That is the issue when a system is set up by those with the best of intentions to help those who frequently have the worst of intentions. It makes me think, in my cynical, world-weary way, that judgement should be given and punishment allotted, and the whole shaky structure of rehabilitation be abandoned. One asks, what happened, why did it happen and (most importantly) cui bono? Then act on the answers found, right at the beginning. But then I was never the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Clearly, in this case rehabilitation was not going to work because the underlying reason for the act was sheer viciousness. But nobody likes to think that someone is beyond redemption, do we? That’s painful, because it says something about us as well as them. That we are somehow responsible for their, for want of a better word, evil. So we give them every chance, and sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t.

I’ve nothing to match your experience, but my own brother (actual genetic) has caused my family some grief. For 50 years, he was the model son: well-behaved, dutiful, doing all the expected things. Result, every time he asked for help, my parents’ chequebook was open. Then, quite suddenly, my parents were becoming elderly and frail,needing support, and dear little brother, sainted son, vanishes into thin air! Now they are depending on me, the dismissed and shameful rebel who asked for nothing except respect and the right to live his life his own way, for help!

It’s just people. They don’t have to be criminals to be users, do they?

Be well. You know where I am. I’ll always listen.