A story unlike any other

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1

Last night I watched a documentary on Channel 4 called ‘kill me if you can’ about a 16 year old boy who stabbed his 14 year old best friend because he was told to do it by someone in an internet chatroom who claimed to be recruiting him for the British Secret Service.

The story began back in early 2003, when the kid who would end up stabbing his friend, Mark, developed a slightly unhealthy fascination with internet chatrooms, in particular one dedicated to teenagers from Altrincham, where Mark, and his victim John, lived. Mark developed a relationship with someone calling themselves Rachael, an ostensibly 16 year old ‘available and willing’ girl. They arranged to meet several times but each time one of them made their excuse and failed to show. Mark became infatuated, in part with pictures of Rachel posted in the chatroom and sent via PMs.

Some months prior to the stabbing taking place a new user calling himself Kevin who said he was homosexual and a confessed stalker, started using the chatroom. He claimed to have abducted Rachel, and threatend to kill her if Mark didn’t do as he said (which involved, among other things, masturbating in front of a webcam). Mark complied, believing in good faith that his actions might save Rachel’s life. Kevin eventually said he’d raped and killed Rachel and was then never heard of again.

During this time Mark had met and become good friends with John (real name James Bell, I think) and they discussed girls, masturbation, sex and all the other things you’d expect kids of that age to talk about. Rachel was somewhat forgotten in the course of time, eventually to be replaced by a new member of the chatroom. Janet Dobinson claimed to be a woman in her 40s (in good nick) who worked for the British Secret Service. She told Mark that she was ordered to try and recruit him to work for the Service and that he had to do various things to prove his worth. She promised money, a rank and sexual favours.

Initially she told him he had to protect John as he was deeply important to international security and had him effectively steal John out of school. She went on to claim that John had to be made to look homosexual, and that he had to perform oral sex on John. I’m not sure if he did or didn’t do this, the documentary was somewhat unclear. Eventually she told him that John had become a risk and had to be killed. She told him to stab him in the Trafford Centre in Manchester.

He initially failed to complete the mission, actualy stabbing John twice the following day in an alley in the centre of Altrincham. John survived, and as it turns out, was the one ordering Mark to do all this stuff. John was also Kevin, Rachel and Janet, the secret agent. Mark was charged with attempted murder and John charged with inciting his own murder, which is apparently a first in legal history.

Neither received jail sentences for their actions, and John is apparently now a star pupil.

manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/118/
118226_internet_murder_boys_told_never_see_each_other_again.html
theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/29/
1085641761298.html?oneclick=true
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc … 758209.stm

2

That’s a very odd story and I have heard more than a few. The question for is is whether or not the kid “knew” on some level that it was all a sham or if he really believed the stories told to him.

3

yeh i saw it too. Very genius yet foolish of the boy who made the numerous number of profiles and then made himself as ‘bate’ for his friend to kill stab.

Very funny how they actually charged the boy who made the profiles etc but they did not charge the boy who done the stabbing.

4

Both were charged, Mark with Attempted Murder and John with Incitement to murder.

What I thought was the most plausible explanation was that John became caught between on the one hand endangering his own life but on the other hand having such power over another person’s life. He started to live his own fantasy.

A zeitgeist story if ever there was one

5

The indications in the drama documentary I watched were that he had no idea that it was a scam. And let’s be fair, no-one has ever done this before (to our knowledge) and as such you wouldn’t exactly think that your best mate was secretly pretending to be called Janet, a secret agent in London for the purposes of assisting him in manifesting a deathwish.

Also, for a not particularly streetwise (or netwise) 16 year old lad from Altrincham such rumours of bright lights, money and sex were understandably enticing.

For me the question of who is the victim and who is the perpetrator is the most important. The very crime of incitement to ones own murder opens up a can of worms: you could say all people who are irritating are inciting other people to assault.

6

So you would know all about that, right? :smiley:

7

as such you wouldn’t exactly think that your best mate was secretly pretending to be called Janet, a secret agent in London for the purposes of assisting him in manifesting a deathwish.

I’m not trying to be funny here, but that is exactly what I would have expected from some of my friends when I was a kid! However, I can understand it if that kid was not prone to deep thought.

So, is that area in England rural or extra poor or something?

8

Ahh, What a delicious story.

Yeah, the stabber was thinking he was actually working for the interest of the state so I could understand him (assuming a large degree of gullibility) how he could justify it to himself and think he was doing the right thing. Well, alot of really embarrassing things happen to adolescent boys when it comes to sex.

The kid who manipulated him though I think was acting from a completely inexcuseable position. To make someone into a killer is to scar them pretty badly. If he wanted to die he should have done it himself or asked the other kid to do it for him in a straightforeward manner, thus giving him a chance to make an informed decision. Much the same way I disaprove of the “Suicide by Cop” type of self deletion.

As it stands though, they provided me with a good surreal read.

9

My bet is that the manipulator probably experienced quit a bit of that from some other source in his life. He had several things going on that point to the fact that someone was torturing him in some way.

10

No, it’s just dull. When you live in a dull place and you’ve got an imagination just about anything can start to seem real, or at least preferable.

I’m sure when you were a kid you wouldn’t have thought your friends were likely to pretend to be a secret agent so you would try to kill them. Or you had some fucked up friends.

Pratical jokes are one thing, we’ve all done them. Incitement to murder a common adolescent activity? Give me a break.

11

Of course, hence my intimate understanding of these issues.

12

Thoughts of suicide are actually quite common among gay/bi adolescents. At least here in the states they are. Having an object of your affection kill you could be a romantic and stylish way to go, if one must go.

13

I think if the boy who had been stabbed then the boy doing the stabbing would have been charged with something.

14

I’m pretty sure adolescent thoughts of suicide aren’t just limited to the gay/bi population. While I understand the rationale you’ve put forth you must admit it’s pretty damn rare.

To clarify: Both boys were charged and convicted, though neither served a jail sentence.

15

They both got away eh? That’s really fucked up…

Mark should have been put in a nut house for rehabilitation… come to think of it, they both should have been thrown in there…

16

I think that it is good that they both weren’t jailed because their actions seem like those that could only result from child-like thoughts. However, I would hope that they are both forced to go see a therapist for a couple of years. Clearly, they both need to get on the same page with clear thinking.

17

Your contemporary liberalism is so boring and middle of the road.

The actual punishments were having to serve supervision orders, not being able to use the internet unsupervised and not being able to use chatrooms. They are also to never meet one another again.