Happy slap killing

As predicted, the verdict is in on the David Morley murder trial. Whereas the BBC is, for now, treating it as a straightforward killing, the London Evening Standard is reporting the '"Happy Slap" gang guilty of murder'. The prosecutor's comments about 'Clockword Orange-style thugs' might well bring some old chestnut about violence in the Kubrick classic back into the public eye, but they are more likely to revive concerns about happy slapping. Watch this space, as they don't say in Nadsat. UPDATE: Since my writing this post, the BBC news homepage began using a link entitled 'Killed for kicks: How "happy slapping" craze led to the death of an innocent man'. This takes the surfer to the story "Feral pack who thrived on violence", by journalist Chris Summers.