Aden Jefferies - Todd Lasance

[Anaya]

It might not work for everyone but then neither does giving him a slap on his wrist and sending him on his way.To my mind, the seriousness of his crimes warranted a custodial offence but apparently if you say you're sorry and make a big speech about your terrible childhood they'll let you off.The real problem with this argument is the complete inconsistency:His father and brother were both abused, which probably led to their crimes, but everyone seems quite happy to leave them to rot in jail.What Aden did to Axel was exactly the same as what his brother did to Ric, never mind what he did to his father and the others, but he's apparently still in prison four years on and Aden got off scot free.

When a crime has been committed, they do not only look at the offence that has been committed, and give a punishment accordingly. They also take in to consideration intent & the individual circumstances surrounding the offender, leading up to the crime. Aden carried out his crime (kidnapping & attempting to kill his father) as a direct reaction to finding out that his father was also abused, meaning that Larry could have prevented the abuse from happening to him aswell. He was angry at his father because he failed to protect him. He never actually killed Larry & even after he was stopped, he still believed that what he intended to carry out was the right thing to do. He believed that the fact that Larry knowingly failed to protect him & his brothers from suffering sexual abuse for years, made him just as guilty as his grandfather who carried out the abuse. So in Aden's eyes Larry deserved to pay for his actions (or lack of). It was obvious to other people (pyschiatric staff & otherwise) that Larry's final admission had caused Aden to suffer a breakdown, as even though prior to this Aden had been trying to work through his issues, the truth that he finally learnt from his father, was too much for him to handle.

It was then through counselling sessions (that were used to help him deal with his issues) that he actually realised the gravity of what he had done, and how wrong it was. And that his father was dealing with a lot of issues too, as a result of his abuse, just like Aden was. That the years of abuse his father had suffered, had made him so parylysed with fear, that he was unable to confront Aden's grandfather on it, let alone stand up to him & protect his children. Instead Larry buried his head in the sand, failed to deal with his issues, and turned to alcohol. When Aden's case went to court, Aden did not even want to talk about his abuse & use it to explain his own personal circumstance, as he felt too ashamed, found it too confronting, and didn't have the courage to face it in such a public domain. It was only through support from others, that he opened up about it, and explained why he was angry & wanted to hurt his father. The abuse was not an excuse for his actions, it was an explanation of what caused him to carry it out. Had he not talked about it, he would have been sent to prison. But the Judge then realsied that the counselling had helped rehabilitate Aden immensely. Making Aden admit his guilt, realise that the crime he carried out was wrong, and that Aden was no longer a threat to Larry (Aden was never a threat to soceity anyway), which meant that community service was a better form of punishment for him, rather than prison.

Larry, however, was also abused by his father and this was probably the biggest contributing factor towards his alcoholism. Yet his crimes were far more severe & were not a direct reaction to the years of abuse he had suffered. Larry's victim was not his father, or anyone else linked to his past, but an innocent bystander who had nothing to do with the abuse. Larry was drunk and got behind the wheel of a car, which led to an accident, that killed a young man & injured another. He also fled the scene of the crime, not stopping to help the other individuals involved, in short a hit & run. Even if his abusive past had been brought up (which it may have done but we never saw his case onscreen), it had no relevance to the case as such, the only thing it could be used for was to explain the issues that caused him to turn to alcohol. The number of crimes that Larry committed, would mean that there is no way his punishment could be community service alone, and so there was no way for him to avoid prison. His charges include drink driving, causing an accident whilst under the influence of alcohol, fleeing the scene of the accident, vehicular manslaughter (killing a young man during the accident) and going on the run (avoiding arrest for a crime).

As for Aden's brother Sean, he was also abused, but his crime was again not directly linked to his absue. He beat up Ric and got punished for it accordingly. I'm guessing his personal circumstances were taken in to consideration when punishing him, but he probably did not even bring up his abusive past in court and therefore it had no effect on his sentence. Even if he had brought it up, it may have reduced it slightly, but the crime was still severe & committed on an innocent party (in terms of linked to his abuse) and so he would have still gone to prison. As would Aden have gone to prison for beating up Axel, had Axel reported the crime to the police, and the case gone to court. But that did not happen and I think the writers really messed up on that account & the whole Axel/Melody and Aden/Axel storyline in general.

Sorry for the looooooooooooooooooooooooooong rant.

