back to article Man gets life for killing game-obsessed partner

A man has been sentenced to life in prison after killing his partner, who’d become hooked on Grand Theft Auto. Carol Cannom, 46, from Lincolnshire, installed a 37in plasma TV in the couple’s bedroom and would regally stay up to the wee small hours playing the game on a PlayStation 3, night after night. But Cannom’s …

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  1. D@v3
    Coat

    proof at last

    violent games make people violent

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    King sized bed?

    Regally stayed up? exactly how does one do that?

    Paris because she's been regally seen to

  3. Mike Fortey
    Thumb Down

    Queen-like behavior?

    You mean 'regularly', I think.

    Friday's liquid lunch consumed a little too keenly, was it?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how do you play GTA like a king?

    that is all

  5. Code Monkey

    Regally?

    Sorry to get all typo-Nazi but shouldn't that be "regularly"?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Regally or regularly?

    Although either works in this context, I suppose!

  7. James
    Stop

    Pretty strong evidence then ...

    .. that playing violent computer games can be harmful to your health.

  8. Greg

    The question is...

    ...how's Jack Thompson going to spin this one then?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What happened to the lesser charge

    of impersonating a monarch?

  10. MnM
    Thumb Up

    Not Playing GTA Turns Men Into Murderers

    How can this be?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Regal eh

    It's bad enough playing GT from a throne while wearing a crown, imagine how mad he would have been if she'd played the game regularly.

  12. Daniel Wilkie
    Thumb Up

    Hmmmm

    It'll be interesting to see how GTA4 takes the blame for this one, as it was quite clearly at fault - the violent scenes in the game caused her to lose it and "go postal" on her husband.

    Oh wait, that wasn't what happened at all was it... Carry on!

    Woohoo, it's Friday!

  13. Law
    Unhappy

    more proof...

    ...that video games make people kill people.... obviously he subliminally took in the "evil kill-people suggestions" whilst sleeping as his partner played.... so the solution is obvious, ban violent video games!!!!!!

    My pro-gaming agenda aside, I really feel sorry for the kid, nobody should have to go through that... on top of that the poor kid is probably in care now too... which sucks.

  14. Alan
    Unhappy

    Spelling

    Did she regally sit up playing GTA, or regularly sit up playing GTA?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Regally

    Sir with this AK - 47 your really spoiling us.

  16. Andrew Williams

    Regally?

    Did she really play the game in the manner of a monarch? Or do you mean "regularly"?

  17. Luis Ogando
    Stop

    Fated

    As sad as this story is - my sincere condolencies to the family of the deceased - I can't help but wonder what the anti-violent-game lobby will be saying. Are we to expect messages warning us that playing GTA (or similar) may seriously endager OUR lives?

    If gamers state that the victim was harmless and only amusing herself the retort will be along the lines of: 'Oh, come on. This is an isolated case! It has no bearing on gamers being in danger.'

    We'll just have to wait and see what is said now the boot is on the other foot.

  18. Nic Gibson

    And yet

    'frequently' would probably be the word they needed.

  19. MaXimaN
    Coat

    Poor tactics

    I'm surprised he called the police. All he needed to do was get in his car, then drive outside of the flashing red/blue detection zone and he would have got away with it.

  20. Martin Lyne

    Hmm

    Playing games *in the bedroom*, all night? Sleep depravation is linked to mental disorders in recent studies. He could have just moved the screen to the living room though.

  21. Andrew

    OMFG!

    Nutter kills somebody. Ban games! All of them!

  22. Steve

    Anti-proof at last

    Since the culprit here was the one not playing the game, clearly we have here evidence that *not* playing violent games causes violent behaviour..

    Steve.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Looking for an excuse?

    Look, if my missus wanted to stop up all night playing games I'd deal with it, if I really got sick of it i'd leave. This guy must have had something else on his mind in order to murder someone!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whatever happened to diminished responsibility?

    Look, I don't want to condone stabbings, but haven't we heard a lot about sleep deprivation in all the news about Guantanamo Bay?

    Sleep deprivation causes irritability, delusion and aggression. The man must of gone a fair time without a full night's sleep -- surely some leeway should be given for this...?

  25. Gilbo
    Joke

    Blimey

    So now violent computer games are SO realistic they make an unconscious person lying next to you go on a murderous rampage?

    Shame she wasn't playing the PC version. They would have had 3 more children by now.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Regally..

    ah more engrish speaking learnt from Kim Jong-il off Team America - World Police.

    arh erro!

