Pink News is reporting that the first ever recorded winner of the Mr Gay UK competition Anthony Morley , has been charged with the murder of Damian Oldfield, a 33 year man worked for the company that runs the Mr Gay UK competition.According to the news site the competition has subsequently removed his photographs. Well they haven't as the photo on the right demonstrates. This is a publicity picture of Mr Morley back in 1993 and is available on the Mr Gay UK site.
The site goes on to state: 'In a gruesome twist, police found chunks of the victims leg had been cut off and were in a saucepan on the stove.'
Most interestingly, the site states that they met through an Internet dating site and points to the anonymity that sites such as Gaydar and Fitlads give. The story goes on to draw parallels with a similar case in Germany seven years ago, the killer invited his victim through an online dating site, posting:
"If you are between 18 and 25 years old you are my boy. Come to me and I eat your horny flesh."
I think it might be a leap to assert this is a cannibalism case but the broader assertion of Internet dating sites as a promoter of increased criminal activity - specifically those wanting to commit acts of murder is an intriguing one and one which I haven't really seen much academic literature on (at least from a legal perspective). Whilst this sounds like an awful and gruesome incident I do feel their is scope for greater academic exploration of this area.
Read the Pink News story at: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7523.html
The Pink News article no longer states Mr Gay UK pulled thier photograph so either they realised, their reading this blog or someone else pointed it out.
I shall be anonymous for this comment, which is not how I normally do things, but look at the content and you'll see why:
I'm a member of the dating site, on which the men apparently met.
Within a couple of hours of the news, the forums were full of sick jokes and generally abusive comments about the murdered member. I screen captured many of the threads, as it shows yet another sign of the so-called 'gay community' acting as selfish, unsympathetic & twisted. It was treated as a joke from the start, and many people posted that he deserved it for meeting up with a stranger.
In no time at all, a families tragedy was turned into a source for uncaring humour. I aim to show the screenshots to someone with knowledge in these matters, to point out how bad the site moderation is, and the kind of thing that goes on there.
Thanks anonymous - I'd really appreciate viewing some of the screen shots if you would be willing to share. Of course your details would remain confidential. If you are willing, please send them to: chris.ashford@sunderland.ac.uk
I'd really appreciate viewing some of the screen shots if you would be willing to share.
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