[Red Ranger 1]

The thing is Aden did commit crimes against innocent parties, namely Rachel and Belle.It wasn't just a case of him wanting to punish someone he thought was responsible for his abuse, he was prepared, if not exactly happy, to mistreat innocent bystanders in order to get what he wanted.I'm not entirely certain that Larry's crimes were more severe than Aden's, certainly from a moral standpoint.Larry might have acted in a cowardly manner but he never deliberately hurt anyone whilst Aden intended to deliberately kill someone.Again, I'm not sure what the court did to rehabilitate him.His counselling started before his crimes and ended before his court case.They just seemed to take the word of a discredited psychiatrist and a counsellor who didn't bother to turn up(what happened to cross-examination?)that he was no longer a threat to society.(On which subject, how exactly was Larry a threat to society?Unless he was planning on getting behind the wheel of a car while drunk again.)On the subject of Sean, it's not too big a leap to suggest that he felt protective towards Aden because they'd both been abused, which is why he beat up Ric for hurting him.Although I agree, that's not directly linked to his abuse.And at last someone admits he deserved to go to jail for what he did to Axel.

Sorry, I'm just in an argumentative mood.

[Zetti]

Aden's actions for what he did to Axel for me and I have always said is inexcusable but it was clear to me and maybe to others as well that Aden was trying to work through his issues and the court recognised that.

[Nicole+GeoffForever]

I love Aden

And him and Belle make a good couple

[grumble bum]

Aden did work through his issues. At least i don't think that he lied the way Belle does.

Dump Belle. Aden deserves much better.

[adellejefferiesxox]

Belle is going through a rough time and deserves compassion and support like Belle did when Aden was going through trouble times. Aden does deserve not to be lied to, something tells me that the drugs are the reason belle is lying. I think if she was caught out she would eventually come clean because she would realise she was busted, but I just get this feeling that the drugs are contributing her decision making therefore making her lie without regret, have no idea ff that makes any sense lol. But you know what Im basically trying to say is I believe that the drugs are playing some part is her digging herself into a big hole full of lies.

Anyway, Aden truly loves Belle and hopefully he'll stick by her like she did.

[~Zoe~]

I really liked Aden in todays episode.. it was a good scene with on the boat, and with his nose.. it was funny and cute I liked his scene's with Joey aswell as they have'nt had any interaction with each other for a while, so it was good to see him and Joey talking

[cicerid]

Maybe I’m supposed to be disappointed in Aden for choosing to leave the hospital once he was certain Belle was ok but I just can’t. His reaction is a very human and understandable one considering all that he went through with Larry. Aden himself said a couple of episodes ago that it was not Belle he did not trust but her addiction. He has seen it all before and now the latest events must have brought back so many memories and past emotions. I don’t know whether it is selfish of him not to want to have to go through it all again with Belle (except from his initial reaction he’s been incredibly supportive and totally there for her until now) or whether he simply feels he is not strong enough. There is a kind of resignation, not just sadness, about him. There’s hardly any anger actually, and anger was what I was kind of expecting of him. The scene today where he fails to hit his boss on the boat only to be hit himself to me shows exactly how he feels at the moment: sad, upset and confused but also very powerless.

[adellejefferiesxox]

I just wanted to give Adeny a hug, poor thing. It's funny yesterday a eight year old at my work fell over and I pretty sure her nose was broken. So it was really strange seeing it happen to Aden.

I wanted Aden to stay and see Belle, but I understand why he's angry.

[doola]

Maybe I’m supposed to be disappointed in Aden for choosing to leave the hospital once he was certain Belle was ok but I just can’t. His reaction is a very human and understandable one considering all that he went through with Larry. Aden himself said a couple of episodes ago that it was not Belle he did not trust but her addiction. He has seen it all before and now the latest events must have brought back so many memories and past emotions. I don’t know whether it is selfish of him not to want to have to go through it all again with Belle (except from his initial reaction he’s been incredibly supportive and totally there for her until now) or whether he simply feels he is not strong enough. There is a kind of resignation, not just sadness, about him. There’s hardly any anger actually, and anger was what I was kind of expecting of him. The scene today where he fails to hit his boss on the boat only to be hit himself to me shows exactly how he feels at the moment: sad, upset and confused but also very powerless.

Pretty much sums up word for word my feelings on Aden at the minute! Good post.

His lashing out as his boss yesterday was kinda funny, but it did highlight how ineffective he was and I think thats how he feels about everything with Belle.