Anyone else have a visceral reaction to the picture in the news of Axel the murderer

[Newyearnewmewoooop]

I’m not going to link or post his picture as he’s beyond evil and I can’t bear to look at him. I don’t want to be a grief vampire at all, that’s not what this post is about. I just wondered if anyone else has experienced such a response to it or anything else? I haven’t experienced it before

I’m not the arbiter of what the media should and shouldn’t do, they have various options which is clear if you just google his name.

No thanks. But I don't think you're even correct here as if the media did have options they wouldn't have over relied on a school image

I'm pretty sure posters have been arguing the media would have used something else if they'd had it pre mug shot.

And you do sound like you want to get the arbiter of what the media use. Except in this case the mug shot was clearly the obvious choice. Why wouldn't it be?

That's actually a prime example of a mugshot that elicited loads of the "face of pure evil" , "evil incarnate" headlines and responses. Yeah, when I 100% believed that Letby was guilty, I found her photo absolutely chilling to look at. I think loads of people did.

I googled his name and all that came up was school photos and the shot under discussion. I don't think it would be right for the media to use school photos now we have the mug shot and it would lead to conspiracy theories growing, which is deeply unhelpful. I would like to see less of that picture though and feel that it has been unduly used by some media outlets to generate a sense of shock and sell copies/get clicks and that is pretty sickening.

I find all mug shots of convicted killers very unsettling, for different reasons. Some seem to try and make themselves look 'evil', like this one, others just look dead behind the eyes and some look disturbingly normal. Kyle Clifford falls into the dead behind the eyes category and it's unsettling to compare that shot to the ones taken from his social media.

Why do I sound like that? I’ve literally never said or even suggested that I do? I’ve pointed out that specific pictures are used by the media to create a narrative. I know that because it’s something that I’ve come across before. I also know that it’s wise to not take everything that you see in the media at face value and for that reason I find the visceral reactions to his photo as opposed to what he did to be quite OTT.

As in pp there aren't options beyond the old school ones and the mug shot and of course it makes sense to use the latter now they have it

And what he did is clearly linked to the image

His crime is not unknown and the details are horrific

There are lots of court drawings in there too and some sources seem to have gone with that.

I was very sadly on the periphery of the periphery of another notorious crime and seeing the mugshot of the perpetrator made me feel incredibly stressed. It was hard to avoid at one point. I’ve realised I haven’t ever seen another picture of this person and I wonder how I’d feel if I did. I have had a small taste of how people in Southport will feel when they see Rudakubana’s image in this mugshot and my heart goes out to them because it will be nothing short of traumatic.

He does look extremely sinister in that photo but agree with @howrudeforme if his chin was up and he was smiling he’d probably look ok, pleasant even. Those kind of photos, normal - not mug shots, of criminals who do horrendous things are often the ones that make me feel very uncomfortable. That nothing about them gives away what they are and if you met them briefly you might even think they were nice.

You're being patronising.

I'm well aware of the debate around evil /not evil and the media thanks.

Its actually neither. I don't care. I have absolutely not one seconds thought for him, how he's been made to look, whether it was right , etc. Not one.

If that makes me not as superior as you and the one or two other posters, then I'm bloody thankful for that. I hope I never hop onto a topic not 2 days after we heard the most horrific details and start having an intellectual debate about mugshots.

There is no intellectual debate about mugshots. There is a factual one, to counter misinformation on this thread and others.

There is no intellectual debate about mugshots. There is a factual one, to counter misinformation on this thread and others.

What are you countering? People's reactions to a mugshot or something else

But it doesn't make sense, does it? The 'face of evil'. What does that even mean? We know that he's evil because he's killed. The photo that has been published 'leads us there' too. That's our media calibre in the UK.

What would people have thought had this not been a killer but with the same photo? Unfortunate-looking?

I check myself because I remember seeing the photos of the Bulger killers for the first time. One of them looked odd, the other like a typical choirboy. Both killers. Just like this one.

