Abigail Witchells

You're suggesting that the news coverage of these brutal crimes was out of proportion or sensationalist because the victims were young and blonde??

No, there were many factors: time of the year (August is a classic slow news period) , the age, race & class of the victims, the location (a quiet village), The fact that they were fans of the media's (especially the Murdoch Media) favourite football club and what's more Beckham got involved at one point. Take a couple of those factors away and it's a lesser story. Which everything it was almost the perfect tabloid story and perfect fodder for selling lots of papers.... just a shame there was no peadophilia involved - although some parts of the media would have us believe there was!

And it's still going on now. Slow news day? need to sell more papers?: print some total nonsense about Maxine Carr. They can print whatever they like, nothing can be proved or disproved because she can't sue.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1484525,00.html

If Abigail Witchalls had lived in South West Wales (where I live) and the exact same attack had happened, it wouldn't have got a look in on the national news. Need I say more.

Oh please. I realise you're trying make a point about the 'perfect' tabloid story, but I'm not sure that was in very good taste.

I think a lot of the coverage was to do with playing on middle class fears of crime, i.e a madman with a knife on the loose in suburbia, when of course they are among the least likely to be the victims of violent crime.

The moral panic over hooded teenagers should be seen in the same light.

You're right, It's always the English that gets more focused that the rest of the UK. When we in Scotland had a five year old boy who was shot dead by a airgun. It didn't get much coverage on the national news. England's so **** pathetic.

yes, mrs witchalls should be allowed to recover and rebuild her life in private now. it's all been a bit of an overload. i appreciate the initial press bombardment as this is when witnessess and evidence can be gathered but now the police and family should be left alone.

i also agree it's purely the families financial and geographical status that have helped put this story constantly in the headlines - which is wrong

I can't speak for the other news programmes, but ITV News gave that incident quite a lot of coverage, actually - top news for a while IIRC.
And there's a reason why the news is national . It's because all of the regional news teams have to have a meeting with London every morning, and London compiles the biggest UK news from the regions. So, if something was preety high profile from a region, it would get a spot on the national news, regardless of which part of the UK. If there wasn't something 'big' so to speak, the focus would be much more on world news, as much of it is at the moment, with stories such as E.U and Wacko Jacko.

And what i find so f**king pathetic is that you take the time to slate a neighhbouring country with no decent reason.

Victoria Climbie - name ring a bell?

I think it's pretty pathetic to argue in this thread that Abigail's story was given more coverage because she is a middle class woman in a middle class area. Speaking as a journalist - the story is (and I do apologise if this seems insensitive) a lot more interesting than the random killing of a black man in south London, as was the original example used to start this thread. For a start, murders in south London are common, whereas Surrey is OFFICIALLY the safest place in Britain, based on official crime stats and population. Abigail was pregnant and with child and was probably attacked because she was trying to protect her child. It's a story that makes every mother, every family, every person take a deep breath because it's quite shocking. Whereas, a young male being randomly attacked in south London isn't out of the ordinary. There is no race, sex or class bias. It was an interesting, shocking, emmotive story. THAT was why the media went heavy on it.

I'm not sure if you realise, but everything you've said vindicates my views.

Victoria Climbie was a child abuse case, completely different from the type of attack abigail witchells suffered.