Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the BBC just mispresented baby Preston's killer (and in way that was favourable to the killer) ?

283 replies

lyarlyarpantsonfire · 18/06/2026 14:01

Really odd reporting on Baby Preston's killer just now on the one o'clock news. Despite the baby being sexually abused and indecent images of him taken and shared, the BBC presented him as a Dad who had found parenting really overwhelming and hard and had come to resent his baby.

Stressed out parents who can't cope with babies don't sexually abuse them because they are stressed. Or take indecent images of them because they are stressed.

The killer was a paedophile. That is why he abused that baby.

As his interest in having a child was to abuse it, not to care for it, it may also have been that he had no the tolerance for hard work of looking after a young child and that did overwhelm him which resulted in him physically assaulting the child.

It was such a bizarre narrative to present him as a man who had desperately wanted children but found parenting too hard and could not cope.

Instead of a paedophile.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Original poster
lyarlyarpantsonfire · 18/06/2026 14:30

JacquesHarlow · 18/06/2026 14:26

YABU for coming on here and telling us all about it, rather than the BBC.

Did you know the BBC have "Points of View" , a whole feedback show to help bring to light where the organisation has fallen short or needs to air feedback from viewers?

Here's the details @lyarlyarpantsonfire :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59gYTrS7mLvzn2r6D7m1PTc/contact-points-of-view

Finally, as a previous poster said, reported speech from a judge isn't a summary judgement by a newsreader.

The BBC aren't a content creator making reels for online as a statement of solidarity, or opinion. The content will reflect speech that was reported in the public domain by judge or others, and that's why you heard what you did.

YABU.

That's not quite true is it? The BBC often have commentators offering opinions. One that questioned these rather odd comments by the Judge could have been found.

Refusing to name a paedophile as a paedophile and instead presenting him as an overwhelmed man who had desperately wanted to be a Father but couldn't cope is clear and utter bollocks. And it should be challenged.

BTW you see, to have failed to understand that this is a chat forum. People come here to chat. About whatever they want.

OP posts:
ChocolateApples · 18/06/2026 14:30

I just watched it. The only comment I saw from the judge was what the sentencing was. And the general reporting was that the men had carried out appalling abuse. The only small 'excusing' was them reporting the partner saying they'd struggled thinking of what Preston had been through. But the overall tone was, rightly, condemnation. What did you hear?

I have seen elsewhere that one or both had struggled with the demands of a baby. I can believe that as it's perfectly normal for new parents. But that's a totally separate thing from the abuse they meted out.

randomchap · 18/06/2026 14:30

Are you using this horrific case to attack the bbc?

JacquesHarlow · 18/06/2026 14:26

YABU for coming on here and telling us all about it, rather than the BBC.

Did you know the BBC have "Points of View" , a whole feedback show to help bring to light where the organisation has fallen short or needs to air feedback from viewers?

Here's the details @lyarlyarpantsonfire :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59gYTrS7mLvzn2r6D7m1PTc/contact-points-of-view

Finally, as a previous poster said, reported speech from a judge isn't a summary judgement by a newsreader.

The BBC aren't a content creator making reels for online as a statement of solidarity, or opinion. The content will reflect speech that was reported in the public domain by judge or others, and that's why you heard what you did.

YABU.

BBC One - Points of View - Contact Points of View

We want your thoughts on the BBC’s television programmes – good or bad!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59gYTrS7mLvzn2r6D7m1PTc/contact-points-of-view

Original poster
lyarlyarpantsonfire · 18/06/2026 14:23

Oh was that the Judge's comments? Then he is an idiot too. I found those comments really disturbing. I suspect there is an unwillingness to name the motivation being paedophilia because he is gay. Safeguarding relies on not looking at ' identity' but looking at the evidence. No sacred castes.

OP posts:
JHound · 18/06/2026 14:21

YABU for criticising the Beeb for simply reporting
what was said.

Shrinkhole · 18/06/2026 14:19

I heard that and thought the same. The BBC were quoting the judge though weren’t they? I personally thought the whole reason he was a teacher was to get the chance to abuse kids.

Sweetpeasaremadeforbees · 18/06/2026 14:14

I thought that they were just reporting the judge's comments. He seemed to think that the fact that the couple struggled with parenting contributed to the abuse.

I think that's bollocks and that they were just evil paedophiles.