Mirror reports Antigua victims were “tortured”

Below is a follow-up story in today’s Mirror on the Antigua murders, which we discuss at length here. However, according to today’s London Times, there’s no basis for the report of a London “tabloid” (i.e. the Mirror) that the couple were tortured or that Benjamin Mullany’s leg was bashed prior to his shooting. But the Times lowers its own credibility by referring to the event as a “robbery gone wrong.” There should be zero tolerance for this nihilistic phrase which has the effect of removing the quality of moral judgment from both the robbery and the murder. “Robbery gone wrong” is meant to suggest that the criminals intended an armed robbery, not a murder, and that an armed robbery is not so bad, but that somehow the event got out of hand and they ended up, against their own intention, killing people. It just happened, don’t you know. It’s just one of those unfortunate things that just keep happening to people, especially to black people who never had a break. But of course when criminals commit armed robbery they are prepared to kill their victims. That’s why they’re armed. The readiness to murder, and the likeliness of murder, are even more evident when the criminals break into their victims’ residence and hold them at gun point.

However, this below sentence from the Times’ story may put in different perspective the VFR discussion about how dangerous black countries are. Were the Mullanys as careless as they have been blamed for being? :

The first killing of a tourist in a decade has rocked the island, which depends on tourism for 75% of its economy.

Here’s the Mirror’s story.

Antigua honeymoon murder: Newlyweds were tortured for 20 minutes

Tragic newlyweds Catherine and Ben Mullany endured a terrifying 20-minute ordeal before being shot in cold blood by gunmen, it emerged last night.

Detectives believe robbers forced Catherine, 31, to watch them savagely batter her husband, smashing his skull and leg, before they blasted the couple, killing her instantly.

Last night Antiguan surgeons said Ben, 31, would not pull through. He is on life support with a bullet in his brain. Dr Fidel Fernandez said grimly: “He’s on a ventilator and brain dead. It’s very, very sad.”

His devastated parents Kenneth and Marilyn Mullany flew to the Caribbean isle yesterday to be by his bedside. They face the agonising decision of turning off the machine keeping him alive.

Relative David Ewins, 49, said: “This journey will have been very hard for them.”

Meanwhile, a Brit tourist has revealed she heard Ben being shot and his wife pleading for her life but did not realise the horror that was unfolding.

Lorraine Martin-Bell, 32, told police: “I heard an explosion that sounded like a gunshot. Shortly after, a female shouted, ‘Help me, please!’.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 30, 2008 05:27 PM | Send