What to do? It's so confusing?

[Silver_FireStar]

I thought it was over. The kids had pleaded guilty, they have been sentanced to life. Great. No more feelings of guilt and nervousness whenever you hear talk of the sythe killers from sheffield (At least that was the headline I read over someones shoulder today Sythe killers). But no, they're still in the papers, talk has once more started up about the three teens who killed another who was camping. And you either knew the dead lad, one of the killers, all of the killers or everyone. That happens in villages, we know everyone. But how are you suppossed to react when you hear people slagging off friends? How are you suppossed to react when the one person who understood you completly turns around and destroys everything? How are you suppossed to react when your friend can't step out of her door because her murderer brother is still in the paper? How are you suppossed to move on and heal when it's thrown in your face constantly? When will they drop it and let the ones who knew the murderers get on with their lifes? Why do I feel so lost and isolated when I didn't do anything? Why do I feel a gut wrenching feeling when I think that John Sawdon was almost exactly like me in how we re-act to things and cope with problems? (I can now give out their names as the papers have now done so) I have so many questions and so few answers! Why can I help everyone else with their dilemas yet look at one headline, or the huge year portrait and barely hold back tears, fear, anger and a thousand ond one other emotions? I can barely stand it, and yet the papers won't let it die, and it sounds so horrible, because the part of me who knew the dead boy and his family wants to keep it running, destroy him, keep the guys name alive, but the part of me which is friends with the Sawdon family wants it to stop. Just stop. Just let us get on. Let the family rest. Their hearts are crushed and yet the papers still finding the newly repaired pieces and ripping them appart again in smaller and smaller pieces.

Sorry for this. I just needed to get it off my chest.

Newspaper articles:
http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=970273
http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=969373
http://www.lancashiremosques.com/news_article.asp?ID=2140 (the photos are Rebecca on the left, then John in the middle and Jermaine on the right.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005112427,00.html Terry went camping on his own contrary to this story. And the trio went at the same time.
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=968518 I say it again they did not go together. Terry went on his own and the trio went on their own and they ended up in the same place....but I don't believe it! This one actually says where they live!

[Faeawyn]

I'm sorry I have no answers for you. Its unfortunate, but the general public seems to be drawn to disasters and evil. We find it so shocking and horrible, yet we still keep reading about it. I've often wondered about that with Nascar races. People get all excited when a horrible accident happens....the only interesting part about the race is when someone crashes. Journalists are well aware of this trait in our society and they play to it. As long as people keep buying the papers, they'll keep printing the garbage.
I don't see anything unusual about you feeling sad or guilty. I think you're just emphathizing with the families. It will all go away soon and perhaps things can return to normal. I'm sorry for everyone involved and the terrible tragedy that happened there :(

[Silver_FireStar]

The sawdons live in my village. There is a population of about 300. You don't violently hack someone to death and people just leave your family alone. Hell they dumped him on a roadside with a scyth still impaled in his head! None of the families involved will ever recover from this. Terries family is still blaming themselves. He was suppossed to be camping with someone else. He didn't go, and he didn't stop Terry. How can he live with that? How can he accept that this isn't his fault? How can Terry's parents say goodbye?
How can Johns sister do anything? She has lost all her friends. No one in the village talks to them unless it's to throw insults. She has no choice about it. She still visits John and it's killing her. He's her brother she can't abandon him, but it will stay with her whilever she stays here. There's no escaping it.
Rebecca Boasted about it in highschool. BOASTED! That's how the trio were caught. How do their parents come to terms with the fact that their kids were capable of this? That they actually ENJOYED IT WITHOUT REMORSE?
Jermaine I don't know. Now does my sister. But the other three are well known.

How can things return to normal? I can't see it? Too much hurt. It took years since the last kids died here for anyone to recover...they died in a car crash and it took about 4 years till the flowers stopped, till the graves had no more teddies, and the family were left to recover. That was a car accident on death road. A murder? I don't there's been a murder here in over a hundred years. And despite the fact that it didn't happen here, it's still cut us. I can't see anything returning to normal while we're still under the age of thirty. Not unless we get up and move out of the village....or even out of Sheffield.

[knickers]

After reading (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1520780,00.html) about it (and I hadnt previously). I have to say I can understand the publics reaction to this.

Its like Jamie Bulger all over again, only with older kids (the emotion not the actual killing).

What they did is incomprehensable.

Its like WTF????? to a lot for people.

Understandably there will be A LOT of anger associated with this, and a great deal of upset and a lot of sympathy for the young lad who died and his family in this awful act of what seems to be pure venom.

Unhelpful though it is, your just going to have to ride this wave, and just thank your god you werent there that night.

[SoulHealer]

i've been in the same position in the past, all I can say is that the press will keep it alive and there is a good chance it could keep raising its head for many many years to come. People are interested in such things - I guess in their own way everyone is looking for answers some people seek those answers via the press.

All you can do is sort out your own emotions towards what had happened and learn to cope with it. When you are comfortable with your own feelings what others say won't matter as much.

I know that isn't brilliant or easy advice to follow but I think that is all you can do.

[Silver_FireStar]

Well here's the complete story. The kids aint no saints. I won't say they are, and I wouldn't say that I never thought them capable of it. To be frank I have often found myself in violent fights with John...I think he still bears a scar on his head from the wooden pointed clock I made then slammed into his head, I know I sported a few bruises and still have a few scars.

It was not malice that killed terry. It was drugs. The three were high. Johns rarely not. High and looking for fight. Terry defended himself. They killed him.

Anyone who can't believe the trio weren't capable of it never knew them. Alone they were, together? It was bound to happen sooner or later.

[SoulHealer]

People not believing there were capable of it is just the usual pattern after such an event, I guess its a denial mechanism kicking in. And also wondering if they could have done something to stop it, there will be a lot of people wondering if they could have done something to prevent it

[Silver_FireStar]

Even his sister (i never knew he was adopted) Knew full well that he was capable of it and warned me one day that John was after my blood. John has brutally attacked lots of people, that's why he was thrown out of school. Everyone suspected that he would do some major damage and most thought that would result in either his or anothers death.