Roll up. roll up – enter the moral maze here……

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you can’t have helped buy notice the coverage of the tragic and unresolved death of Jo Yeates in Bristol over Christmas. As fate would have it, in the late 90’s, I rented the same flat that she lived in for a couple of years and since the arrest of the landlord I have been inundated with journalists – either on the phone, or on the doorstep – looking for any new angle they can scrape together that would sell copy. TBH, I can add nothing to the description of the landlord that hasn’t already been reported…..

However, one guy asked if I had any old pictures of the inside of the flat, to show the layout, as they have no way of getting any similar shots – they will, of course pay…..

As it happens I don’t, but it got me thinking – if I did have any, would I really what them to be printed (the whole concept seems slightly ghoulist)? How much they be prepared to pay/how much would be enough to compromise my feeling that it was the wrong thing to do?

Don’t really know what I’m looking for here, but whole sorry business has left me feeling uneasy – on many levels – and has been an insight into the workings of the press.

Take some pictures of your current flat and sell them. They haven’t been in so they need never to know and it’s just about what they deserve.

How do you reckon they traced you?

1. do you still have a key yes/no

if you answered yes to question 1 please proceed to question 2

2. was it you?

Just take the money, it’ll pay for all that extra VAT.

How did they know that you rented that flat 10+years ago?!

I’d suggest the above but I’m not really sure I’d like to profit over the murder of somebody else. Although you would kinda be shafting the newspapers which would be a plus.

Edit – above as in MF’s post.

Did you keep a key ?

😯

Pulls up chair, cup of tea and Hobnobs at the ready 😉

As already mentioned, you’d be profiting off the press…

How do you reckon they traced you?

That is a damn fine question – must be tenancy agreements or some such. I’m still in the same address and job after I moved out of the flat so they have house addy, home and work phone numbers….. time to move/change jobs 😉

I’d have no moral issues with it although I’m sure it could all back-fire if it got printed up as photos of the flat in it’s current state etc.

some would say that you would be profiting from the death of someone

All depends on whether or not you need the money and if it’s enough to make it worthwhile

I think they probably have access to electoral records don’t they?

sell the pics if you had them and donate the money to charity.. I cannot see how this would caus emore grief to the family

Without I would wind the journalists up and have a pretend bidding war for the pictures!!

some would say that you would be profiting from the death of someone

My thoughts precisely….

All depends on whether or not you need the money and if it’s enough to make it worthwhile

No to the first point, and I think that was my question really – how much would be enough (I accept this is a ‘how long is a peice of string’ question)?

BB you are a decent bloke by the sounds of the thread so do the decent thing

Tidy yer flat first

mastiles_fanylion – Member
Take some pictures of your current flat and sell them. They haven’t been in so they need never to know and it’s just about what they deserve.

You feel disgusted by the Press but would consider helping them and profiting from it?

Or am I missing something?

How did they know that you rented that flat 10+years ago?!

The press are extremely corrupt, they have paid patseys in all sorts of record-keeping organisations. Your records, your history, your calls and emails, its all theirs for the taking if they want it.

Without I would wind the journalists up and have a pretend bidding war for the pictures!!

Whilst rummaging, I did find sme pics of my (then) brand new Mt Vision parked up against the wall outside the flat, which brought back some happy memories…..

if its more than a couple of hundred quid id be shocked,

My wife went to school with ‘the boyfriend’, Greg. She is in occasional contact with him, but not close friends by any means.

I have been quite shocked how affected I have been by the story; not to say that I am normally a hardened bastard, but this slight connection has made the murder/loss much more real to me than other similar stories that we as the public get exposed to.

I don’t have anything particular to add to the OP, except that assisting the ghoulish press in adding to the ‘spectacle’ is not going to help Jo’s family or anyone actually involved. If they wanted pictures of the flat to be published, they could easily provide them. I’d take the fact that they haven’t provided them as an indicator that they’d like to keep some semblance of dignity and privacy and leave them alone to grieve.

Dave

Hmm. Interesting one that. It would depend on how much they were offering 😉

To be honest I’d be tempted to tell them all to F off. The satisfaction would be worth a fair bit of money I reckon.

Anyway, once word gets out that you are into bikes they will start riding up on lovely niche machines.. “Oh this? Well I might be prepared to part with it.. for the right information..” They are good at getting what they want 🙂

my (then) brand new Mt Vision

It was YOU!!

You feel disgusted by the Press but would consider helping them and profiting from it?

Hmmm.. not quite – I accept they are doing a job, although I often don’t agree with their methods or motives. I have no problem with talking to them to ‘build up a picture’ of the landlord…. the addition of the photos just seemed too ghoulish for me, and as I have no previous experience of this kind of thing, I thought I’d have a straw poll of what the others of the hive mind might do.

Some interesting responses so far….

Eeuuuuw, that gives me a slightly queasy feeling.

What alfabus said.

Whilst it may not even be against the family’s wishes, I can’t see how it could help in any way, other than to fill newspapers up with tenuous information.

If you don’t really NEED the money, why get involved…?

Alfabus – you seem to have captured my thoughts/feelings on this much better than I have been able to so far…… thanks.

