Police social media frenzy threatens to prejudice alleged child killer trial

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Police in Queensland, Australia received an unexpected response from the public on Saturday when they announced on their Facebook page that a 41-year-old man had been arrested and charged with the disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe. Morcombe's disappearance in late 2003 triggered one of the largest manhunts in Queensland history.

Within a few hours, hundreds had responded to the post. Many praised the Queensland Police and offered their condolences to the boy's family. However, several were highly prejudicial despite the suspect having not yet gone to trial. The police attempted to remove the inflammatory comments, but thousands had already read many of them, including potential jurors. Officials fear that this could make forming an impartial jury especially difficult.

Police have charged the suspect with murder, deprivation of liberty, child stealing, indecent treatment of a child under 16, and interfering with a corpse.

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Sources

Alan Knight. "Queensland police unlesash s social media lynch mob" — Online Journalism, August 14, 2011
Renee Viellaris. "41-year-old truck driver charged with murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe" — The Daily Telegraph, August 14, 2011
Bianca Sullivan. "Thousands flock to Facebook, Twitter as man charged in Daniel Morcombe disappearance" — Courier Mail, August 14, 2011
"Breakthrough in Daniel Morcombe murder investigation" — Queensland Police Service, August 13, 2011

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Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.