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History: Addendum #1

The Madness Returns: May 1992 - Feb 1993

 

May 8th 1992:

"THE DAILY STAR", May 8th 1992

Above, one of the most infamous and hysterical headlines since the 80's heralded one of the most disgraceful times in the history of the British Press.

There in the photo stands the mighty and righteous boss of Liverpool Trading Standards. One Peter Mawdsley.
Holding up two of the evil tapes.
Unqualified in the subject of horror films/videos, in fact movies in general, he and his brave troops along with the Police (just as ignorant in the way of film) raided various homes in Liverpool, Leicester, Cardiff, Redruth, Solihull, Kettering and Rochester.
These Men and Women of valour were 'smashing' a 'vile trade' in videos.

As various black market, unsafe toys continued to be shipped into the Country with the potential to kill and seriously injury any unwary child, Trading Standards and the Police were spending their time, resources and money 'swooping' on those real dangers in Society…. Horror movies and the fans that watch them.
Britain was a safer place that day. Wasn't it?

The moronic tabloid Press had a field day that's for sure:

From the same "Daily Star" report:
"Film titles seized included; "CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST", "HUMAN EXPERIMENTS", "BLOOD BATH", "CARNAGE", "BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS", "WEASELS RIP MY FLESH" and "LIZARD IN A WOMANS SKIN""

"Police have alerted Interpol to check out links with the ring in Germany, Finland and the Republic of Ireland""

Peter Mawdsley (using his expertise in psychology/Psychiatry obviously) is quoted as saying; "I CAN ONLY QUESTION THE MENTALITY OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN IT AND THOSE WHO WATCH THIS KIND OF STUFF FOR ENTERTAINMENT".
I'm sure such thoughts were said about people who watched "Frankenstein" in 1931 as well.

What is the most sickening is that in the same report, in a box on the right of the main story, "The Daily Star" printed these details…Like this had ANYTHING to do with simple Horror fans and films:
"'The Daily Star' revealed two years ago how Schoolboy Jason Swift's horrifying slaughter was captured on film by paedophile perverts…….They (the murderers) were members of a gang which detectives believe tortured and murdered 29 kids aged between 6 and 16"

And that is the kind of gutter Journalism that filled the minds of readers.

"The Daily Express" - same day - "VIDEO HAUL OF HORROR" screamed the headline.
The body of the report is amazing in its propaganda bullshit:
"A nationwide network selling snuff videos of torture, mutilation, and cannibalism has been smashed in a mammoth undercover operation"

It turns out the brave Trading Standards Officers spent 6 months (now there's a pretty overtime bill) going undercover. The hysteria goes on with a sentence that is truly jaw dropping in it's inane ranting:

"…campaigners against child abuse warn that 'snuff' (there's that word again!!) movies, where victims are killed or 'snuffed out' during filming, are a growing menace"

 

April: "The Daily Mail" has another report, that shows up the level of knowledge an intelligence at work in Trading Standards, where a Trading Standards Official spouts out this following drivel after a raid on a market stall holder:

"…disgusting scenes of a Man being hacked to death, decapitated and disembowelled…I have no doubt that the scenes were genuine"

Can this be true!!!?? Has a real, proper, 'Snuff' movie really been discovered?????
Nope.
It was just good old "CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST".

"The Daily Sport" (a soft porn mag in the sly form of a Newspaper, and obviously the heart of investigative Journalism) goes as far as to create it's own fictional story and state it as some kind of fact:
"CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST" showed a white man being hacked to death by a tribe of half-naked Amazonian Indians. The doomed 'actor' (there quotation marks not mine) is *THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN DRUGGED BEFORE BEING DECAPITATED AND DISEMBOWLED WITH A JUNGLE KNIFE*"

Despite this 'real life snuff film' being sold .the said market stallholder, it is reported in the same reports, "WAS NOT CHARGED".
Well, who would have thought that the horrific crime of selling a film showing a Man killed on camera, FOR REAL, would end up in no charges??? Or perhaps this means there was no 'snuff' film??? And it was just an old Italian horror movie??? Well there's a thought.

I for one hoped someone told "HOLOCAUST'S" Director, Ruggero Deodato, of this debacle and gave the old fella a bit of a laugh.

 

Feb 1993….What laughter there is dies. As does a small child. And this real tragedy and all the complex things leading up to it are coated in yet more assumptions, tacky reporting, hysterical witch hunts and downright lies…….

Illustrations/text copyright the respective Newspapers.

 

Thanks to John Martin and his excellent "The Seduction of the Gullible" book for invaluable info....the opinions though are all mine)