I fear this cynical celebration of violence will inspire more young killers

WHILE the young age of the killer was shocking, the barbarity of his crime was almost beyond comprehension. At the age of just 14, Daniel Bartlam was jailed this week for the murder of his mother, having beaten her to death with a claw hammer and then set fire to her corpse in a desperate attempt to cover his guilt.

What was particularly disturbing was that this callous, savage violence appears to have been partly inspired by a young boy’s addiction to sick horror films and extreme video games.

Just hours before the killing, it was reported in court, he had watched one of the movies in the notorious Saw horror series, which revels in bloodsoaked agony and death.

In his obsession with this kind of material, which he had first been exposed to at the age of eight, Bartlam seems to have descended into his own dark world where he turned gruesome fiction into lethal reality.

Fixation

Moreover, as his fixation with violence grew, he also became increasingly drawn to crime drama programmes, such as the ITV series Trial And Retribution, as well as murderous storylines in soaps such as Coronation Street, which was said to have inspired his use of the hammer.

In both its psychological origins and the sheer scale of the violence, Bartlam’s case raises deeply troubling questions about the nature of some so- called modern ‘entertainment’ and its influence over juvenile minds.

We live in an age dominated by screen technology, whether it be on laptops, mobile phones, television sets or home computers. Once, filmed fantasies were kept separate from everyday life, but now they are all around us — and they can start to take over the minds of susceptible youngsters.

Only yesterday, at the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, there were warnings that children as young as four are acting out the ‘X-rated violence’ of scenes that they view in video games, including stabbings, shootings and beatings.

There is also increasing evidence that spending hours on a computer can cause behavioural problems.

The average British child now spends 2,000 hours staring at a computer screen every year, with neurologists concerned that this could have seriously detrimental effects on their brains, such as causing ‘temporary dementia’.

Last year, a Chinese study also found brain abnormalities in adolescents diagnosed with ‘internet addiction disorder’.

MRI scans on those diagnosed with the disorder showed evidence to suggest that nerve fibres linking brain areas involved in emotions, decision-making and self- control had been disrupted by long stints online.

As a psychologist, I can see plausible links between the kind of extreme aggression exhibited by Daniel Bartlam — though still extremely rare — and the phenomenal expansion of realistic, stylised and simulated screen violence that is intrinsic to plots or gameplay, be it in video games, films or on television.

In the past couple of decades, we have seen a number of alarming cases where young killers were obviously influenced by something they had viewed.

One of the most infamous examples was the torture and murder of James Bulger in 1993. For his killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were said to be enthusiasts of the macabre horror film Child’s Play 3 about the murderous doll Chucky who comes to life.

Another was the horrific murder in 2009 of 17-year old Simon Everitt, who was tied to a tree by two men and then set alight in an re- enactment of the murder scene from the British horror movie Severance. One of Everitt’s killers had remarked after seeing the film: ‘Wouldn’t it be wicked if you could do that to someone?’

In 2010, there was the murder of 15- year- old schoolgirl Rebecca Aylward, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend after he had made a chilling bet with a friend about killing her in exchange for a free breakfast.

Joshua Davies, 16, battered Rebecca to death with a rock, having used Facebook and another online messaging service to boast about his plans to murder her.

It’s a terrifying example of how computer use — and the 2D world of the internet — can desensitise or even dehumanise some users from their actions in real life.

Another problem is the increasing depravity of the material, which is far more graphic than anything viewed by previous generations.

In the Eighties, there was a huge public controversy about two films, or so- called video nasties, Driller Killer and I Spit On Your Grave.

Yet those two films are tame compared to even mainstream offerings like Saw, which are based on pain and gore and have given rise to a whole new genre called ‘torture porn’. In this, torture ( most often inflicted on women) is exploited simply for the titillation of the audience.

Extreme

The fans of such films are locked into a vicious downward spiral, whereby their responses to stimuli become deadened by the repetition of certain images. So, just as drug addicts need ever stronger substances to gain a high, these fetishists for extreme horror want ever more vileness to excite them.

And then, for the ultimate kick, they may seek to recreate the ghastly fantasies they have witnessed, either by writing or drawing, or re-enacting them, as Daniel Bartlam did.

This trend is exacerbated by modern methods of child-rearing.

In the past, children would have gone out to play with friends. But ironically, because of what I call the ‘Bulger effect’, parents today are afraid of letting their children run free outside without constant monitoring. Instead, they are kept inside — where, unwatched, they roam the dark corners of the internet.

And most parents have little real understanding of what their children are viewing, especially because it is so easy for savvy youngsters to bypass controls.

In the past, censorship restrictions in the cinema and video stores meant that it was almost impossible for children to view graphic material. Today, they can do so at the simple click of a mouse.

In addition, the practice of playing inside means that youngsters’ main emotional relationships are increasingly with the computer screen rather than with friends.

Again, this could seriously inhibit the socialisation and development of empathy for others, a key part of becoming a well-balanced adult.

Tragedy

The tragedy, as the Daniel Bartlam case shows, is that the psychiatric profession has not caught up with the changing modern world.

Bartlam was actually referred to psychiatrists by his school counsellor, who was concerned that the boy was hearing voices in his head — a symptom that points to a level of psychosis far beyond just depression or anxiety.

Yet the psychiatrists refused to give any proper diagnosis of his disturbance, perhaps feeling that his case was one of typical teenage immaturity which he would grow out of — and so he was allowed to slip through the net.

It should have been obvious that this boy had serious problems, and the alarming failure to act demonstrates that the diagnostic tools of the psychiatric profession are increasingly inadequate for the task of assessing new behavioural challenges.

Television and film companies, internet providers and video game producers also have to face up to their responsibilities. They have to be aware of the influence they have over susceptible youngsters.

Of course, we cannot live in an antiseptic world, but nor can we ignore the damage caused by a cynical celebration of violence.

I fear that Daniel Bartlam will not be the last killer in Britain to be inspired by the sick imagery around us.