psychotherapists & counsellors for social responsibility

The Soham Murders

Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma (www.dartcenter.org)

The Dart Centre was founded in the United States with the aim of attempting to humanise the culture of covering traumatic situations, and the emotional effect on the journalists involved. Mark and Sue Brayne have formed the UK branch of the organisation, and hold meetings for journalists, therapists and other professionals to look at the issues involved.

One such meeting in February focussed on the Soham murders in August 2002, and the difficulties

and feelings experienced at the time by the journalists, as well as the local community. The discussion brought together journalists who reported the story, editors and psychotherapists, police and family liaison officers.  Tim Alban Jones the Anglican vicar of Soham gave a moving account of his experience as the person who provided the link between the families and the media. The group discussed lessons that might be learned from the story, especially since this murder was the first of its kind to be covered in the era of 24-hour live news.

Clarence Mitchell, a B BC reporter at the scene told how painful it had been for him, as a father himself, and how aware he was of what the fam­ilies were going through. The journalists did feel that they were contributing to the search, and that the local community welcomed this. People would come up to them and ask for the latest news, and they felt that this was useful. All this changed abruptly when the children were found, and from being helpers, the journalists were ostracised by the community, to the extent that one of the pubs which had welcomed them previously put up a sign saying 'No Press, no Media'. And it hurt.

Tim Alban Jones responded to this by showing how the media had been the goodies for almost two weeks, while there was hope, but once the children were found, the hope turned to despair. He pointed out how the events in Soham had worked on three levels: the first and most important being the personal, the tragic situation of the families. If this was the inner circle, a second concentric circle was the community, while the third outer circle was the national, wider level, which, while there was a legitimate interest, began to be resented by the community involved.

Elizabeth Capewell (Centre for Crisis Man­agement and Education) echoed some of this by relating how this displacement of anger happens after a community tragedy. This is part of a natural pattern, but it is not only the journalists who can be the focus, other professionals are often targeted as well. The community bonds very tightly after the event, but, as normal life begins to return, people recover at different rates, and react in different ways. So, after the bonding comes a pulling apart, and this displacement of anger. These points were gratefully received by Clarence Mitchell.

It was clear from this and other stories how deeply affected some of the reporters had been by the experience. One journalist had suspected early on that Ian Huntley was the killer, had told the police her suspicions, and later given evidence at the trial. Both she and Clarence Mitchell commented on how difficult it had been to sit behind Huntley for all that time, knowing what he had done.

Mark Brayne acknowledged these feelings and commented on how important it is for journalists to give themselves and their colleagues permission to feel: to feel normal human emotions, distress, confusion, despair, even the nightmares. "We are human beings first, journalists second."

He also said that while every traumatised journal­ist does not necessarily need counselling, it is very important to bring some of the basic skills of the psychotherapy community into the journalistic environment, so that journalists can learn to look after themselves, and not feel so lonely.

Joyce McMillan, senior Scottish commentator, who had written a strong column on the issue in the Scotsman in November 2003, spoke of her concern about how violence and sex are increas­ingly, and hysterically, linked in media reporting in Britain. Do we really want this?

John Slater, retired from the Metropolitan Police, made some very useful points about PTSD, by telling us that very often it is not the people who are directly involved in a disaster or a war zone who suffer PTSD, but those on the periphery, and sometimes many years later. The feelings of guilt and inadequacy because you can't help are very powerful, so it is important to watch everyone. He also pointed out that some good had come out of the reporting of the murders, such as the issue of the Humberside Police, and the resultant questions about the interpretation of the Data Protection Act.

There were also comments by Sue Aldridge, one of the Family Liaison Officers deployed to the families involved and who acted as a gateway be­tween the family and outside agencies. She could see how the police and the media can co-operate, by recognising and respecting each other's roles and responsibilities.

There was a powerful discussion of the word 'evil' and how it can be interpreted in very different ways. Tim Alban Jones admitted that he felt what happened was evil at work, but did not feel that it was appropriate to use the word in public because of possible misunderstandings, and the ease with which the word can be twisted to create misunder­standings.

Andrew Samuels made an interesting contri­bution, as an analytical psychotherapist, urging reporters to remain open to being influenced, like therapists, artists and clergymen, saying that if they are not open to this, they cannot influence others.

'We are human beings first, journalists second.'

I felt that this opened up a new area of useful dis­cussion, relating perhaps to the whole way that the media works and how it can relate to the very wide community that it serves.

This also connects with some of the issues that would be interesting to follow up in meetings such as the one in March on Journalism, Trauma and Spirituality, because vulnerability is at the heart of spirituality, and journalists are the bridge between events and the community, and to make that bridge vulnerable and permeable to the spirit would be some achievement.

Here is a community brought together by profes­sional aims and experiences. Is it possible, that by developing connection and relationship, this com­munity might be able to bear more easily the feel­ings experienced while reporting such tragedies?

There is a transcript of the meeting on the web-site, as well as personal stories and accounts of other meetings and events worldwide.

 Last updated July 2005