The mother of Stuart Harling, who had stabbed a nurse to death, is speaking out about the reason for her child’s behavior. She claims that what triggered the violence was none other than video games.

“I knew he was playing the video games but we didn’t really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were. Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn’t even realise games had age limits on them. We’d just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn’t really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same.”

Harling was given a life sentence for stabbing the woman seventy-two times, “Just like he’d PRACTISED on the PlayStation in his bedroom.”

 ”Every night he would retreat into his darkened bedroom at home in Rainham, Essex, and enter a grisly virtual world that revelled in sadism, ritual blood-letting and death. Just like millions of other youngsters. One of baby-faced Harling’s favourite games was the notorious Manhunt, where players SLASH and SLICE their victims with meat CLEAVERS, cheese WIRE and CHAINSAWS, or suffocate them with plastic bags.”

It is very sad that this tragic incident had to happen, but to blame the cause on something quite irrelevant like this is just another scapegoat. There could have been several other causes for the man’s mental behavior, but those were not mentioned at all.

“I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone’s head they should be banned.”