Fury over band with a killer’s name
PUNK NIGHT AT PUB IS CANCELLED AFTER UPROAR
A punk night at a city pub has been called off after a band named after Newcastle child killer Mary Bell was booked for the gig.
The Parisian group ‘Mary Bell,’ which claims to identify with the schoolgirl who killed two young boys in the 1960s, had been due to take to the stage at the Cumberland Arms in Ouseburn in April.
However, after plans to bring a band apparently profiting from Bell’s actions to the city where she committed her crimes sparked outrage, pub bosses have pulled the plug on the event.
Sharon Richardson, whose fouryear-old brother Martin Brown became Bell’s first victim in 1968, was furious when she heard that a group taking the name of his killer was planning to perform in Newcastle.
The 46-year-old said: “They are making money out of my brother’s death. It’s bad enough that they have named the band after Mary Bell, but then to go on and promote it in the town where these things happened is sick.
“It just feels like it’s a free-for-all, and every time something like this happens it brings it all back for us.”
Bell’s crimes remain some of the most shocking the UK has ever seen. The killer was just 10 when she strangled Martin at a derelict house in the Scotswood area of Newcastle on May 25,
1968. Then on July 31 Bell killed three-year-old Brian Howe on a piece of wasteland, carving an ‘M’ into his stomach and mutilating his body.
She was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility later that year and was jailed indefinitely.
She was released in 1980 and given a new identity. She had a daughter four years after she was freed and was granted lifelong anonymity.
In 1998 there was public outcry after it was revealed author Gitta Sereny had paid Bell to collaborate with her on the controversial biography, Cries Unheard.
The Chronicle launched a campaign in a bid to prevent Bell profiting from her crimes.
Mary Bell the band had been part of a line-up of three groups booked for Pompous Punk #1, due to take place at the Cumberland Arms on April 18. The whole event, however, has now been cancelled.
Jo Hodson, manager at the Cumberland Arms, said: “Due to the sensitive circumstances we have decided to cancel the gig.”
On its page on the website bandcamp, Mary Bell gives details of how it got its name, and shockingly talks of fulfilling the killer’s “legacy”. The band writes: “They say Mary Bell was an angry child who wanted to hurt someone, and that’s what she did when she killed two innocent young boys. “Razor sharp, ripping scissors, our aim is to fulfill her legacy. Think raw girl vocals, dark fuzz, post-punk, grunge and dissonance. We are angry children and we want to hurt you.”
And the statement has angered Sharon, from Fenham, further.
She continued: “To make a band out of a killer’s name is sick. Why would they want to portray themselves as killers, to portray themselves as angry young girls?”
David Hines, who campaigns on behalf of the families of murder and manslaughter victims, believes the group is simply trying to cause controversy.
David, who founded the National Victims’ Association, after his daughter Marie was killed in 1993, said: “It’s just sick. I think it’s outrageous, it beggars belief.
“They are just after publicity. Coming to Newcastle must be deliberate. There will have been a lot of planning and research gone into that. It’s not an accident.”
After The Chronicle contacted the band, it released a statement on Facebook. It said: “When we chose the name Mary Bell some years ago, it wasn’t to praise the horrible crimes committed by Mary Bell in 1968 but rather as an homage to punk bands with provocative names and because we’re fascinated by scary stories, especially ones with serial killers and involving complex psychology profiles.
“We understand why it can sound awful for someone who knew the victims, and we’re sorry about that and what happened many moons ago, yet, our coming to Newcastle is not a provocation of any kind for us.
“We have friends living in Newcastle.”
To make a band out of a killer’s name is sick. Why would they want to portray themselves as killers?