20 Responses to Two-year term for Aimee bullies?

  1. ed says:

    Yes- after all, it would simply be in keeping with the news they were reporting. An elementary error that’s very difficult to understand.

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  2. Peregrine says:

    You misunderstand the BBC mindset. To them it is worse to be a bully than a killer. It is easy to see in the reporting of Iraq; US=Bully, Child Murdering Terrorist=Killer.

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  3. sunjay says:

    A killer is a murderer. They weren’t convicted of murder. You can get away with calling those convicted of manslaughter “killers” in amateur blogs like this, but if you hold any standards of journalistic decency you have to call them what they are: bullies, drunk drivers, etc.

    The Sun: Teen bullies get two years.

    Come on, if the Sun calls them bullies and not killers your site is running on empty.

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  4. Peregrine says:

    Ok Sunjay I will take the bait.

    A killer has deprived an individual of their life, a bully deprives them of self-esteem, confidence and at its worst an ability to carry out normal functions. Which is worse? Death or living a life (with future hope of improvement) that is miserable.

    I am not surprised that the Sun called the killers (and yes committing manslaughter means you have been convicted of directly causing death but without direct provable intent) bullies as the educational establishment as given this a very high priority. This priority is right but is also mixed with a mass of politic correctness, to the extent that mild teasing can now be considered bullying and deemed equivalent to the really harmful forms (as is this case).
    It is all about dealing with issues in their proper order. Death is worse than being bullied which is worse than being teased.
    Ultimately my point, and I presume Andrew’s, is that the BBC have got their priorities wrong and their perception of wrong is misplaced.

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  5. Andrew says:

    Peregrine: “Ultimately my point, and I presume Andrew’s, is that the BBC have got their priorities wrong and their perception of wrong is misplaced.”

    Thank you Peregrine – that sums it up nicely.

    Turning to Sunjay: “A killer is a murderer.”

    A manslaughterer is a killer too – broadly, the difference between manslaughter and murder is whether or not there was intent to kill. The end result is the same.

    Sunjay: “They weren’t convicted of murder. You can get away with calling those convicted of manslaughter “killers” in amateur blogs like this, but if you hold any standards of journalistic decency you have to call them what they are: bullies, drunk drivers, etc.”

    Really? Here are just a few examples of manslaughter ‘killers’ from News Online itself:

    30SEP05: Killer driver held for 30 months
    01AUG05: Police recapture escaped killer
    19JUL05: Man guilty of teen’s manslaughter
    11JUL05: Parents’ poignant call to killer
    04JUL05: River killer’s appeal dismissed
    28JUN05: Jail sentence for wedding killer
    24JUN05: Club row killer lost court appeal
    23MAR05: Fury at killer driver’s sentence
    16MAR05: Killer driver’s sentence doubled
    04MAR05: Town protest over killer drivers

    That’s enough to be going on with, but there’s plenty more.

    Sunjay: “The Sun: Teen bullies get two years. Come on, if the Sun calls them bullies and not killers your site is running on empty.”

    Even if you were correct on these points, which, on the evidence above you’re plainly not, it’s a big stretch to then claim that that invalidates the rest of Biased BBC too!

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  6. PJF says:

    Well done Andrew, and thank God I refreshed this page before finishing my similar search of BBC links. I’d got three; and if I’d carried on and posted and then seen your link – well, I’d be ready to, er, bully a lot. 😉

    Perhaps if the Sun and the BBC have similar journalistic standards – the BBC’s running on empty.
    .

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  7. Bryan says:

    The BBC is running on plenty.

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  8. Lurker in a Burqua says:

    I do so enjoy Andrews periodic deconstructions.

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  9. Lizzie says:

    Sunjay – A killer is a murderer.

    Nonsense. One who kills is a killer. A soldier who has killed someone according to the rules of engagement is not a murderer, but he is a killer.

    My cat is very definitely a killer, but he’s not a murderer.

    These “bullies” attacked a girl who died as a result of the attack. They may not have been convicted of murder, but they are killers nonetheless.

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  10. Grimer says:

    The girl died of an undiagnosed heart condition.

