A U.K. judge released a video from a surveillance (CCTV) camera (see below) of a teenage gang beating a homeless man in a “happy slapping” incident that a gang member filmed with a camera phone, according to an article in the Guardian.
The man survived but earlier that night the gang kicked to death another man, David Morley. “Happy slapping” is an awful trend that involves kids hurting — slapping, kicking, etc. — people and then using a camera phone to take still photographs or videos of the incident.
The article says the judge released the CCTV film “to highlight the ‘depressing and alarming’ teenage cult of happy slapping….” Three of the four gang members were sentenced to 12 years in prison and one gang member was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter.
Scene from A Clockwork Orange
The Guardian report, “The four [gang members] had gone out to attack innocent passersby on the South Bank in London early on October 30, 2004. In a 56 minute ‘orgy’ of violence that mirrored a scene from the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, they assaulted eight people in five separate attacks, leaving Mr Morley with 44 separate injuries.
“He bled to death in hospital later that day.”
Information presented to the judge “revealed the backgrounds of the gang, who graduated from playing truant to running together on the streets of south London wearing hoods to cover their faces and using the latest video mobile phones to record acts of violence in order to replay them to friends.”
For six months the gang would roam the streets looking for people to beat up and film with camera phones.
Although the gang members were minors, the judge allowed their names to be made public because of the “exceptional nature of the case,” the article says.
Comments