Parents are failing to lead... for both killers & their fans

SINCE 17 students and staff were shot dead during a Valentine’s Day massacre at a Florida school last year, self-confessed killer Nikolas Cruz has spent most of his time alone in a cell.

The only interaction the 20-yearold has as he awaits trial is ongoing discussions with his lawyers and the guards employed to protect him.

But this week it emerged there is one person who hopes to have a greater influence on his future.

Among the sackfuls of fan mail Cruz receives are letters from Miley, a woman from the UK who has captured his blackened heart.

Now, after she helped set up a Facebook group in his support, Cruz is hoping to have her as his wife.

It makes you wonder what her parents think of their potential sonin-law but she apparently has the blessing of her brother Liam, who is also in contact with the killer.

Cruz, who faces the death penalty if convicted, said he wants Miley to attend his trial. He has told her to move to Florida and get a medical marijuana card and a concealed weapons licence “cause it’s dangerous hear [sic]”.

In a gushing love letter he wrote: “I also was wondering if you’d be interested

in marriage when the time’s [sic] comes. I feel like we make a great family together. With lots of kids. I imagine it every day. That’s what’s keeping me strong.”

He added he would name their sons Kalashnikov, Makarov and Remington – all makes of guns.

In another letter he asked: “Would you be OK with me getting a crossbow if I lived with you? It would only be used for sporting and hunting.” Still, she is not put off. It is as worrying as it is bewildering how or why anyone would fall for someone accused of one of the world’s worst school shootings.

But the phenomenon of serialkiller groupies has long existed.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson have all been pursued behind bars. sychologists believe incarcerated individuals become part of a sadomasochistic fantasy for many of these women, given the popularity of true-crime shows and accessibility of offenders.

In the past, it was national headlines that were reserved for mass

Pmurderers. Now, groupies have open communication forums on Facebook, Reddit and other social media sites.

Notorious criminals are treated like celebrities and receive a massive amount of attention.

Unfortunately, so-called fans like Miley fail to understand they are being manipulated by a psychopath. Instead, they see it as a way of flirting with danger while risking nothing.

Those attracted to people who commit cruel, gruesome crimes such as murder and rape are known as hybristophiliacs.

Cruz’s troubles stem from deep within his dysfunctional upbringing by an equally dysfunctional mother.

Increasingly experts see the role of parents as one of, if not the most crucial relationships that lead to children becoming school killers. Speaking to victims of the Columbine shootings last week ahead of its 20th anniversary, they were united in the same belief. We can only hope Miley’s relatives are unaware of their daughter’s obsession with Cruz. If not, they are another set of parents who have failed their kids.

Fans fail to understand they’re being manipulated by a psychopath