To wonder how you could go on a cruise months after killing your 6 year old Great Grandson?

[TooOldForAllThatShit]

Very upsetting article warning.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7218223/Stanley-Metcalfs-parents-relive-told-sons-twin-sister-died.html

On his Facebook there are pictures of him on a cruise holiday months later after he lied about what happened. I find it hard to fathom how any family members are on his side.

The shooting was a totally preventable accident but what he did afterwards was totally despicable IMO.

What really really makes me hate this man is that after he shot this boy he didn’t immediately tell the family what happened. The boy was saying his (great)grandad had shot him but the man just kept saying he didn’t know what had happened and it took a short while for them to see the wound as it was small and the bleeding was internal. Maybe if he had said what happened and called an ambulance straight away the outcome would have been different. Then he lied to try and get out of it.
He really reminds me of my fil, I can see him doing something like this and then being more concerned with absolving himself of all responsibility than helping at all. He’s a cold and arrogant man

It’s truly heartbreaking. I read the parents’ victim statements which were published in full on the Hull newspaper website and their utter devastation and heartbreak is overwhelming. They are going through sheer hell.

I agree with the OP! I cannot get my head round how this man isn't beside himself with grief and guilt, the poor mother of the boy. His lack of remorse must make this a LOT harder to deal with.

I never knew that you needed a firearms license for air rifles, I guess we should apply for one!

I never knew that you needed a firearms license for air rifles, I guess we should apply for one!

You don't. Careful reading and research (unfashionable in these days of instant celebrity) would reveal that in this particular case a certificate was needed because the rifle had been modified to be more powerful.

I guess the Amercanisation (sorry, Americanization) of the UK will have some downsides as well as upsides, and needless gun deaths is one.

@Screamanger thankfully you need one where we are in Scotland and I think also in Wales, England laws are more lax and I think it is only for more powerful guns. If you are not clearly aware of your responsibilities of owning a potentially lethal weapon I would suggest you shouldn't have one.

What gets me is how cold he is in all this never shown remorse

He and the family members supporting him are in complete denial because actually taking on board the horror and tragedy of his actions, and the terrible grief he has caused is more than they can handle. Easier to deny it. I feel so sorry for his mum, dad and sister.

It struck me that my mother would behave in the same way in a similar situation. She has no empathy, will never admit to doing anything wrong and will not countenance being challenged on anything. Everything is about saving her own face. She's a text book narcissist and I used to stand for her unquestioningly due to childhood conditioning before I finally woke up and had years of therapy. Maybe the family who are supporting him are the same.

I agree Hopping. Maybe the extra minutes would have made a difference. There's no way he couldn't have known he'd shot him if the gun fired while he was pointing it right at him. He would have cried out as well.

All the Merry Christmas posts on his Facebook page on what was the first Christmas his granddaughter had to face with her little boy in a grave due to his actions are sickening .

Agree Hoppinggreen - the what if only they had found his injury sooner he could possibly have been given a chance. It was only when he collapsed that they realized he really had been shot.

Disgusting that his family is supporting him.

This was a terrible thing to happen .The GF didnt want to admit he was at fault it seems .The parents are setting up a pressure group to make Air rifle owners need a licence .The worse thing for me was the total lack of remorse and his twin sister is absolutely bereft .

She mentions in the article that growing up, it was very much his way or the highway, that he wasn't to be questioned.

Clearly nothing has changed then. He sounds like a oppressive character. I'm sure there was no intent to shoot his grandson, but he was reckless in the extreme and this is what he cannot admit to. Plenty of stubborn, cantankerous older men out there who cannot admit their wrong doings. My Dad is also like this.

What a heartbreaking story, their lives have been ruined and they've also been ostracised by their family.

I really hope, like the parents of little Andrew Morton in Scotland, Stanleys parents see licensing laws for air rifles being introduced in England. This tragedy could possibly been avoided if England had looked at what the rest of Britain were doing and why.

I read this article this morning and I, too, sobbed. The death may well have been accidental - but the actions of the great-grandfather afterwards? Were a choice. To save his own skin, at the cost of a little boy who undoubtedly thought the world of him.

How his family members could side with him, over parents and siblings who have lost a child? It truly beggars belief. I hope that Stanley's immediate family find ease in their grief at some point, but until there is an apology - not only from the seemingly callous great-grandfather, but also from the aunts who have sided with him - or an admission of responsibility/guilt, I don't think they will.

Nothing in that article about going on a cruise etc or what other family members may or may not thing. You're rubber necking on a Fb page for salacious gossip?

If you're going to get on your high horse @MyOpinionIsValid it's best to actually read the bloody article.

The Great Grandmother as well Contrary. How on earth she could smile in photos with him while living it up on a cruise just a few months after what he did I don't know.

It says a lot about his character that he kept the rifle for shooting squirrels as well. We have loads in our garden. They're not pests. They don't shit everywhere or eat plants. He obviously just liked taking potshots at defenceless creatures.

Some older men are simply belligerent, cantankerous, selfish old know it alls. When you add that to disabilities both physical and mental you end up with a total liability who can’t be told and can’t find a shred of care if something goes wrong

Yes this. There’s been plenty of similar stories over the years, often the old person killing someone by running them over, and they express not a shred of remorse or utter a word of apology.

Grey squirrels are pests. They take food from bird feeders and contribute to the loss of woodland habitat for other species.

@Abra1de if only there was a prize for the most blatant derail ...

I hate this story. Everything I've read suggests he really didn't care at all.

Did the 'perpetrator' lie about what happened? He surely wouldn't have deliberately shot the little boy.

It's very tragic, the twins look beautiful. However everybody must stop apportioning blame to someone who has probably suffered greatly over having done this. He's in prison now so surely justice has been done. The man was careless but he isn't a murderer. Quite elderly too.

I think nothing about him having been on a cruise. Sometimes people just have to get away after something awful has happened.

I hope the parents and other members of the family can build bridges.

@Sadie789

Hit the nail on the head!

Fucking Hell. I’d not heard about this till now

I have DBros who are twins. Can’t imagine one without the other.

Not a shred of remorse, no accepting responsibility and don’t even get me started on the family members who have taken his side Vile creatures. Accident my arse.

We find squirrels eat the chicken feed. We shoot them and make squirrel stew.

You don't need a firearms licence for 'normal' air rifles. The law states they all must be under a certain power. News reports states the grandfather modified the air rifle to make it more powerful than legally allowed, thus turning it into a firearm. Unbelievably that he kept it loaded and discharged it at the child.