Thursday, July 28, 2011

The amorality is sickening


I don't know whether US readers have been following the murder trial in England of 16-year-old Joshua Davies, who's just been convicted of murdering his 15-year-old former girlfriend, Rebecca Aylward. The truly sickening aspect to this case is the apparent lack of any moral convictions whatsoever by the killer and his circle of friends. As Jan Moir points out:

In October last year, Davies took Rebecca into woodland near his home village of Aberkenfig, South Wales, and murdered her. He hit her six times over the head with a rock, after attempts to break her neck failed.

He left her there, lying face down on the forest floor, wearing the new clothes she had bought for their date. Later, he took at least one friend back to view the body. Good times.

What is so awful is that this was no crime of passion or a moment of madness.

The truth is much darker and more difficult to understand.

For Davies did it for a laugh, for a dare, for a bet. He did it for a free breakfast, promised by one of his mates if he went ahead with the murder.

He did it because he was bored. And one cannot escape the bleak suspicion that he did it to have something to text his friends about, to fill a void in his personal cyberspace, to satisfy an adolescent thrill.

Rarely has a life been taken so cheaply or a murder carried out so frivolously.

No wonder that Rebecca’s family are heartbroken and have vowed never to forgive Davies. There is no reason why they should.

The court heard that the teens had an on-off relationship that was ended by Rebecca after three months.

Following this, Davies spent weeks telling friends he wanted to kill her because she was ‘annoying’.

He said he might drown her or push her off a cliff, depending on mood and circumstances. He even bought some poison, showing he had bent his mind to the practicality of the act.

His friends indulged him, egged him on, texted their words of encouragement. Later they all said that they did not take him seriously, but can that be true?

Their texted responses seem to tell a very different story. And none of them thought to warn poor Rebecca, whether they believed Davies or not.

At the very least, if it was a joke it was in extremely bad taste.

Sure, they called him a ‘sick, sick boy’, but this appeared to be in admiration rather than reproach.

Two days before the murder, Davies texted the friend who had promised to buy him a meal if he went through with the killing and told him: ‘Don’t say anything but you may just owe me a breakfast.’

The friend replied: ‘Best text I ever had mate. Seriously, if it is true I am happy to pay for a breakfast. I want all the details. You sadistic b******.’ He signed off with a smiley face symbol.

How sickening.

Surely the friend who offered to buy Davies breakfast for killing Rebecca bears a certain amount of culpability, too? And what about the rest of the gang — are they all nascent monsters, or just another batch of desensitised and casually violent teens?

During the trial, another of the friends — they cannot be named, as they are under 16 — gave evidence in court, before later mocking the proceedings and the accused on Skype. Within minutes of giving evidence via a video link.

Nothing is real to these dislocated teenagers. There seems to be a thick cyber-screen between them and the real world. Everything is a bit of a laugh to them, with none of them seemingly capable of telling right from wrong.

Davies is a bright boy whose parents went to church regularly, but he appears to have no moral compass or respect for the sanctity of life.

For him, murder was a bit of a giggle. Until he ended up in jail.


There's more at the link.

I honestly don't know what to say about this. It's so sickening, so beyond my comprehension that anyone could be so casually brutal, that I just can't wrap my mind around it.

All I can say is that, in Africa, one sometimes comes across a predator that's gone rogue. Instead of killing for food, it kills for no discernible reason whatsoever. If animals can be said to kill for fun, these rogue predators do so. The only solution to them is to put a bullet through their brain. Only by killing them can one stop their predation. In this case, one must seriously wonder whether that isn't the only way to stop predators like this conscienceless teenager . . . because I can't for the life of me see how he'll grow a conscience behind prison bars.

Does anyone have a better idea?

Peter

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a little of the old "ultra violance".

Morris said...

Makes me think the film 'Clockwork Orange' might have been almost prophetic..

LabRat said...

Prophetic? Descriptive. Psychopaths have always been with us, and they usually show their colors in some way young. If you do some digging in the history books, you can find similar going back about as long as there was a news media that considered crime its business and did not cover up such things to protect neighborhood sensibilities or powerful families.

Psychopaths usually have a lot of shallow friendships, those who find them charming and a little out there but don't realize how deep it goes. Until it does- and then the only ones remaining are those who share the sensibility.

Anonymous said...

Solution to the psychopath's abhorant behavior:

There's only one effective solution,


Terminate with extreme prejudice.

Gerald said...

The state of Texas has the right idea, I just wish it didn't take so long to be carried out.

Cameron said...

Does anyone have a better idea?

I don't see a problem with your idea, quite frankly. There are people who, for lack of a better term, not wired correctly and they need to be put down for the same reason you go after a rogue predator.

Dirk said...

Does anyone have a better idea?

Multiple bullets? Make sure the job's done thoroughly?

Old NFO said...

@#$... simple... 230 grains of .45 administered orally!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Old NFO

SiGraybeard said...

I have a friend who was in the UK on business trip a few years ago and came back saying the kids there scared him. He said their eyes are hollow and lifeless in a way he'd never seen. He really thought that they'd kill instantly with no thought and no remorse.

This boy sounds like one.

MrGarabaldi said...

That is something affecting teens here also, for lack of a beter word, the kids nowadays have no "soul" everything is for the here and now, the violence on TV and all what is seen on the computer has desensitivized the kids to violence. There is no concept of right and wrong anymore,

trailbee said...

Britain is a socialist country, and has been on the path to secularization for over a hundred years. Yes, his parents went to church, but he did not, which means that this generation of teens is the final result of Britain's "deGodation". Amoral is the correct word for this attitude. Just because this one made the news, doesn't mean that there aren't at least 100 more murders coming from the same godless attitude.