Killer's mum blames video games

Nurse-killer was a fan of Manhunt

The mother of convicted teenage murderer Stuart Harling has claimed violent video games like Manhunt triggered his violence.

The 18-year-old killer was recently convicted of murdering nurse Cheryl Moss, in April 2006, by stabbing her 72 times in a shocking random attack. His mother, Lorraine Harling, said he played lots of video games on his Playstation but that she never knew how violent they were.

“I knew he was playing the video games but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were,” she told the News of the World .

"Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the Playstation. For a long time I didn't even realise games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same.”

One of the games Harling played was the controversial Manhunt, which involves stalking and killing people in graphically violent ways with meat cleavers, wire, axes and knives. Its successor, Manhunt 2, recently became the first game in 10 years to be banned in the UK and Ireland.

Harling, a former Scout leader and trainee accountant, claimed at his trial that he killed Moss because he was bored and only stopped stabbing her because his disguise wig fell off. He is now serving life.