5 Comments »Over the past few days there has been a lot of buzz about a man who killed his wife after seeing that his wife switched their relationship status to “single”. According to Paul Cheston, the man “drank alcohol and took cocaine before driving 15 miles to the family home to attack wife Emma as she lay in bed.” How did he kill her?
Well with a meat cleaver of course! The interesting part is that the couple had been separated for four days, and switching the wife’s relationship status was literally the final nail in the coffin. “Emma was found in a pool of blood after neighbours were woken at 6:30am by her screams. Near her body was a large kitchen knife and in another room a blood-soaked meat cleaver.”
It was a violent and tragic killing (I’ll avoid the details which are posted in the article linked above). Typically I would avoid such horrible news but this story highlights the massive impact that a facebook relationship status change can have on an individual’s emotions. I’ve know people that have left Facebook indefinitely after ending a relationship because they could bare to watch their ex’s activities on the site.
Social networking has brought about a new level of interconnectedness which can have unforeseen consequences. This example is most definitely an extreme example of what could happen. For the most part Facebook is or should be used for good though. It is only in rare instances that we hear of horror stories such as this.
Nick,
While this is an interesting topic to explore, I would hesitate to call this guy the “Facebook killer.”
First, always take UK newspaper headlines with a grain of salt.
“Wayne Forrester, 34, drank alcohol and took cocaine before driving 15 miles to the family home to attack wife Emma as she lay in bed.”
So he got hammered, violent, and hacked his wife to pieces.
“The couple had separated four days before the murder in February and Forrester later told police he had been provoked by his wife changing her marital status to “single” on her Facebook entry, the court heard. “
So he had four days to stew, drink, get high and wallow in his anger before he picked up the meat cleaver and a knife (your graphic is a two-bladed axe by the way) and drove to his wife's house with the intention of committing murder.
“The court heard that the Forresters had a “volatile and unstable marriage characterised by periods of separation and reconciliation.”
And you really, really believe that a click on a dropdown caused this? Remember, if you read the article he also believed she was having an affair.
I have a friend who recently separated from his spouse. He changed his Facebook status some time ago. To my knowledge neither of them has committed murder.
I believe you are overestimating the importance of the relationship status feature on Facebook in this case, and instead taking what appears to be nothing but a very good effort by defense counsel and the willingness of CPS (the UK equiv. of a District Attorney's office) to accept a plea of “Temporary Mental Impairment,” the evidence for which is probably better supported by the defendant's blood-toxicity levels and prior history of the marriage than the “Facebook made me did it” excuse.
I doubt a jury would buy it.
(Caveat: IANAL).
And since Disqus is being strange about editing, the English s2(1) of the Homicide Act 1957 states:
Where a person kills or is party to a killing of another, he shall not be convicted of murder if he was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.
How exactly did you “avoid the details” of the article by posting exactly how it happened and with what implements and the description of the bloody aftermath?
I have to say, I come to your blog for Facebook news, and while you could have linked to the article and discussed the role of the relationship status, I really think the sensationalistic headline, opening paragraphs, and completely unnecessary photograph were all too much. I'll stick around for the discussion on this post, but I'll be taking All Facebook out of my RSS reader.
Thats shocking
Hi Nick,
I've been a fan of the All Facebook blog for a few months, but I'm sad to say I'll be removing it from my feed reader. I feel that leading this story with poor attempts at humor (”How did he kill her? Well with a meat cleaver of course!”) and heartless puns (”switching the wife’s relationship status was literally the final nail in the coffin”) is not worth my time. Also including the bloody hatchet photo is quite heartless.
I can understand the need for this blog to report on the insanity of this crime, but joking about someone's murder is not only tasteless, but unprofessional.
P.S. nice work photoshopping-up the Hatchet Movie poster (http://www.monstersagogo.com/blog/uploaded_imag...)