I read the news today oh boy! Page 1,021

Quote: keewik @ October 3 2012, 12:41 AM BST

I'm trying not to think 'Why don't they torture the bastard to find out where the wee girl is?'. That wouldn't be British.

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Always a tempting thought, but if it's not him then we've just tortured a man. Hence my deep reservation about the appropriateness of splashing his name about the world before he's been convicted, or we even know that there's more to the suspicion than his vehicle and that he's previously been 'known to police'.
Judge not lest ye own something such as a light coloured vehicle and have what could be a minor and irrelevant record.

He wouldn't be the first completely innocent man interviewed by the police.

Shame on the press releasing his details so prematurely

On the Jimmy Saville thing, I was rather amused that one of the four things cited against him was that he habitually wore a track-suit so that he could easily remove his trousers.

The prosecution rests, m'Lud.

Quote: keewik @ October 2 2012, 11:49 PM BST

Is everybody avoiding:
(2) the missing girl, April

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It's a strange old world we live in. On Facebook, loads of people are talking about this missing girl / killing paedophiles (though none of them can spell it properly).

All the while completely ignoring the news story about the man who stabbed his two children and then himself to death.

Child murder / sexual abuse most commonly occurs with someone the child knows, like a family member, but that is uncomfortable reading for most tabloid consumers. But the ever present fear of the modern day bogey man is a much more palatable proposition that allows the peons to form into lynch mobs and vent their violent hatred without any form of social boundaries.

'I fink da padaflies shud be fukkin casterrated at birth!'

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ October 3 2012, 11:34 AM BST

It's a strange old world we live in. On Facebook, loads of people are talking about this missing girl / killing paedophiles (though none of them can spell it properly).

All the while completely ignoring the news story about the man who stabbed his two children and then himself to death.

Child murder / sexual abuse most commonly occurs with someone the child knows, like a family member, but that is uncomfortable reading for most tabloid consumers. But the ever present fear of the modern day bogey man is a much more palatable proposition that allows the peons to form into lynch mobs and vent their violent hatred without any form of social boundaries.

'I fink da padaflies shud be fukkin casterrated at birth!'

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Good point, well made.

I think the guy arrested in this case was a friend of the family.

The reason it's getting so much more media attention is that the dead kid is still technically just missing, trapped in some kind of Schrodinger's Cat limbo. That makes it rolling news. When they find the body, people will start to lose interest.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 3 2012, 12:07 PM BST

I think the guy arrested in this case was a friend of the family.

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Yep arrested, but not formally charged with her kidnap and because it's such a tiny village, anyone picked up who lived nearby could be described as a friend of the family.

But as you said Kevin, there is the rolling news aspect and also the fact it was a cute little white girl that went missing. Hundreds of British Asian girls get kidnapped and sent to Pakistan every year where they're treated like slaves, beaten, raped, murdered, etc. but that's not newsworthy, apparently.

The clue there is "hundreds".

Something that happens on a daily basis is rarely news. You need a hook.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 3 2012, 12:33 PM BST

You need a hook.

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I prefer to use sweets and puppies. But yep, you are correct again. Hell, even little African kids being cut up and chucked in the Thames for voodoo crap doesn't even get a mention anymore.

Though I feel the little white girl from a tiny village who goes missing is a time honoured classic that the British public can't get enough of. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are still remembered to this day.

Well done RCP 2 more than fair points.

Stranger danger goes back to concepts in the most ancient of civilisations.

And yes the media can suffer from a crippling and unhelpful political correctness. Which actually translates to being actively unhelpful.

These things also become an 'event' that people want to be 'part of'.
Families that probably wouldn't check with an elderly neighbour two doors away, travel miles to 'help' with the search.
It's all very odd - and I think, unhealthy.

Quote: sootyj @ October 3 2012, 12:39 PM BST

Well done RCP 2 more than fair points.

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I can't have you lot agreeing with me all the time, it's just...weird.

I hope that when the eventual perpertrator does finally go to trial, the village makes a ton of cash from both the 'grief tourists' and 'the angry mob that likes to kick prison vans' as they descend in vast numbers on the tiny hamlet to publically display their disturbing and pervertedly morbid fascination with child murder.

Quote: Lazzard @ October 3 2012, 12:44 PM BST

These things also become an 'event' that people want to be 'part of'.
Families that probably wouldn't check with an elderly neighbour two doors away, travel miles to 'help' with the search.
It's all very odd - and I think, unhealthy.

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Now Lazzard has made a good point too. I expect it from people like AJGO, but when people like us start making sense, then there really is no hope for mankind.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 3 2012, 12:33 PM BST

Something that happens on a daily basis is rarely news.

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I take it back. On Sky News right now they're broadcasting a funeral.

A funeral.

Was on a training course on managing challenging/violent behaviour. Where there was almost a punch up amongst some staff originally from the African continent. Over whether or not people with learning difficulties and mental health needs are routinely murdered in rural parts.

"Yes they are, they say they're posessed by spirits and chop their arms off."

"They chop their legs off and set fire to them."

"Just the legs?"

"Maybe in your country but not mine, in my country we lock them up in hospital and pray for them."

Sootyj being a WASJ kept out of it,

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 3 2012, 12:54 PM BST

I take it back. On Sky News right now they're broadcasting a funeral.

A funeral.

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Whose funeral?

Quote: sootyj @ October 3 2012, 1:02 PM BST

Whose funeral?

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They're showing the police woman who was killed by Grenadey One Eye on BBC News now. Must be the same one.