How a simple profile change on Facebook led to murder
By Dave Parrack
If you weren’t already aware of the dangers involved with putting too much information online, a court case in the UK should scare you into taking more precautions. While imparting personal details is usually associated with identity theft, in one case, it lead to murder.
Facebook, and social networks in general, allow you to put as much information about yourself online as you wish. You can’t really remain anonymous, but everything else is personal choice, from your age and date of birth, to whether you’re in a relationship or not.
Wayne and Emma Forrester were a married couple living in London, until they split up. Wayne moved out of the marital home, but returned to confront Emma when he noticed she’d changed her relationship status on Facebook to ‘Single’. He also claimed she had posted messages on the site informing friends that she had left him and was looking to meet new people.
According to Times Online, Wayne Forrester was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for murder after he savagely attacked and killed his estranged wife with a kitchen knife and meat cleaver. He claimed to have felt “devastated and humiliated” by the quick change of Facebook status.
The day before the murder took place, Wayne rang his wife’s parents and complained about the Facebook messages, which he claimed “made her look like a fool.” Foolish or not, it’s hardly justification for killing someone in cold blood.
I’ve heard of relationships being ruined by Facebook, and other mishaps as a result of photographs emerging on the site, but this is first time I’ve heard about activity on a social network directly leading to a loss of life in this way.
Emma Forrester hadn’t done anything wrong in changing her Facebook account in this way, but when her husband still had access to her profile, it meant murder. This is yet another example of why you have to be careful what you do and say on social networks, but let’s hope this tragic case is a one-off.
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October 18th, 2008
I don’t know that this has as much to do with Facebook as it does with the fact that the perp was an unstable and abusive man. According to the coverage I have read, this wasn’t the first time he had been abusive or threatened to harm his wife. The moral of this story should be in taking action in the event of such a volatile domestic abuse situations, not being careful what you put on your Facebook profile. A person like that would kill you over a haircut, in my opinion.
October 19th, 2008
Can’t people live in the real world any more? Come on people, stop living your life on MySpace and Facebook and whatever.
And Dave, you make it sound like there might be some justification for cold blooded murder. I hope that wasn’t your intention!