'callous, cold-blooded and pre-meditated' Mirror journalist Sue Carroll's brutal and uniformed piece about Michael Hamer

Daily Mirror


The main problem with this sort of irresponsible nonsense is that it is simply untrue. There is in fact in none of the cases she mentions, Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and John Venables any evidence at all of the 'genetic abnormality' she talks about. If you study all these cases it quickly becomes apparent that in all of them the children who killed others suffered extraordinary deprivation and/or abuse. Mary Bell especially; her mother made attempts on her life and once gave her away to a female acquaintance. Her mother was a prostitute and an alcoholic who involved Mary in sado-masochistic sex with clients at the age of 4. Robert Thompson was routinely beaten; his mother was an alcoholic.

Sue Carroll says coldly so what if Michael Hamer had no father and his mother didn't get in until 6.30 pm? But, think about; what effect would it have on a child to feel that he mattered so little that his father left and his mother only dropped in 3 hours after school? Was this how Sue Carroll grew up?

There is no evidence for genetic abnormalities in these cases; at least none is cited by Sue Carroll despite making that claim. She uses the horrible and primitive phrase "wrong 'un". On the contrary all the evidence shows a clear link between serious childhood abuse and childhood crimes.

I find Sue Carroll's attempt to make Michael Hamer to be a sort of super paedophile "And, in a manner that brings to mind every paedophile story we've ever heard.." particularly disturbing given we are talking about a 14 year old boy. And, of course, we've only heard all these paedophile stories because her paper and others like it report them...

If Sue Carroll were right and Michael Hamer suffered from a genetic abnormality and therefore couldn't help it would we then be right to unleash all this venom on him? This is the contradiction in Sue Carroll's position. Michael Hamer was and is a child; children need adult support and care. When a child commits a crime the adults around them are always partly responsible. The only way out for someone like Sue Carroll who doesn't want to admit this responsibility is to argue that it isn't environmental, it is genetic. But; if it is genetic then it is obviously wrong to punish someone for something they can't help. Sorry, Sue, but you can't escape from responsibility quite so easily.

And; as long as we avoid looking at the obvious environmental factors crimes like this will be repeated. Avoiding taking responsibility is a way to repeat the problem.

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