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I am Simon Vincent and I am responsible for all the journalism, filming, editing, interviewing, web design and web-construction on this website.
The site was created as part of my Masters in Multi-Media Journalism course at Bournemouth University, which I took in the academic year 2006/07.
If you have any comments or questions about this site, or the content in it, please contact me by clicking here. I will try my best to help!
For information about any of the images or music used on this site please click on the link above.
Comment
Journalism, it appears to me, looks to find both sides of the story. Often, this feels like reducing the argument into the polar opposites of, "who's right?" and "who's wrong?". "Who's the bad guy?" and "who's the victim?" Lets face it, when you can only include 20 seconds of someone's opinion, as is often necessary due to time restrictions, it's difficult to do anything but.
For me, the appeal of this subject is that it defies such simple reductionism. I can see "victims" on both sides of the argument and I can "bad guys" where others, perhaps, wouldn't necessarily look.
I agree with Jon Collins and Lord Campbell-Savours when they say that a great many people - and it's people, remember, who make up juries - don't see the victims on both sides and don't understand where to point the finger of blame. Why would they? They're never informed about it.
All they have to go on is intuition; who they believe and what they think they know about the people involved.
Fundamental to this issue is the "gender" factor. We all think we know what members of the opposite sex are like. We all think we know what members of our own sex are like. And we can all put ourselves in the position of the people involved.
We bring these prejudices into the courtroom with us.
And its these prejudices that "inform" juries.
Hopefully, anyone who has read this website will understand that this needs to change. The system needs reforms to help all the victims of this complex crime. Most of all, the victims need us, as the people who make up juries, to stop. And think again.