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Retailers withdraw game after murder link
Thursday, July 29, 2004 at 12:58 by Andy Holliday
The video game Manhunt has been withdrawn from sale by Dixons after the murder of a 14 year-old boy.

The boy's mother claims that the game drove another teenager to stab her son to death after being repeatedly battered with a claw hammer.

Seventeen-year-old Warren Leblanc pleaded guilty to murder at Leicester Crown Court after the court heard how the defendant had armed himself with two weapons and killed his victim "in cold blood".

Industry analysts have been quick to point out that at the moment it is only speculation that the game caused Leblanc to commit this crime.

UPDATE: Boys murder not related to Manhunt game
 
Contact Andy Holliday, the author of this article View a printer friendly version of this article Email this article to a friend RSS Feeds

Comment # 1 on 29 July 2004 at 18:12 by Anonymous
The problem here, is that the game in question has a BBFC 18 certificate, so therefore is illegal to be sold to anyone under the age of 18.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for Parents to disregard the ratings on games, and in this case, blame the game itself for being violent. The child obviously got the game from somewhere, and was allowed to play it by the parent.

The game can not be held responsible in any way for this - the protection put in place was disregarded, and this is what happens.

-- Kelduum Revaan

Comment # 2 on 29 July 2004 at 18:51 by Anonymous
What are they going to do next, ban Blockbuster Video from hiring out films like Reservoir Dogs ? If the game was that bad, it would not have got past the BBFC in the first place ! Ridiculous.

Comment # 3 on 02 August 2004 at 02:27 by bootsy
thats ridiculous .. The game is already not for minors to play, yet the mother blames it. The mother should blame the OTHER boy for actually being a psychopathic murderer.

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