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Boy appears in court after stabbing baby over game Ellie Gibson 09:50 05/07/2005
11 year-old tells how he was driven to injure nephew after playing THQ's The Incredibles

The influence of videogames on violent behaviour is back in the news in the UK, after an 11 year-old boy appeared in court yesterday to explain how he was driven to commit a violent act after playing a PlayStation 2 game.

But for once, Rockstar is not being blamed for the incident - the title in question was not Manhunt or an instalment in the GTA series but THQ's The Incredibles, based on the Disney/Pixar film of the same name.

The boy, who has not been named, told police became frustrated when he kept "dying" in the game while his seven month-old nephew cried in a nearby room. In a fit of rage, he stabbed the baby in the stomach with a knife.

"I was a bit like a volcano. An erupting volcano," the boy said. "I paused the PlayStation. I went to the kitchen and collected the knife. Without realising it, I stabbed him."

At the time of the incident the boy's step-father was sleeping and his mother was visiting a friend.

Ten minutes after stabbing the baby the boy arrived at the friend's house, telling his mother: "I have done something awful. Something really bad has happened to [the baby]."

On returning home, the boy's mother found the baby bleeding in a carry cot. The baby was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, and remained there for six days.

Gavin Burrell QC said that the stabbing occurred at a time when the family was experiencing a great deal of strain - the boy's sister was in hospital and his mother was caring for her own children along with the baby.

The boy, who had always been "the baby of the family", felt pushed out, and said he "wanted to send it back," his mother told the court.

Prior to the incident the boy was caught playing truant, and told a teacher: "There is a lot going in my head."

Crying, he explained that his family was caring for a baby who was noisy, saying: "The baby is doing my head in." He also told teachers that he was being bullied.

The boy's mother said her son cared for the baby deeply, and saw him more as a brother than a nephew. The boy has seen the baby once since the incident and was said to be happy, kissing his nephew and waving to him.

Burrell told the jury that there was "really no dispute" about the fact that the boy had injured his nephew. "The sole issue here is the extent of the child's mental intention when he stabbed the baby," he said.

The boy denies attempted murder and wounding with intent. The trial continues.
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First off, the title of the article is so ridiculously misleading. The Game didn't make the boy stab the kid, his frustration over the crying did. And to think, the industry gets so much flack from the outside...the last thing it needs is sensationalism from one of it's own media outlets.
 
Gavin Burrell QC said that the stabbing occurred at a time when the family was experiencing a great deal of strain - the boy's sister was in hospital and his mother was caring for her own children along with the baby.

The boy, who had always been "the baby of the family", felt pushed out, and said he "wanted to send it back," his mother told the court.

Prior to the incident the boy was caught playing truant, and told a teacher: "There is a lot going in my head."

Crying, he explained that his family was caring for a baby who was noisy, saying: "The baby is doing my head in." He also told teachers that he was being bullied.
And yet they're still saying, earlier in the article, that the game is responsible.

If you can't blame the crime on a Puerto Rican, like in South Park, blame it on a video game
 
Hell I'm just glad it's a VG getting blamed and it ISN'T GTA for a change... ;)
 
The fact that it was the Incredibles shows how BS the violence in videogames arugment is. He could've been frustrated by a crossword puzzle and stabbed the baby, no one would suggest banning crossword puzzles.
 
Lets be honest here, The Incredibles is a murder simulator that trained this kid to kill, practicing over and over again until it was an unconscious response. The Incredibles is certainly not about family togetherness or responsibility or anything along those lines...
 
Wow this kid seems to be under an unsurmountable stress rendering him psycho.
They call videogames, i call SICK STRESSING SOCIETY.
 
I think the bigger issue is not that the Incredibles was too frustrating, but that the fact that games having gotten way to easy. Had this boy been given a stable diet of hardcore games, an incident like this could have be avoided. His therapy should be having to play through GoW, NG , and Shinobi all on their hardest difficulty setting with all buttons removed except the basic punch and jump. errr.... nm on the GoW
 
Wow... sucking at The Incredibles!? Talk about weaksauce.

oh yeah, and even if I was as weaksauce as this kid, I don't think I would have stabbed a baby. Lame move. He's weaksauce at life too.

I do kinda feel sorry for the weaksauce kid in question though. He's obviously a mental person. He needs help.
 
The kid has some issues so yeah that needs to be sorted and is essentially what the problem was. Could have been worse if he killed the baby. Stabbing is bad as it is.
 
Gek54 said:
I hope you are infertle.

Why? I'm sorry but if my kid was trying to kill family members and shit I would send him to a special place for crazy kids. Or maybe analyze his brain and figure out what's causing the violent outbursts. Then maybe brain surgery will fix him. Some people have epileptic seizures on the Amygdala (I think) and it causes violent outbursts. Maybe this kid is like that?
 
How is that well spoken for an 11 year old?

I remember using the "There is a lot going in my head." line to dump my grilfriend when I was 9.
 
Gek54 said:
How is that well spoken for an 11 year old?

I remember using the "There is a lot going in my head." line to dump my grilfriend when I was 9.

Yeah it's not "well spoken" it's just normal. There's some crazy people having exceptionnal brain capacities on top of that. (though this kid may not necessarily be crazy)
 
Gek54 said:
Yes you are sorry.

If I had 2 kids and one was a crazy stabber, guess which kid wouldn't be staying with the other kid....... Or, you know, could turn a blind eye and hope he doesn't stab the as yet not crazy kid. AGAIN.
 
Goodjob at rasing a stabber and even better job of foresaking the kid. Washing your hands of your childs problems is much easier than dealing with them. Easier = better.
 
I bet these kind of things happen more than we think, just now the media likes to start up controversy. Always had friends who had to fight over what controller and whatnot some even good drawn out fist fights over game stuff (called his final fantasy figures dolls)
 
Gek54 said:
How is that well spoken for an 11 year old?

I remember using the "There is a lot going in my head." line to dump my grilfriend when I was 9.

How deep was the relationship that at nine, you had to say that, or did you just hear someone use it on TV. :)

As you can see in the story it happened in the UK. Throughout my young life, it always seemed that European kids were a lot more articulate than their US counterparts.
 
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