[/quote]I have no problem with talking to them to ‘build up a picture’ of the landlord….

personally I do not think this is the right thing to do. He is innocent until proven guilty, and excessive reporting by the press about what an “oddball” he is limits his chances of a fair trial (if there ever is a trial)

I’m not in the habit of buying the red tops but did notice that the Landlord had his photo splashed across the front of most of them when he was being held by the police – mostly attached to fairly racy headlines about his possible connection.

Then he got bailed and the police went on to make lots more statements stating their uncertainty about who might be responsible etc. The papers then dropped all the information about him like a stone and moved on leaving his life in tatters in the gutter.

If he is eventually found not to be responsible I wonder (I don’t really!) if any of those papers will go back over the story and just clarify in equally massive headlines that the guy is innocent and not that bad after all? You have met him and can better judge his character than the rest of us, but I would imagine life could be very different for him in the future, and not in a good way. The poor murdered girl and her family have obviously been most effected by all this but I can’t help thinking the fallout on others could be life changing too and not helped at all by the press and their clamour to satisfy the public’s ghoulish interest.

personally I do not think this is the right thing to do. He is innocent until proven guilty, and excessive reporting by the press about what an “oddball” he is limits his chances of a fair trial (if there ever is a trial)

There is a wiff of this in the (limited) coverage I have seen – true. However, I obviously didn’t know him well, and therefore any comments I have made have been minimal, factual and limited to what I would be prepared to say again under oath.

EDIT: I don’t really want to get into the merits of the case itself here – I largely agree with Convert and Alfabus – I obviously have opinions on the case and its coverage, none of which will be judged here (other than in traditional pitch-fork style which will, IMHO, serve no useful purpose).

If he is eventually found not to be responsible I wonder (I don’t really!) if any of those papers will go back over the story and just clarify in equally massive headlines that the guy is innocent and not that bad after all?

This is one of the things that needs to be addressed with reform of the PPC – retractions should have to be printed on the same page and place the original article appeared. Papers would be a bit more careful if they thought they might lose some of their front page.

I’ve still got the photos of when me and Lady Di popped around for a cuppa, I seem to remember you saying you didn’t think the trip to Paris was a good idea, want me to email them to you, I think there’s even a photo of her hiding in the bath when we were all playing hide & seek.

Were you on the electoral roll or council tax register when you lived there ? Thats likely how they got your name, and after that google and facebook etc.

I think what you are proposing sounds wrong, but I can’t put my finger on why, something in the region of profiting from misery and loss, but I guess that is what journalists do. Call the cops and see what they think about it !

If you do choose to sell pics, provide them with either heavily watermarked versions, or tiny versions first. Otherwise they’ll promise you ££££ on the phone and then end up offering £50 after they’ve printed them, and bully you into accepting.

Out of interest I contacted a few papers a few years back with a story.. I’d been accidently e-mailed the entire customer database of a large Manchester brothel.. had doctors, university lecturers etc listed as clients.. several papers were v interested, and offered a lot of cash but decided against selling – would have broken up a lot of marriages and caused a lot of misery, ain’t worth the cash..

Was funny reading though, especially the girls “comments” section about each client..

i suppose the question that has to be asked is :

has the bloke always had such a legendary haircut ?

Out of interest I contacted a few papers a few years back with a story.. I’d been accidently e-mailed the entire customer database of a large Manchester brothel.. had doctors, university lecturers etc listed as clients.. several papers were v interested, and offered a lot of cash but decided against selling – would have broken up a lot of marriages and caused a lot of misery, ain’t worth the cash..

Was funny reading though, especially the girls “comments” section about each client..

That would make a good thread – suitably redacted of course…

…oh, and you were on the mailing list, because…?

I wouldn’t bother. It’s not like you’ve ever had the money and so wouldn’t be losing anything. I don’t think it would do anyone any good providing the press with more page litter.

To the OP. What difference would selling the pics make? Surely after 10 years the furniture/carpets etc. will be different and would not affect the family involved as it wouldn’t be personal to them or their daughter.

Having had personal experience of being hounded by an overzealous journo, I’d get as much as I could out of them – upfront of course. Email me if you want to be put in touch with a decent photo agent.

The press are extremely corrupt, they have paid patseys in all sorts of record-keeping organisations. Your records, your history, your calls and emails, its all theirs for the taking if they want it.

Finding a list of people who have lived at an address is dead easy. You can just buy a dvd with a)electoral roll records, b)phone numbers, c)names of people who also might have lived at an address, from details sold on by other businesses*, and also ex-directory phone numbers, from sold on data. You get it in a form that you can search in nice ways too, like looking up address from phone number, or linking people between addresses by changes.

Can’t remember the name, but it is a pretty mainstream product in the mapping / GIS world, and police / emergency services have copies in the control rooms also. Cost a few thousand pounds a year for a subscription I seem to remember, although it’s been 5 or 6 years since I last had access to it.

Joe
*which is why you should always tick all the boxes on every form if you don’t want to be in these things.

err what if those photos ended up in the trial (these made up photos)? that could make you guilty of purgery couldn’t it? i wouldn’t do that at all. very dodgy.

******** ATTENTION ALL LATECOMERS ********

Read the OP; he doesn’t have any pictures!

******************************************

That is all.
Dave