Something wicked this way comes.

It seems some considerable time ago that I wrote something funny or amusing on either of my blogs and sadly today is no exception as I have as my subject today, two paedophiles and one escaped psychopathic murderer, all very jolly there then. I do however live in hopes of fitting in a moderately amusing "and finally" at the end, so it's not all doom and gloom.

Jumping in at the deep end, we start with the tale of Matthew Falder, who as one of  the most prolific paedophiles this country has ever known, has been jailed for 32 years. Whilst posing as a female artist requesting naked pictures to use as studies, he persuaded vulnerable people to send their images which he then used to blackmail them, forcing them into more depraved acts.

Falder persuaded both male and female victims to produce increasingly indecent images of themselves, the focus of which was to humiliate and degrade, which he then distributed on so called "hurtcore" websites.

I think it safe to say, without putting too fine a point on it, that this man is a particularly evil bastard and yet one wonders how on earth he ended up this way, for by all accounts he was brought up by a loving family in Cheshire, excelled at school, graduated from Cambridge with a Master's and a PhD and later became a university lecturer in Birmingham.

Judge Phillip Parker QC said when sentencing Falder, he was "warped and sadistic," it was a "tale of ever increasing depravity" and that, "You wanted to assume total control over your victims." "Your behaviour was cunning, persistent, manipulative and cruel."

Sadly, whilst he has only to serve 32 years, his victims will have to live with it for life.

I wish I could say, moving on in a lighter vein, but I'm afraid I can't as also today was the sentencing of serial paedophile Barry Bennell for hundreds of historical sexual assaults committed on young boys between 1979 and 1991.

The extraordinary thing is, he has already served three jail sentences, one of which was in America where I was under the impression they had a tendency to lock people up and throw away the key, but apparently not.

Bennell  abused the boys when he was a football coach and once again, here was a man who had power over his victims as they wanted to become professional footballers. He was compared to the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, luring the boys to his home where he had arcade games and exotic pets and would also abuse them on trips away, and in his car.

He was unable to come to court during the trial as he needs to be fed regularly by a tube after he developed oral cancer more than ten years ago, which means that although he was sentenced to 30 years he may not live long enough to serve the full sentence. Shame.

Now, also today and I think by now you may be able to see why I am having trouble finding anything of an amusing nature to write about.

Keith Whitehouse  a mentally disturbed man who was serving a life term for the manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility of a woman he battered over the head with a brick and raped at knife point in a graveyard in 1991, this while on home release from prison, has escaped from custody again. When I say escaped, this may be a euphemism as he was serving his sentence in Leyhill open prison, where one assumes he just walked out.

My, what a day it's been, the Somerset Police said, "If you see him, he should not be approached and you should call 999."

"And finally,"one is left to wonder why on earth a dangerous psychopath was serving his sentence in an open prison and you can call me old fashioned but I've always felt a safer way of containing dangerous people would be in a proper prison with walls and locked doors. In the coming years I certainly don't want to be hearing the news that a dangerous paedophile has escaped from prison after telling the guard, "I'm just popping down the pub for a couple of pints, won't be long!"