Cases of media-inspired crime since 1993
Boy, 14, obsessed with Coronation Street killer jailed after killing his own mother in copycat hammer attack - April 2012
Derrick Bird’s shooting rampage in Cumbria - June 2010
From the Guardian Newspaper on 7 June 2010
The debate over the effect of violent films looks set to be revived after reports emerged that Derrick Bird watched the grisly Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground hours before embarking on a shooting rampage last Wednesday in which he killed 12 other people and injured 11.
The 1994 film, which Seagal directed and starred in, centres on an environmentalist oil rig worker who, aggrieved after he learns faulty equipment is damaging Alaskan wildlife, goes on a murderous rampage against his co-workers and employees. The film, banned at the time, but now something of a cult favourite, involved multiple scenes of graphic violence involving a range of firearms.
Bird is said to have watched the film at his friend Neil Jacques's house, leaving in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the film ended. The following morning, he drove round Cumbria shooting, before taking his own life.
Other cases of media-inspired crime
17-year-old engineering student, Simon Everitt of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was murdered in June 2008 after being tied to a tree and having petrol poured down his throat, in a re-creation of a scene in the horror movie Severance, Norwich Crown Court heard
The teenagers killed in the Columbine High School Massacre (linked with film "Basketball Diaries" and Red Lake school, Minnesota (linked with Marilyn Manson's music)
Jane Longhurst murdered in horrific circumstances by a man who had been viewing violent pornographic websites;
Stefan Pakeerah murdered by another teenager who was obsessed with the ultra-violent PC game "Manhunt".
Zahid Mubarak beaten to death by another inmate at Feltham who had just watched a violent video;
James Bulger, murdered by other older children whose over-riding pastime was watching violent videos;
Michael Moss, kicked to death in a re-enactment of a scene from Reservoir Dogs;
A gang of youths killed a bar manager in Dec 2005. The gang's tactics mirrored those of teenagers in the novel Clockwork Orange.
The women who were raped and murdered by American serial killer and porn addict, Ted Bundy, executed in 1989.
Grand Theft Auto and UK riots 2011
"As dusk fell people were told to get off the streets for their own safety. "Go home, get a takeaway and watch anything that happens on TV," one constable advised. "These are bad people who did this. Kids out of control When I was young it was all Pacman and board games. Now they're playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves."
[8 August 2011, Evening Standard]
Grand Theft Auto and Naval submariner rampage
A Royal Navy sailor went berserk with a semi-automatic rifle on a nuclear submarine, shooting dead one of his commanding officers and attempting to kill 3 others. He had told a colleague that he wanted to "start a massacre in the control room".
Donovan, described as shy and immature, had written violent rap lyrics and "joked" about copying the computer game Grand Theft Auto, in which players win points for shooting people.
[20 September 2011, The Daily Telegraph]
Video game player attacks teenager in real-life 'revenge'
A 46 year old man, who had been playing the game Call of Duty all day in a simulation game with a teenager online, went round to the house of the 14 year old who had killed his virtual character, and attacked him.
[30 September 2011, The Daily Telegraph]
