Scenes From A Teenage Killing

Last night I watched a documentary on BBC3 called Scenes From a Teenage Killing. One word: wow.

The documentary lists every teenager murdered or killed in a violent way in 2009. It is absolutely heartbreaking. Throughout the programme the viewer meets a number of the families of those who have been killed, and get an insight into how the family copes after such a tragic event. One family in particular just broke my heart. David Cox was 18 and suffered from autism and who had the mental age of an eight year old. His parents had recently moved from a less than desirable area of Leicester to a nicer part of Doncaster, but it was to be here that David was killed. He was walking home with his family when he got in an altercation with some boys who punched him and knocked him to the ground. This was enough to take David's life. Gone in a moment of madness. The boys involved calmly walked away and left his family to deal with the death of their beloved son.

In the documentary you can see that his father Clive's heart is completely broken and he is not coping at all with what has happened. His wife Heidi is trying to hold the family together and the strain being put on their relationship is obvious to see. Life will never be nice or normal for this family ever again due to the stupidity of those boys involved.

The programme did not only focus on the murder of boys involved in some kind of 'gang' related incident. It also looked at the murder of Jessica McCagh who was murdered by her boyfriend after having petrol poured on her and then being set alight. It is still not clear why he murdered her, but in one last moment of degrading behaviour he held their bedroom door shut so she could not escape. Viewers get to meet her father, Garry. He was the last person to see her alive and tells of the last words his daughter said to him which were, ‘I don’t want to die, Dad'. Garry still has flashbacks of that night and has turned to drink to help him cope with his loss, which then has a knock on effect to the rest of his family who although physically present, appear to have lost their father as well. 


This documentary was so thought provoking and moving. I had tears in my eyes throughout, mainly just through seeing the profound strength that the families had after their child/brother/daughter had been murdered. Many of these killings were pointless. Some were over a lack of respect, some were random, some were pre-meditated, but each was equally just as horrible as the last. The families involved were so brave to allow cameras in at such a horrific time in their lives, but many did so to hopefully stop such senseless killings from happening again.


Heartbreaking, but powerful stuff.