Ask the broad population how to go about finding a suitable punishment for the mother of baby Peter and I’d say you would get a fairly limited range of suggestions; anything from life in prison, to life imprisonment with back-breaking hard labour (an option I favour…) to life + sterilisation + hard work (hmmm, I would not object…).

Then at the other end of the ‘limited suggestions’ you would get the ubiquitous string-her-up, burn-her-at-the-stake cries from the rednecked section of the community. Make no mistake, I am in favour of reintroducing capitol punishment for the likes of the mother’s boyfriend and other child killers once a fool proof way is found of not sending innocent people to their deaths as was done on the past…

But back to Peter’s mother and what to do with her; in the USA a judge sentenced a man, Lam Luong, to death for callously killing his four small children, all under the age of two in January 2008. He threw them over the side of a high suspension bridge in Alabama to get back at his ex-wife. Common theme…

But I like this Judge and his train of thought because the same idea has struck me in the past. Mr Luong will spend the rest of his time on this earth facing the one thing that he will never be able to escape – his conscience. The Judge has ordered that Mr Luong be made to stand and look at a photograph of his four children (left) every single day of the rest of his life. With appeals in progress it could turn out to be a very long time of having such a harsh reality held to your face.

I suggest this be applied to Peter’s mother; every day she is in prison she must be forced to stand and look at the face of the beautiful, blue-eyed little boy she should have adored and cherished. And each viewing will remind her that she did not.

If this female has even one iota of a conscience it would surely be the most painful way to punish her…