An interesting court case begins today which could have an affect on freedom of speech, hence why I’m mentioning it. It centres on a civil servant from Newcastle, Darryn Walker, who posted a story entitled Girls (Scream) Aloud on a web site, which details the kidnap, torture and murder of the talentless group of windbags who call themselves what passes for a musical act in Britain these days.
I’ve not read it (yet), but it only took about 30 seconds on Google to find a link to a link to it (direct link is here) so go ahead and feel free to turn yourself into a blood-crazed celebrity stalker/killer. What worries me is that elsewhere on my blog I’m fairly certain I’ve detailed what I’d like to do with the Spice Girls (some of them in particular, especially that celebrity stick insect that passes for David Beckham‘s wife) and George W Bush. Maybe I’ve not gone past the invisible line that requires a court case.
Not that anyone knows what that line is as Mr Walker is being prosecuted under the Obscenity laws which are about as vague as a Labour Party policy statement. Essentially, he has to have written something that could offend any reasonable person. Or something. Of course, someone then has to decide what/who constitutes a reasonable person.
William Reese-Mogg? Mary Whitehouse? James Ferman?
Or John Carpenter? Hitler? Richard Laymon? Me?
I’ll need to dig more into the story. I’m curious to know who reported him, on what grounds he was arrested and how exactly he’s being prosecuted. Obviously it’s a public prosecution but why were charges brought? Was is Girls Aloud’s management, a fan, a random busybody…?
And what happens if he’s found guilty? I can see a lot of internet sites which focus purely on the porn side of the celebrity lifestyle becoming very worried indeed.
If there’s one plus side to this – and it’s a very small one – it’s that the author of the offending content is the one being taken to court. This, at least, is an improvement on the usual state where the publishing website could have been involved even though they may have had no knowledge of the individual post. This is always a worry when allowing comments on a blog, or when hosting a forum.
However, I don’t know if I’ll be able to follow the story or if it’s going to disappear like so many do. One headline and then no further details unless something outstanding happens, like the band themselves appear to defend him.
I guess we’ll have to see. In the meantime, I’m off to read what he wrote. Thing is, regardless of how depraved, sick, twisted or “obscene” I find it, the guy’s actually done no harm whatsoever in writing it. Hell, he’s probably only putting into writing what a lot of people feel about these overpaid, under-talented bimbos.
And, as ever, no matter whether I agree with him or not we’re a nation which claims to allow freedom of expression. A loss for him in this case could be one more nail in that coffin.
Update: OK, I’ve read it (although I notice it’s credited to someone with a different name than the guy on trial) and it’s pretty gruesome. It’s also rather repetitive. And I’ve also read novels which have as much violence and sadism in them, yet they’re still available in bookshops and libraries. I guess this is another one of those “internet is a bad place” trials, then.
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I have also read the story and, despite the fact that it is in my opinion not very well written and quite boring due to it’s reptative nature, I think it is a fairly typical piece of fantasy porn of this type. It’s not something that appeals to me at all but I know that there are people who do find this kind of thing arrousing. I think that, from what I have found out, there was a concern that kids would be able to get access to this story and that a link to it would come up in a search if they were to put ‘Girls Aloud’ into a search engine, this prompted a watchdog group to report it to the police. Surely this is a fault by the web site and not the fault of the author?
Hey Andy – new visitor to these shores?
Yes, to some extent you’re right. The web site could be at fault as it’s a simple matter of editing a text file to prevent search engine “spiders” from trawling the text and making the story appear on – say – Google.
However, a finger should also be pointed at parents who should be supervising their nippers’ web browsing. Any net-nanny software would block the site due to certain other words found in the document besides “Girls” and “Aloud”.
Of course, were I to have kids, it wouldn’t happen anyway. They’d be more likely to be hunting for information on the likes of Megadeth and Sepultura than tedious, crappy girl-bands.
girls aloud is amazing soo dontchya start saying they aint. plus oh my gosh, that is like so mean because i luv girls aloud and anyone who gets pleasure out of that is a wierdo in the highest order. i mean people these days. it make me wonder what the world is coming to.
Ashley – funny, I was just thinking about this post as I believe the author of the piece in question has just been found “not guilty”.
As for your comment… good grief. I’m genuinely trying to figure out if this is a wind-up. Your grammar is stereotypical of the sub-teen generation which Girls Aloud are targeted at – that is, you seem to have no concept of what grammar actually is. It’s so awful I’m very drawn towards the fact that you’re actually someone else taking the piss.
So kindly either admit to that, or please – I’m begging you – try going to school and paying attention for a change.
where can I find it?
The link isn’t working
You’ll have to dig, I guess. The blog post is from *years* ago.