    I detest bullies. However, you have to be realistic. The victim could have died at any time. A trip to Alton Towers could have been enough.

    Obviously, the girls that “bullied this girl to death” should be punished and this sentence does seem a bit leniant. But, this whole tragic story should be deterrant enough. I doubt the bullies meant to kill the girl. I doubt they laugh and joke about it now (or ever will). What probably started out as pathetic immature bullying, has left a girl dead.

    It’s an incredibly immotive case, let’s just hope that bullies think twice about what they are doing.

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  11. Tom says:

    Grimer

    You have expressed my sentiments entirely, commonsense and eloquence, I hate you!

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  12. Lizzie says:

    The victim could have died at any time … I doubt the bullies meant to kill the girl.

    Probably not. But these violent bullies were deliberately torturing Aimee Wellock, and she died trying to escape them. You say she “could have died at any time” – that is true for all of us. She could have lived until she was eighty and died peacefully in her bed. But she died afraid, running for safety, and the fact that she was running for safety is a direct result of what her attackers did.

    The bullies might not have meant to kill Aimee, but they did intend to hurt and scare her. She died because of that.

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  13. Joe N. says:

    the problem is that “killers get two years” would almost ALMOST sound like a criticism of leftist jusdicial practices.
    Sunjay’s wheedling at minor details over what you call death is the result: a murky grip on law where law is no longer about right and wrong, protecting the public, or creating a disinsentive to kill.

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  14. england says:

    “The victim could have died at any time … I doubt the bullies meant to kill the girl.”
    A couple of years ago there was a case of a driver who missed a night’s sleep and subsequently swerved off the road and onto the railway tracks causing a train crash.

    There was no intent proved.

    He was doing nothing that thousands of other people don’t do every week and by that I mean police officers, doctors, train drivers, shift workers, people who work irregular hours, (journalists chasing a good story?) Even people reading this post.

    He made an error of judgement.

    And he got more than the killer of Aimee.

    http://ayup.co.uk/shuttup/shuttup/shuttup8-02.htm

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  15. Robin says:

    Well said,england.Its about time there was a bit more about wether people have guilty mind,whatever actions they are taking,rather than just the consequences.
    eg;a burglar who kills one person in the course of his activities is more guilty (is it mens rea) than someone who accidently mows down a bus queue while being inattentive on the road.

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  16. Steiner says:

    Well done, Andrew. You’ve proved that not only that those who commit manslaughter can be called killers in the press, but that the BBC freely does so! Great job at defending the Biased BBC’s right to call the BBC biased ;).

    And you didn’t answer sunjay’s point: is the Sun also biased for not using killers in its headline instead of bullies?

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  17. Andrew says:

    Personally I reckon The Sun’s terminology was wrong too – but it is a privately owned newspaper that doesn’t masquerade as an impartial observer, unlike the tellytax funded BBC. Just to be clear though, this isn’t an issue of BBC bias per se – it’s more BBC ignorance/inaccuracy – which we can legitimately question here, even if it’s not strictly bias.

    With regard to the other comments on intentions, consequences and culpability, I think that in many cases of unintentional deaths that the consequences should be taken more in to consideration than they are when it comes to determining culpability – if people got banged up more often and for longer for accidentally killing others then perhaps people would learn to take more care in their actions, to remain vigilant to the consequences of carelessness when driving and so on.

    Gary Hart got off lightly – dead people and children deprived of loving parents is not an unintended consequence that can be lightly ignored – he was negligent by stupidly staying up all night on the phone to some woman. He should have had the gumption to rest before setting off to work – either calling in sick or going in late or at the very least to pulling over and stopping when he first realised he was too tired to proceed.

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  18. Liz says:

    And I don’t think this bloke should have had a driving license at all (my epileptic friend was denied one). He still admitted “killing” someone, according to the Beeb, even though he didn’t mean to kill anyone.

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  19. Pisst off says:

    Bullies is more interesting in a headline and likely to get. Killings/killers are two a penny – a death at the hands of bullies is more unusual and so they were right to put it in the headline. Do you guys ever think of the other side of the argument before you post or are you just too rabid in your politics?

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  20. Pisst off says:

    shoulda said “likely to get more hits”

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