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AIBU?

To not want to read the graphic details of James Bulger's abduction in a chain email?

122 replies

Bectheneck · 05/12/2007 11:10

And not only have it sent to me by my, usually sensible, sister but to have to listen to it being read out on air by some numpty local DJ this morning just because he'd received it via Facebook and today's 'Time Tunnel' year (music played from a particular year) was 1993 (the year the abduction happened). He gave no warning of the details it contained and how horrific they are.

Has anyone else received it? I don't have a copy any more as I deleted it straight away but it basically recaps on the James Bulger case but goes into graphic detail of what his abductors did to him. It then goes on to say that they are due to be released, given new identities and a new life in Australia and we should add our names and forward it on to people. At some point it said it will be sent as a petition to, I can't remember exactly, but presumably to keep them in prison for ever.

It's a chain email and I found it so distasteful to post such horrific details about the poor little lads last hours. There surely must be more appropriate ways to get the point across? Am I being unreasonable? Most people already know that he was taken, tortured and left on a railway line. Isn't that horrific enough? It just seemed so pointless and it's something I can't get out of my head now I've read it.

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JodieG1 · 05/12/2007 11:12

Haven't they already been released years ago?

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ElasticAnimal · 05/12/2007 11:13

i had that too, did nothign with it

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Ozymandius · 05/12/2007 11:13

They have long been released! It's a chain letter and like all chain letters deserves to be put in the bin or deleted, just as you did. I'd tell your sister that you didn't appreciate being sent it, and that it is also pointless and out of date. I'd also complain to the radio station. Children could have been listening! What a stupid man.

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Hulababy · 05/12/2007 11:14

This must be a very old chaim mail. They have already been released, have new idenitities and are presumably out living their lives as we speak.

You are right though - I would not wish to recieve such an email nor to hear it read out on the radio.

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ElasticAnimal · 05/12/2007 11:14

had just seen Boy A so was swayed by that.
but whatever they did in 1993 they have been rehablitated presumabely, which is what prison is. I don't want them outed whereever thy are, be it australia or living next door to me.
i don't want to know

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flack · 05/12/2007 11:14

What is the title on this chain email (is it obvious)? Thinking about the poor boy gives me nightmares.

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shreddies · 05/12/2007 11:15

What?!?!? I can't believe some fuckwit read it out on air. Complain to the radio station. It's bad enough having it as a chain letter. They were released years ago.

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SquonkaClaus · 05/12/2007 11:16

I got one of these a few months ago - and it still preys on my mind.

I completely agree with you - the things I already knew were bad enough, I didn't need to know any more details.

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Bectheneck · 05/12/2007 11:17

Well, that's even worse then if they are already out! How stupid. I have emailed the show to complain but I didn't realise they had been released already or I would have added that it was out of date.

I know I should say something to my sister. She's fantastic usually and I'm very close to her so I can't think why she would forward something like that. Can't see my other sisters being too happy either.

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Hulababy · 05/12/2007 11:19

Just been on FB and seen that I have also been sent this chain mail and it is indeed very graphic. Horrible infact. No idea who the person is who has sent it to me - Heather someone. I am looking at how to block them.

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themulledsnowmanneredjanitor · 05/12/2007 11:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jinglebells2shoessmells · 05/12/2007 11:20

I got this on fb from a mn(who is lovely we all make mistakes) nasty thing.I hate chain letters

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Hulababy · 05/12/2007 11:21

Have seen that the person who has sent me this - actually on my wall, not via inbox, says they know me from MN! I am not convinced. Removing them.

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Hulababy · 05/12/2007 11:23

Maybe same MNetter? Not sure who it is though. Don't have MN name only real name.

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JeremyMcVile · 05/12/2007 11:23

Got this on facebook too.

Yet more proof that fb is a great big pile of lolloping pointlessness.

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duchesse · 05/12/2007 11:24

Prurience, pure and simple. A bit of a national past-time these days. (to wit "reality" TV, and the wealth of "I had a Horrible Childhood" books out there, tabloid induced hysteria at various news stories...)

I do with people would run things through their own standards filter before hitting "forward". I usually delete chain letters of any kind without reading them.

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JeremyMcVile · 05/12/2007 11:25

...and the person who put it on my wall added at the top "sorry to put this on your wall"

Really?? Not sorry enough not to bother though

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Boco · 05/12/2007 11:25

I've been really put off facebook by these types of things - i got that one posted 4 times on my wall by different people, it's so annoying. Deleted them all without reading. Also got bullshit ones about abused children with cancer, adn if you don't forward something awful will happen to you. Delete delete delete, please don't forward that shit.

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Hulababy · 05/12/2007 11:25

JM - mine had that comment at the top too.

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Bectheneck · 05/12/2007 11:26

You are right too about children listening as it was read out. When I received it I ranted to my 14 yo DD about my sister sending me it and I told her briefly about James but there was no way I was going to tell her the details. I'm not usually like that about stuff either but this was just horrible. Can't remember what the email subject is - I only opened it because my sister doesn't usually crap.

He read it out on air at about 9.45am and the show finished at 10am so not sure when the emails will be dealt with. I don't ever complain but I could not beleive that he read it out with no warning - or at all!

Sorry slow typing - am one handed at the mo.

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Bectheneck · 05/12/2007 11:28

my sis doesn't usually send crap

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sugar34plum · 05/12/2007 11:29

i recieved the graphic details many years ago and it was very graphic. Back then and to this day i hope his mum denise didnt have to hear it all. Its bad enough for us as mums to have heard the deatils but for the mum of that poor precious child thats more than i could bear

I hope those boys are reabilitated but im sorry i wouldnt want them living next door to me.

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ShakeysGirl · 05/12/2007 11:39

I got this email years ago and have never forgotten it. I blocked the person who sent it me as i decided that they must be a sick individual to have forwarded it to me and not somebody i wanted to be chatting with. My son was the same age as James when i got that email and it broke my heart to look at him and think about what poor James had been through and i couldn't help but think what if it was my child... Gave me nightmares.

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ronshar · 05/12/2007 11:46

Lets face it those boys will have to live forever with what they did to that little boy. When you know the lives they had before taking james it explains alot. NOT that I think that is an excuse.
I would not want to know where they are. Let them make amends for the horror of their childhoods.

I feel for his mum who has to be reminded every day by things like this.

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wannaBe · 05/12/2007 12:01

I really do wonder why people forward emails, any emails, because the majority of them are just spam designed to clutter up inboxes. I delete all chain mail that comes into my inbox without exception, and that included the emails searching for Mmc.

And I am going to make myself hugely unpopular now but..
While I think that what happened to James Bulger was horrific beyond words, and I think that those two boys should have been punished, of course they should, I think what a lot of people tend to lose sight of is the fact that these were ten year old children. Children, who were just a few years older than our own DC. And while I think that what they did was dreadful, I think it?s desperately sad that children can lead such lives as to drive them into committing such a horrific act.
How ever long they were kept in prison, it would never have been long enough for some, but the reality is that there is a vast difference between 10 and 18, would it be right for children to be locked up and never released? At 10 did they really understand the consequences of what they had done? Or would that crime stay with them for ever? But they will never be allowed to show the remorse they might feel, because they have had to be hidden away from the society that let them down in the first place, and now wants to see them eternally punished.

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