“A crewman,” starts the article, “who killed an officer in a gun rampage aboard a nuclear submarine told friends he was planning ‘a Grand Theft Auto-style massacre'”.
The story makes uncomfortable reading.
Ryan Donovan was jailed yesterday for 25 years for the murder of Lt Cmdr Molyneux and the attempted murder of others. He was talking days prior to the event about GTA, a game that the prosecutor in the case said involved “starting a massacre” and “racking up points by killing”.
Donovan committed the murder after a) a heavy night’s drinking and b) been given an SA80 rifle for guard duty. He was also ‘full of resentment’ after being told he would be punished for disobeying a direct order to clean the sub.
Twitter this morning has been full of discussion on the topic, and it’s yet another story linked to Rockstar’s headline-grabbing series.
Our thoughts go out to the families affected.
posem
i have eternal depression and cant get a girlfriend = gta’s fault.
bunimomike
Ah, sensationalist journalism. Why let the truth stand in the way of a good story, eh?
The Lone Steven
Yeah. Why actually report stuff when you can make stuff up. I could report that a bear was responible for causing the reccession and it would still be “news”.
HoboCastro
Yep, They could have focused on the case and trial more, lack of news and balance. All tabloid papers need to look at themselves.
After the Gleision Colliery tragedy, The Sun still had the pissed-up rugby players front page.
They are all in a race to the bottom.
xdarkmagician
I think the real message here is don’t give a drunk, disgruntled person a SA80 rifle.
Peco
Especially not if he’s had experience of playing GTA games.
doomsday619
What i dont get is why didn’t these supposed mates say he was planning a massacre? Unless he said Tommy Vercetti would make them sleep with the fishes if they grassed.
CrawFail
Yeah, obviously it was all GTAs fault. Nothing to do with the fact he was mental and had had ‘a heavy night of drinking’
Seriously. F*ck newspapers up their stupid arses.
Crocadillian
More out of touch, mainstream ‘journalists’. These stories are the reason the UK and other countries need laws to stop such misleading, un-sourced garbage. Who the heck said that GTA is a game where the objective is to massacre?!
Kreisash
Hmm… so supposedly video games make me kill people, which I didn’t know until I read the newspaper stories about it, which means that newspapers reporting about video games made me think that it was okay to kill people.
Therefore newspapers are to blame when I next go on a killing spree.
I want that quoted if it ever happens.
f4rgo
Duly noted.
Forrest_01
The mirror also has the same (or similar) sensationalist headline on the front page.
If ever there was a call for Shoddy Journalism…
Kennykazey
So this has nothing to do with the fact they gave an angry drunk man a gun…?
Dward
As far as I’m concerned, they can hold the front page… Then roll it up and sit on it while I break into a police station and batter someone to death with a massive dildo.
Forrest_01
Noooo, don’t do that – Then they’ll find a way to implicate saints row too!
3shirts
I think he is actually referring to San Andreas where you could use a big dildo as a weapon.
Forrest_01
Wow, that must have mentally scarred me or something – Can’t remember that at all!
Although i did think that there was a lot of unnecessary ‘faffing’ in san andreas & gave up on it before i finished it, so perhaps it’s just one of those things that i never came across.
Completely different to how i felt about vice city though where i was still eager for more after the credits had rolled!