it's too late. Most people - including myself - would probably not be able to identify one if they met one in the street tomorrow. I have it on good authority that, if you scratch just below the surface there are clue which can be a giveaway. For example a psychopath is extremely superficial. They have just a passing knowledge about many topics and can appear to the casual observer to be highly intelligent and knowledgeable about lots of different things. However, if they are questioned in-depth about it, they will very quickly change the subject or walk away. They use their surface knowledge to impress and trick people into trusting or liking them.
They also have a highly inflated opinion of their own importance. Many people will dismiss this as being a little 'bigheaded' or even supremely confident. This may be true in many cases but it could also be a clue that you are dealing with a psychopath. In their own mind they are never wrong. This is why they have little problem breaking the law. Laws to them are made by the feeble-minded and weak. In fact any moral values are made by weak-willed, gullible people. It very well might have been a psychopath that coined the term 'laws are made to be broken'
They have no moral compass of any kind. They have absolutely no remorse, conscience or empathy and they pour scorn on those that do. They see ordinary people as 'suckers' ready to be taken advantage of. Of course not all psychopaths go on to murder someone. Their are psychopaths in the workplace, many of whom aspire to top positions within a company and will often leave a trail of deceipt and destruction in their wake. They are to be found in every walk of life, usually with the same result.
In short, these monsters are despicable individuals that ruin and/or destroy innocent people lives.
