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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

to think that just because an (alleged) psycho

25 replies

piprabbit · 31/05/2010 19:46

has spent lots of time choosing himself a headline friendly nickname, that the media doesn't have to use the nickname.

Surely it just panders to his warped view of reality and his own importance.

Shouldn't we just call him a nickname that reflects his sad and pointless little existence.

OP posts:

BurningBuntingFlipFlop · 31/05/2010 19:50

I agree.

scottishmummy · 31/05/2010 19:51

alternatively refer to the alleged perpetrator by his actual name

at this point his mental state and grasp upon reality is not in the public domain.so cant really speculate

nagoo · 31/05/2010 19:55

I agree, I thought it was stupid, but then, I've given up reading papers now because they just piss me off.

RunawayWife · 31/05/2010 19:56

I think the hype is too much, just call him by his name, don't join in with his sick little world

SixtyFootDoll · 31/05/2010 19:58

Absolutely, he is prob loving the notoriety

TiggyD · 31/05/2010 20:01

Let's call him Cecil the goat shagging git!

He won't like that.

allaboardthepottytrain · 31/05/2010 20:05

Absolutely agree with you - also won't buy papers as they seem to either be written by idiots for idiots or by smug wankers for smug wankers. He appears to have committed this henious crime for the notorety, it seems is wrong to indulge it.

chegirlmonkeybutt · 31/05/2010 20:05

I agree but if he hadnt provided a nickname the press wouldve given him one by now.

TheCrackFox · 31/05/2010 20:06

Completely agree, who made him God.

It is the media's duty to find out something deeply personal and embarrassing about him and base his nickname on that.

"The Incontinent Killer"

"The Evil Bed Wetter"

Pozzled · 31/05/2010 20:12

I agree that they shouldn't use his preferred nickname. I don't think they should give him a nickname though, just use his given name. He is clearly someone who delights in media attention, the less he gets the better IMO.

Eleison · 31/05/2010 20:15

Agree. It is really disturbing how the conventions of reporting these kinds of crimes shade into the conventions of dramatising them, in progs like Prime Suspect etc, which in turn shade into the conventions of this microdick idiot wanker's self-aggrandising fantasy, which he then acts out with REAL WOMEN as the accessories of his ego-trip, which then become the meat for media reports.

I bet his PhD was in something like 'the seial killer as cultural artefact' so that even the conventions of academic treatment of the thing are part of his narcisism.

Heifer · 31/05/2010 20:43

The profilers in the Behavoural Anaylsis Unit of the FBI (according to Criminal Minds) refuse to use nicknames as it does inflate the "unsub"s ego and they have a woman whose main job it seems is to stop the local/national press using nicknames..

So it can't be good.

TrinityTrinityTrinity · 31/05/2010 20:46

I'm ashamed to say I have no idea what you are talking about

Eleison · 31/05/2010 20:50

Stephen Griffiths, Trinity.

roomonthebroom · 31/05/2010 20:58

Someone correct me if I'm wrong please, but I was under the impression that it was the (print) media who gave the alleged killer the name on the morning of the court appearance and he repeated it in court?

If this is the case it is quite telling that he was interested in the media coverage on the morning of the court appearance, given the seriousness of the charges he faces.

LordVolAuVent · 31/05/2010 21:02

Actually, the Sun gave him the nick name the day before he appeared in court. Or rather, it was the front page headline. He then repeated it in court.

I'm sure you have a point though, clearly he enjoys the name so probably best to stop fuelling things by using it. No expert on that kind of thing, but think serial killers have a certain "ego" where they enjoy the notoriety.

LordVolAuVent · 31/05/2010 21:07

Sorry, x post with roomonthebroom. Maybe the morning of court appearance, not day before then, but definitely the Sun!

lazarusb · 31/05/2010 21:36

Do you think the media would have been a bit more circumspect if he hadn't killed prostitutes but middle class women? I think (much as they would hate to admit it) that they picked this nickname because of the connotations it has and acts as titillation to some people(and to him). Absolutely disrespectful imo to those women and their families. This man isn't an icon for heaven's sake.

roomonthebroom · 31/05/2010 21:38

I didn't see it, just heard on the radio that it had been in the papers that morning. Think it was the sun who coined the 'Yorkshire Ripper' name too.

Lucianne3 · 31/05/2010 23:02

YANBU!! This annoyed the hell out of me too. He decides he wants notoriety with his sick little moniker and the media/public reward him with exactly what he wants.

Can't he be known as 'the sad inadequate dickhead killer'?

larks35 · 31/05/2010 23:07

It was one of the tabloids (News of the World maybe?) that gave him the name, he just used it in court. It had been handed to him on a plate.

lazarusb - I imagine if the victims had been non-prostitute, middle class women, their disappearance would have caused a much bigger investigation earlier, perhaps preventing the two more recent murders.

Original poster

piprabbit · 31/05/2010 23:32

Hadn't realised this was a piece of thoughtful journalism by the Sun.

Am liking the Evil Bed Wetter very much - but accept that my OP could have been worded a little better as the use of his real name is probably best all round.

OP posts:

Servalan · 01/06/2010 00:37

This has been bugging the hell out of me too. The use of this nickname suggests a sense of mystery and importance that someone who has committed crimes such as these just does not deserve.

The media coverage in general has been pretty sensationalist, tactless and disrespectful imo. I can't imagine what it must have been like for the family and friends of those poor women to see some of the recent headlines.

I too think that the fact that these women worked at prostitutes has almost been used to dehumanise them in the way that the crimes have been reported.

One of the things I liked about the recent Five Daughters drama was the fact that it focussed on the women who died as the interesting, important people, and skimmed over their killer as almost an afterthought.

HecateQueenOfWitches · 01/06/2010 07:52

I do get the vibe that the attitude is they were 'only' prostitutes, therefore it is no great loss.

That makes me very angry indeed.

I agree that if this creature had murdered several doctors, he would have been reported very differently.

I feel a lack of outrage in the media, tbh.

chegirlmonkeybutt · 02/06/2010 18:47

Does anyone else think this alledged serial killer will be absolutly furious that he has now been beaten off the top news spot by the terrible events in Cumbria?

I dont mean that to trivialise either of the events. I just feel that the guy seems to want to maximise his publicity by his bizarre behaviour. He studied serial killers and seems to want to go down in history too.

Flip