The mother of the man man who stabbed nurse Cheryl Moss to death, Lorraine Harling, has blamed violent video games for her son, Stuart's actions. Speaking to the English Sunday newspaper The News Of The World she bemoaned gaming as the fundamental influence for her son's actions:
"I knew he was playing the video games but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were.
"Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn't even realise games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same."
The judges recently gave Stuart Harling a life sentence after reportedly stabbing his victim 72 times and according to his mother, this was "exactly as he'd practised on the Playstation in his bedroom."
"Every night he would retreat into his darkened bedroom at home in Rainham, Essex, and enter a grisly virtual world that revelled in sadism, ritual blood-letting and death. Just like millions of other youngsters," she is quoted as saying. The News Of The World however, added it's own douse of petrol to the already out of control blaze:
"One of baby-faced Harling's favourite games was the notorious Manhunt, where players SLASH and SLICE their victims with meat CLEAVERS, cheese WIRE and CHAINSAWS, or suffocate them with plastic bags."
Harling's mother is quoted as saying, "I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned."
Just what this will mean for the future of video games remains to be seen. It will surely add to Jack Thompson's unrelenting campaign against the industry, that's for sure.
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