Lorraine Harling, who is the mother of eighteen year-old Stuart Harling has blamed video games for her son’s violent behavior. Stuart was convicted of stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss to death. He has been given a life sentence for his random attack. According to News of the World, Stuart would retreat into his darkened bedroom at home in Rainham, Essex, and enter a gruesome virtual world that reveled in sadism, ritual blood-letting and death.
Lorraine Harling told News of the World, “Stuart never gave us any reason to think he was violent at all. He was a very normal boy, quiet and reserved. I used to call him ‘my little professor’. 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. 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. Now I feel like people are looking at me, as if I should have read the signs. But I had no idea.”
News of the World also reveals that Manhunt was Harling’s favourite video game. The game had received a lot of criticism when it was released. In fact, just a few weeks ago the sequel of the game, Manhunt 2 was banned in the United Kingdom and North America. What’s more horrifying is the fact that Stuart had done very well at his GCSE and was very good in Maths. He also led a scout troop.
However, Lorraine feels that playing violent games changed her son and when she met him after Stuart’s arrest, he was a completely different person. When he was at his trail, Stuart Harling threatened the prosecutor and misbehaved during the entire trial. Lorraine later said that such violent games should be banned.