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AIBU?

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Original poster

TO think he's not a fucking teddy bear?

201 replies

Bunlicker · 10/07/2017 21:56

^Friends and associates of Mr Matthew said they were astounded to hear that the genteel editor was under arrest. “He is the biggest teddy bear I know,” said one family friend.

Aibu to think this is shocking reporting?

Intentionally throwing a hammer at a person is a pretty clear indication of the man's character.

British newspaper editor 'admits he accidentally killed wife by throwing a hammer at her in their Dubai home' - The Telegraph
apple.news/ALsGp3iLhSV23LnKUEzkOFA

OP posts:
Collidascope · 10/07/2017 23:38

Yes, it's horrendous but all the newspapers seem to do it. Man kills wife. Journalists get lots of quotes about how great man was. The murdered woman pretty much vanishes and it becomes an ode to the wonderful abusive man.

PollyFlint · 10/07/2017 23:49

Yes, this is a horrible thing that newspapers do - run a story about someone murdering their wife and/or kids and then publish a load of photos of them looking like a happy family man and quotes from people saying 'He was a great husband and dad but something must have happened to make him flip' or 'He was a really happy go lucky guy but he became depressed after his wife left him' - as if somehow it was her fault and that she somehow drove him to it. Really, really annoys me.

nocoolnamesleft · 10/07/2017 23:53

Oh for fuck's sake. To accidentally kill someone with a hammer would be something like losing your grip on a hammer, whilst up on a roof, and to your total horror seeing it land on someone below, who heard your desperate warning cry just too late.

Hitting someone with a hammer, or throwing a hammer at them, and they end up dead, is not a fucking accident. It is killing someone as part of a violent assault.

Gingernaut · 10/07/2017 23:53

Wait for the "it must have been something she did that set him off".

She must have said something.

We all know he wouldn't have done that normally...

NormaSmuff · 11/07/2017 07:48

He was of course a journalist or had some involvement in the press.
wicked

QuentinSummers · 11/07/2017 07:52

I'm so sick of this. It is depressing that newspapers do this. Poor woman

QuentinSummers · 11/07/2017 07:57

Click link
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/10/british-newspaper-editor-admits-accidentally-killed-wife-throwing/
That is an exceptoonal example of biased reporting actually. The whole article reads like and obituary TO HIM. Barely a word said about her. And then acting like him being arrested in Dubai is terrible because they have the death penalty. FFS. If he was worried about being arrested in Dubai he shouldn't have thrown a fucking hammer at his wife.

ShotsFired · 11/07/2017 08:08

There was a headline recently about a rapist who got jailed. Rare enough in itself to be newsworthy, right, but the (paraphrased from memory) headline?

"Man's career hopes in ruins"

My heart bleeds.

thereallochnessmonster · 11/07/2017 08:38

“He seemed to be a very relaxed, calm individual and quite laid back,” he said.

FFS!!! Well, you weren't married to him, were you?

Maybe they rowed every day. Maybe this was the first tine he had been violent. We don't know.

But to kill your wife by throwing a hammer at her - and then lying about it to the police - I think that tells you more about what sort of man he really was.

NormaSmuff · 11/07/2017 08:39

it is disgusting that the papers takes this angle on the story in 2017

VanillaSugar · 11/07/2017 08:41

How did he accidentally have a hammer in his hand?

HurtleTheTurtle · 11/07/2017 08:41

I'm on the fence on this specific case; this is a country which has a history of forcing foreigners to sign confessions in Arabic which they don't understand.

There has been no trial yet. The charge has simply come from a confession. I haven't read anywhere that any other evidence is supporting this charge.

The UAE does have form for covering up crimes committed by locals, or crimes which could damage their all important tourist industry. Something about this just does not feel right to me. How many murderers are there that confess so quickly with no other evidence pointing towards them?

HurtleTheTurtle · 11/07/2017 08:43

PS. I wouldn't think you were being unreasonable if he'd been tried in court and found guilty, or if there was a stack of evidence against him which had been shared with the general public.

Clandestino · 11/07/2017 08:44

Love the "accidentally". Can't imagine throwing a hammer at someone just for the craic.

Dottyblue2 · 11/07/2017 08:44

I'm so pleased that i read the article and discovered where he went to school. That's so important these days.

thereallochnessmonster · 11/07/2017 08:54

YY Dotty. It's also essential to know he's a 'genteel editor'.

FFS!!!

deydododatdodontdeydo · 11/07/2017 08:56

I'm on the fence on this specific case; this is a country which has a history of forcing foreigners to sign confessions in Arabic which they don't understand.

Except he studied arabic and islamic studies at university, the article says, so probably not an issue in this case.

HurtleTheTurtle · 11/07/2017 08:57

arabic and islamic studies

This isn't necessarily the same as studying Arabic language.

Wellysocksbox · 11/07/2017 09:00

After 30 years in the country, I'd expect him to have a good smattering of the local lingo, what?

HurtleTheTurtle · 11/07/2017 09:02

Wellysocksbox My spoken Arabic is almost fluent; my writing is nowhere near that standard.

Several cases before where people have signed confession statements where a translator has told them they were signing something completely different.

Original poster
Bunlicker · 11/07/2017 09:06

I think we can assume that if anyone were likely to speak Arabic it would be this man who did Arabic studies and lived there for 30 years. Also I was under the impression that thise degrees always included languge to a high degree

OP posts:
HurtleTheTurtle · 11/07/2017 09:08

Bunlicker

I don't have to "assume" that the confession would have been in written arabic, not spoken. That's how it works. You sign a written confession in Arabic.

It has nothing to do with level of spoken Arabic.