Victim support

When a murder's committed, the tabloids are immediately full of righteous fury and vengeance, instigating a witch-hunt on the grounds that justice must be served. So let's hope that justice is indeed served now that Jo Yeates' landlord Christopher Jefferies is suing them for libel. Jefferies, you'll recall, was painted as "weird-looking" and "a creepy oddball" on the grounds that he dyed his hair blue and is "cultured" with a passion for Old English poetry (apparently that's criminal, even for a retired English teacher).

In the trial by tabloid, the guilty verdict for Jefferies was already in long before Vincent Tabak was formally charged. Even in his grief Yeates' boyfriend Greg Reardon expressed concern: "Jo's life was cut short tragically but the finger-pointing and character assassination by social and news media of as yet innocent men has been shameful.

It's hard to imagine how a naturally private person like Jefferies could cope with becoming the subject of such intensive and severe victimisation in the national media. But perhaps, if a judge vindicates his case, then the red tops and the Daily Heil (particularly deserving of censure in view of this appalling piece of "journalism") might possibly learn to have the humanity to bear it in mind in future.