Xbox or PlayStation Killer: Media and Legal Confusion
Sentencing and murder turn to farce headlines
Conor Black.
Last year Shane Boyd (16) killed Conor Black (16) following what at the time was called either a "petty squabble" or "a row" at a party.
Boyd, who stabbed Conor Black, was sentenced yesterday to 22 years - with the judge ruling he should serve a minimum of 11 years.
So, the mainstream media, not content with telling the story of a - says the BBC - "An illiterate 16-year-old who boasted after stabbing a boy outside a house party in Manchester has been found guilty of murder", and of the victim himself, decides that a video game console must be mentioned.
The BBC goes with: "Xbox killer given life sentence", although it only mentions the Xbox as follows: "Greater Manchester Police said he was attacked in a row over an Xbox game", in another story.
The Press Association, however, decides that the Great Manchester Police didn't say Xbox. Its headline is: '"Boy gets life for PlayStation murder."
While the Beeb uses the GMP, the PA uses the presiding judge (Goldstone) whose summing up included: "In truth you thought no more of having that knife in your pocket than you would a wallet or a house key. If you had been able to give the matter a moment's thought you would have realised that carrying and using that knife was no way to deal with a dispute about a Playstation."
Here's what the Greater Manchester Police actually did say:
"A teenage boy has been convicted of stabbing a joinery student to death in Moston because of an argument over a computer games console.
"Shane Boyd (25/06/92) is of Nowell Road in Middleton, was found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Conor Black following a trial at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square.
"He was today, Friday 20 February 2009, sentenced to life with a minimum of 11 years imprisonment.
"The 16-year-old boy wanted to confront Conor over the alleged theft of an Xbox games console, and fatally stabbed him in the early hours of Saturday 16 August 2008, on Gill Street in Moston."
So, the actual crime was triggered by the alleged theft of an Xbox. A theft rather than a video game, and even the judge appears to have got that wrong. The instigation regarded the theft of an item not the item itself.
The issue here is not so much that the mainstream media and a judge could get confused over the type of video game console. It is rather more that both felt the requirement to use a piece of electronic equipment in order to deal with a terrible crime. The judge's statement, that "using that knife was no way to deal with a dispute about a Playstation" begs the question of when is using a knife a way to deal with a dispute? The mainstream media's use of gaming to headline a story of murder is simply more of the same lazy, teen tie-in.
The online memorial to Conor Black can be found here.
Boyd, who stabbed Conor Black, was sentenced yesterday to 22 years - with the judge ruling he should serve a minimum of 11 years.
So, the mainstream media, not content with telling the story of a - says the BBC - "An illiterate 16-year-old who boasted after stabbing a boy outside a house party in Manchester has been found guilty of murder", and of the victim himself, decides that a video game console must be mentioned.
The BBC goes with: "Xbox killer given life sentence", although it only mentions the Xbox as follows: "Greater Manchester Police said he was attacked in a row over an Xbox game", in another story.
The Press Association, however, decides that the Great Manchester Police didn't say Xbox. Its headline is: '"Boy gets life for PlayStation murder."
While the Beeb uses the GMP, the PA uses the presiding judge (Goldstone) whose summing up included: "In truth you thought no more of having that knife in your pocket than you would a wallet or a house key. If you had been able to give the matter a moment's thought you would have realised that carrying and using that knife was no way to deal with a dispute about a Playstation."
Here's what the Greater Manchester Police actually did say:
"A teenage boy has been convicted of stabbing a joinery student to death in Moston because of an argument over a computer games console.
"Shane Boyd (25/06/92) is of Nowell Road in Middleton, was found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Conor Black following a trial at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square.
"He was today, Friday 20 February 2009, sentenced to life with a minimum of 11 years imprisonment.
"The 16-year-old boy wanted to confront Conor over the alleged theft of an Xbox games console, and fatally stabbed him in the early hours of Saturday 16 August 2008, on Gill Street in Moston."
So, the actual crime was triggered by the alleged theft of an Xbox. A theft rather than a video game, and even the judge appears to have got that wrong. The instigation regarded the theft of an item not the item itself.
The issue here is not so much that the mainstream media and a judge could get confused over the type of video game console. It is rather more that both felt the requirement to use a piece of electronic equipment in order to deal with a terrible crime. The judge's statement, that "using that knife was no way to deal with a dispute about a Playstation" begs the question of when is using a knife a way to deal with a dispute? The mainstream media's use of gaming to headline a story of murder is simply more of the same lazy, teen tie-in.
The online memorial to Conor Black can be found here.
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