Back in 1990, I spent the summer holidays (after my first year of university) in London trying to find work. A school friend knew a guy he played squash with, named Paul, who lived in a caretaker flat at the top of a small four-storey office building just off Trafalgar Square. He was prepared to (illegally) sub-let out some rooms for about forty quid a week - bloody good for London even back then.
So me, another school friend, Simon and a friend of his from his university, Bridget, moved in. Had a really great summer, didn't do a lot of work, just ran up a huge overdraft. But we all got along OK, even if Paul was a bit strange. More shy than anything we thought.
Eventually I left to go back to uni, but Simon and Bridget stayed there renting because they were going to college in London. Paul even started going out with Bridget.
Flash-forward to the present. Simon hears a news report:
. . . that guy in the photo is the guy we flat-shared with! Simon's been to the police and told them what he remembers about Paul. Most worrying , though, is the fact that he lost contact with Bridget a long time ago. . .
Posted by Ultra Klackrent Zlatan Magnus (Member # 239) on :
It's like "Shallow Grave" almost, and that guy looks very English.
Also, it is sad.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Sick to my stomache.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Hope you find out where Bridget is soon.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Yeah. Simon was a bit vague on that issue, but I always thought I heard that they'd split up and she'd moved on. Maybe she didn't. At this stage I can't even remember her surname. . .
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Go to the police now: it's even possible that people are concerned for your safety.
Creepy though.
So....he chopped her up, stuck her in the fridge and them came back?!?
Not too bright.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Well, presumably he left for whatever reason but intended to return and dispose of the body then. But as my friend 'said' (this was a conversation over MSNM, we're on opposite sides of the world remember), didn't he consider what people might think about what seems to have been an unannounced departure? As it remains, even after reading a lot more reports (it even made the CNN website) his movements aren't clear, nor is where their daughter was while all this was happening (although she's being looked after now).
I actually owed a week's rent when I moved, but he never mentioned it on the couple of occasions we met after that. I don't think I was in any danger!
Posted by Tora Ziyal (Member # 53) on :
That's really gross. I'm sorry for the poor father-in-law who had to find the body (and then realize his son was a murderer).
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Minor bump, as he was convicted yesterday - of manslaughter. Five years? Bet Kerry Fox wishes she hadn't done a runner to Brazil now.
Say what you will about the criminal justice system in the States, but that guy would probably never see daylight again if it happened here.
What kind of judge could give such a....trivial sentence for that crime?!?
You'd get more time for imbezzlement!
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
I suppose one could look on the bright side that if the stated reasons are fact, its likely that he hasn't killed anyone else.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Well, a judge who's of the opinion that the crime is (second-degree) murder, not playing Doom on a corpse.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
What is a teetotal computer specialist? Someone who has given up being a computer specialist?
Posted by tricky (Member # 1402) on :
Judging by the way my wife complaines when I get my laptop out after i get home, it might as well be addictive. What do you do when your hobby is also your job? Actually being alchol free in the IT industry here is quite a trick, although a commendable one. The number of times I've had to go back to fix something after a couple of pints down the pub...
Getting back on subject, this is really scary. Although abusive relationships where the man is the victim are a problem that is often ignored, some countries do have justifiable manslaugter as a charge. Although, I wonder if it was the wife who was abused and chopped him up she would have got the same sentence however?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Nah, she'd just have been deported. Still no mention of what happened the child, though.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
A punch to the jaw? That must have been some right hook.....
But five years.... uh no. Domineering does not mean abusive. And even if it was an abusive relationship, it should have been at least ten.....
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
That guy from Worldcom just 20 years in federal prison for fabricating financial performance and screwing investors.
But that's money- imporntant stuff, unlike, you know, life.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, I don't know about England, but, in the US, different crimes have different sentencing guidelines. The judge can't just pick whatever jail term he or she feels like. But the article doesn't mention what, if any, specific options the judge had in terms of sentencing.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
If it had been five years for manslaughter, I'd have said that sounded about right from what I've heard of sentences passed down in other cases which ended with a guilty-of-manslaughter verdict. But it's two years for manslaughter, three for preventing a proper burial. As though the fact that she was killed was of lesser importance to the fact she wasn't buried properly. Although the blackly-humourous side of me thinks that from what I've heard of this person, it alnmost seems fair. . .