A teenager has been jailed indefinitely after being convicted of committing sex attacks on four women. Ryan Chinnery, 19, chav, prowled the streets in his car looking for victims after “obsessively” playing Grand Theft Auto for “hours on end”, as well as doing other utterly irrelevant things like indulging in an unhealthy amount of pornography and getting high on a cocktail of cannabis and alcohol.
Sex attacks. GTA. Teenage criminal. Must be time for a tabloid field day! “Grand Theft Auto sex beast is caged”, writes the Sun. “Judge blames ultra-violent video game Grand Theft Auto for teenage thug’s sex assaults”, concludes the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that Judge Philip Statman stated “It is not for this court to enter into this controversy as to whether such conduct is encouraged by pornographic material and video games such as Grand Theft Auto.”
Funny, doesn’t quite sound like ‘blame’ to us.
The judge did add “from what I have heard and read, [GTA] does show scant respect for women.” That’s probably fair given Rockstar’s insistence on baiting mainstream press and including prostitutes in the series. However, it’s funny how no one ever remembers that you are not required to approach, interact with, objectivise, humiliate or attack any of these virtual women for any part of the game unless you choose to do so.
It should be great when Keith Vaz gets wind of this one, but he’s a bit bogged down trying to regulate internet suicide bomber games right now.