    *\. yeah I would of stabbed her too, Saints Row 2 is a much better game.

  27. Jonathan

    Addiction

    Goes to show how addiction can be bad for your health....

    Anyone notice the age difference?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Adverb?

    Regally used as an adverb. i.e. she stayed up in a regal manner?

    Still, more proof of violent games being 'bad' for oneself. Ban them all, we should all be playing with furbies!

  29. Rog69

    Good Behaviour.

    If he behaves himself in prison he'll get a Playstation in his cell.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another one bites the dust

    Addiction claims another life.

  31. Colin MacLean

    Regal confusion

    Maybe she held the joypad with her pinkies sticking out?

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Regally played GTA IV?

    She gently waved to the assembled crowds before ordering her guards to steal their wallets?

  33. Lionel Baden
    Flame

    i can see the warnings ....

    Playing this can affect the people around you ........

    lol

  34. Martin Glenn
    Coat

    Violent games my ar*e

    @ D@v3

    Although it was the non-player of the game that comitted the crime, so by that understanding everyone should be playing games to better themselves?

    A bit of Grand Therapy Auto, or Or maybe a line in Niko (tine) patches to beat the cravings

  35. Lol Whibley

    you must enjoy

    trolling the typo-tards..

    that aside, get counceling or play co-op.. don't be a 1-st person voyuer.. it'll end in tears.

  36. Nate

    She probably...

    ...preferred gaming to sex, if we are to take yesterday's article seriously. That gives her hubby/boyfriend sufficient motive to bonk her in the more literal sense, yeah?

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Response to D@v3

    It was the other person you stabbed the person who was playing Dave you muppet

  38. Aaron

    Well that's a shock

    Y'know, I figured it'd be the woman killing the man. Isn't it usually, in stories like these?

  39. Jim Coleman
    Joke

    I clear cut case of...

    ...NOT playing violent video games turning you into a killer.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Attacked with two knives?

    Surely he could have waited for the next mission and he would have got the Uzi.

    errr maybe I'm confusing GTAiv life with real-life :-\

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @ D@v3

    What's your evidence for that? The sweeping and pretty baseless conclusion one could draw from this is that playing computer games increases your chance of being murdered (indeed, this case will have increased the statistic by 1).

    All I can sweepingly draw otherwise is the opposite of your conclusion - that *not* playing computer games make you violent. Either read the article properly, or shut up!

  42. Craig
    Joke

    How considerate...

    “The couple’s son called for an ambulance, but Palmer grabbed the phone and told emergency operators: “I’m sorry. I think I’ve killed her.””

    “Let me just make sure, we don't want to be a burden on the ambulance service...”

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Review Finder

    I love the way the review finder defaults to gaming for this story. No sense of irony whatsoever.

  44. Greg

    Why didn't she just use...

    ....headphones? Back when I lived with my folks I had a big-ass set of very high quality headphones (still have them, actually). I could play F.E.A.R. until the sun came up and they wouldn't hear a thing.

    Well, unless I shouted "OW! EAT LEAD YOU FUCKER!" of course.

  45. D@v3
    Flame

    @Arron and Martin Glenn

    Read again...

    "violent games make people violent"

    Doesn't say that..

    Playing violent games, makes the players violent.

    Think.

  46. raving angry loony

    proof?

    Thus proving that GTA and other violent video games do, in fact, cause people to become violent.

    Just not those playing them.

  47. Chris Booth

    Threesome!

    "Cannom ordered her partner out of the bedroom while she played on the PS3. Painter retreated to watch portable TV in a cold conservatory, the BBC reported."

    Her playing was so bad that the third person in bed went to another room. Cannom, Palmer (hubby/boyfriend) and Painter!!

  48. Seán

    How considerate

    As a GTA4 addict it's how she would have wanted to go.

  49. DJ
    Alert

    And is this all?

    From the article: "Palmer, who admitted to the murder, will spend at least 14 years behind bars before being considered for parole."

    14 years for killing another human being? Seems a bit cheap, doesn't it?

    How about: "You get out as just soon as she's no longer dead."?

    No wonder people do things like this.

  50. Mike Bronze badge

    well

    come on guys, you're slacking, you should know there is *always* a way to twist any story to fit with a government agenda:

    if this game had been banned then she wouldn't have been playing it so this incident would never have happened and another life would have been saved, therefore banning violent games will save lives, think of the women!

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