LONDON – “Mom was right to kill the pedophile who had abused us.” The case of Sarah Sands and her three children sexually molested by the 77-year-old Michael Pleasted in Silvertown, an eastern suburb of London, has caused much discussion in recent years. Now it’s back in the news. Mrs. Sands has always said that she committed the atrocious crime “to defend my children and those of other parents”. It was 2014 when she and her three little boys moved to the neighborhood where, however, Michael Pleasted also lives, apparently an old man much appreciated by the community and who works at the local newsstand. Sarah trusts him, even cooks for him often and allows him to spend time with their children: Bradley, then 12 years old, and his twin brothers Alfie and Reece, 11 years old.
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A peaceful existence that soon turns into a nightmare. Because Michael Pleasted is actually a false name. The real one is Robin Moult, serial paedophile with 24 convictions for sexual harassment of minors in England. But no one in Silvertown knows, because Moult managed to change his identity before moving to east London. And so, one day, he lures Bradley, Alfie and Reece into his apartment and sexually abuses them. Mrs. Sands hears from her boys. She confronts the man, asks for explanations but he denies everything, accusing the three minors of “inventing this story”. Pleasted is still charged by the police, but released on bail at his home. Then Sarah takes a knife from her kitchen, reaches the man in her apartment – as evidenced by some surveillance images – and kills him. In the first instance, the woman will be sentenced to only three and a half years in prison because her murder is not considered premeditated but unintentional. This is because, according to the judges, the man was killed after trying to snatch the knife from Sands’ hand. However, on appeal, she receives an additional four years in prison for not having rescued Pleasted, after stabbing him.
But why are we talking about this bad story now? Because Sands got out of jail a few months ago and is campaigning so that those convicted of pedophilia are constantly monitored by the authorities and cannot change their name as easily as Pleasted/Moult. A thorny problem in the United Kingdom, where the authorities’ approach aims at the rehabilitation of criminals. But now the woman’s sons, Bradley, Alfie and Reece, have also spoken for the first time in an interview with Bbc which is causing discussion.
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In fact, the three boys, now in their twenties or nearly so, publicly appreciated the murderous act of their mother, who also participated in the group interview. “She did well,” Reece said for example, “thanks to her the lives of many other children in the community were saved. Mom had to take on responsibilities that the state had abandoned.” Bradley added: “When I learned that mom had killed Pleasted I don’t deny that I immediately thought… hats off, she was right. Because that man had already been released on bail and could have made other victims, given that justice did not stop him”. At the same time, the boys admitted that Mrs. Sands’ desperate gesture did not “free them from nightmares, also because mum was no longer with us and we were left alone”. Scotland Yard reiterated today that “one must not take justice into their own hands” and that even in such dramatic cases “one must always rely on the forces of order and justice”.