I think your statement of 'this being one of the worst comments you've ever read' is hyperbole. Or you haven't been here very long. Either way, it's a chatboard and that poster wasn't being personal to you as you are to her.

I'm countering the popular belief that the media held back the mugshot in order to make the public believe he was innocent when in fact mugshots cannot be made public until conviction.

How people react to the picture is obviously subjective.

It’s not about facts, yes we all know factually he’s a disgusting horrible killer. The point of the thread was to see if anyone else had the primeval feeling of absolute terror looking at his mugshot and it seems a lot of us did. If there is such a thing as the devil/evil it exudes from every cell of that disgusting monster.

I meant the fact about the mugshot not being made public.

I agree , I thought he was absolutely demonic, mugshots make people look
rough but this kid exuded evil .
I actually hope someone in jail takes him out .

My first reaction on seeing his photo was along the lines of, jeez he looks deranged.

The crossbow killer of three women looks conventionally handsome and attractive - shows how photos can deceive.

When I first saw a photo of the Manchester Arena bomber (not a mugshot) he was looking young and goofy - I had a visceral reaction to that for some reason and had an urge to slap his face.

All of them crazed young men.

It just makes me really sad.
He's so young and clearly unhinged. And he took away the lives of those 3 innocent young children.
It's an absolute tragedy.

I think pretending he's evil is a cop out. It's akin to saying there's nothing that could have been done.
This guy was barely an adult. I want to know wtf went on and how it can be prevented in the future.
Apparently he did have mental health issues as a child and reported wanting to kill his bullies.
Surely there's lessons to be learned here?
So many kids turning violent.
I think our systems and safety nets are failing.

I agree OP it's absolutely terrifying. I was in a hotel bar and saw it on their sky news and almost shuddered when I saw it.

However I think this is very much the narrative the media is taking, this is the face of evil. If a sweet innocent looking picture was posted the debate would be about how did society fail him. It's much easier for us to see an evil monster. It's also suiting the agenda of the authorities trying to keep peace, after those awful riots no one wants there to be much discussion about who he was as a person because it will only fuel the fire. I'm not really following the story in detail just observing as an outsider, the media manipulates us so much, it really makes me wonder what he looks like in other pictures and what the narrative would be if another one was used.

Yeah

I keep thinking " Thats the face of evil"

Creepy as hell.

Whatever anyone says about the media manipulating us etc you can't escape the fact that that's an actual photo of him. It's his face. It's how he looks. A monster.

Society didn't fail him. It was him who failed to live as a decent member of society. He had a roof over his head, in a very nice area (I know Banks well). He'd benefitted from the education system, it was him who chose to behave so badly that he was expelled from it. He was offered help from mental health services, again, it was him who chose not to engage. He even attended a drama club where he got that part as Dr Who (or whatever he was). I bet he felt quite safe at his drama club, no monster burst in there with a knife and attacked him whilst he was enjoying himself, unlike those poor innocent little girls at their club. Whether his parents are to blame or not, I don't know enough about them to have an opinion. All I do know is that if my teenage son was getting deliveries of items that had to be signed for by me, then I'd want to know what the heck was he ordering and I'd have made sure he'd never have got his hands on the knives, crossbow etc that were delivered. That monster wasn't fit to live in our society and I thank God he's been removed from it.

If you're going to give your opinion, which I neither asked for nor am I interested in, it might be an idea to pause a moment to actually read the interaction before jumping in. I wasn't referring to the mugshot comment. I was referring to the poster who suggested OP only has an issue with him because he's black .

I really have zero interest in your judgements of my comments, the fact you have taken time to point out wrongdoings as if I'm a child in the playground s really quite strange.

Do feel free to pop along to the several comments who said the same as me and /or liked my post.

There are barely any pictures to be used

It's why there was over reliance on a photo that was very out of date in a school uniform