Teenager Kills Widow, Videogames Blamed

28 Oct 2009 at 11:16:40 by Tim McDonald

Videogames are in the spotlight again following a UK teenager's murder of a widow.

According to the Daily Mail, which is never a good way to start a story, 17-year old James Callaghan murdered an old woman after losing three consecutive games of FIFA 08 when playing with his younger brother and a friend. The Mail also notes that Callaghan "also played the violent computer game Grand Theft Auto, which sends the player's character on a violent crime spree."

The Mail also notes that following his arrest, Callaghan was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia - which he therefore wasn't receiving treatment for at the time of the killings - and was known to be violent after drinking. We suspect both of these facts might be of some relevance.

Following the games of FIFA, Callaghan apparently downed a bottle of vodka and then left the house with an axe and a long knife.

He first accosted a pair of girls, who ran. Next was a young man, who ran, but got hit in the side of the head with an axe for his trouble. A cyclist fled following Callaghan's threatening him, and finally Callaghan broke into the home of 65-year old widow Irene Robertson. He reportedly hit her six times in the head with an axe, chopped off a finger, and stabbed her repeatedly in the back, stomach, and leg.

Following this, he attempted to break into the house of Robertson's neighbours, Mushin Thejeel and Sana Kadum. Callaghan smashed a hole in their front door with the axe, demanded that they give him alcohol, and apparently threatened to kill Thejeel. The couple called the police and, when they arrived, Callaghan admitted that he had killed a woman.

Somewhere in between the police arriving and the death of Robertson, Callaghan wrote what look like apologies to his mother on both the walls and a mirror in Robertson's house using lipstick. According to prosecutor Guy Kearl QC, "On the flat walls and on a mirror Callaghan had written a message to his mother in lipstick saying that he was sorry and hadn't intended to kill an old woman."

The case is apparently in court now, with Callaghan - who has now turned 18 - admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and unlawful wounding. Callaghan is currently in a high security mental hospital.

It's an absolute tragedy, and we have nothing but sympathy for those affected.

We do, however, take exception to videogames being once more blamed, even through implication. The title of the Mail's article states that the atack occured "after losing a computer game to his brother," with the first paragraph mentioning "a drunken rampage after losing at computer games." While this is technically true - the rampage did indeed take place after losing at computer games - the implication, particularly with this being the first paragraph, is that they are to blame for it. Post hoc ergo propter hoc, and all that.

And, yes, scapegoat Grand Theft Auto was inevitably mentioned yet again, despite seemingly having no relevance to the case at hand barring that the defendant had played it at some unspecified point in the past. We rather suspect that the undiagnosed, untreated paranoid schizophrenia, the history of behaviour problems, the proclivity to be violent following alcohol, and a variety of other things were rather more likely.

If this was indeed a reaction to the game, then it seems likely that just about anything else could've triggered it. We can't imagine what would've happened if Callaghan had been playing real football instead of a virtual version, really.

Still, whether FIFA is or isn't to blame, we recommend you try out FIFA 10. It'll probably make your subsequent rampage all the more effective.

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