hate crime, love match and marriage

On Saturday murderers Mikhail Gallatinov, 40, and Marc Goodwin, 31, made history by being the first same-sex inmates to ever be married while in prison in the U.K., The Guardian reported.

The Marriages Act of 1983 allowed prisoners to apply to be married, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.K. in March 2014 made it legal for inmates in the same prison to marry each other.


Goodwin was sentenced to life in 2007 for beating 57-year-old Malcolm Benfold to death, in what was called a “gay-bashing spree.”

He was given a minimum sentence of 18 years and it is projected he will serve another 10, the Guardian reported.
Gallatinov, who was already a convicted child molester, was imprisoned in 1997 at the age of 23 for the strangling death of Adrian Kaminsky, a 28-year-old he met on a gay hotline.

He was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years, which was upheld in 2009. He will be considered for parole next year.

The judge at his trial called the killing “cold-blooded, well planned, callous, chilling and apparently motiveless.” He called Gallatinov “a dangerous young man [who] present[s] a considerable risk to the public in the future.”

The jury took only an hour to convict him, and in-prison psychologists have labeled him “psychopathic,” the Manchester Evening News reported.

veya_victaous wrote:i don't have issue with it (the prison probably has a celebrant in the social services support budget anyway)
but I think it is very interesting that 2 men imprisoned for extreme homophobic crimes have end up being closeted homosexuals themselves.

It really does lend credence to the idea that a lot of homophobs are so because they have suppressed homosexual tendencies. I think they would make a very interesting psychological study.

veya_victaous wrote:the greatest dilemma is that they have taken another life.

if it wasn't for that fact I would defend that even prisoners deserve some humane treatment, it becomes harder when someone is a true premeditated murderer, which both of these 2 seem to be.

I wonder if they are happy or 'nice' now that they have accepted their 'love'?
the one arrested in 97 I do have some sympathy for as the anti-homophob movement was not really what it is today and there was a lot of anti gay stuff which would have had a negative psychological impact. not that it even begins to justify his actions BUT he may also be a 'victim'

Cass wrote:I have no issue with same sex marriage.....I have HUGE anger at convicted murderers being allowed to get married in jail on the taxpayers dime.