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Articles on Eminem-inspired violence
Murder mimicked favourite lyrics, trial told
November 5, 2020
Toronto Star
By Carola Vyhnak
Peterborough, Ont.-It's a song about a young man who kills his mother and buries her body under a tree in the backyard. Sung by rapper Eminem, it was a favourite of the 14-year-old boy, court has heard.
The day after he was charged with murdering his mother, police discovered her body buried in their backyard near the base of a tree, Crown attorney David Thompson told a jury in the Superior Court of Justice Wednesday.
The 33-year-old woman had been shot in the head and neck eight times, he said in his opening statement. Thompson said her son, now 16, is guilty of a "planned and deliberate" murder on May 27, 2008, at their home in Warkworth, an hour and a half northeast of Toronto.
The song, "Cleaning out my Closet," was burned onto a CD the teen gave another youth, telling him "he really liked it," Thompson told the jury.
Hours after his arrest on June 12, 2008, the teen made a comment to a youth worker about "brains splattered on the wall," court heard.
Jason Woodbeck, who met the youth when he arrived at a detention centre in Oshawa, testified that he overheard the comment through the PA system in his office.
The teen can't be identified under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. A 35-year-old man who owned the house where the woman and her son lived has also been charged with first-degree murder.
The youth was caught on video trying to use his mother's bank card after she disappeared, they heard. Police found a 22-calibre rifle in a river after the youth told them the co-accused had thrown a long object in it, Thompson said.
'EMINEM' KILLER
Fan murdered student after she fell for him as he sang rapper's hits at karaoke night
December 2, 2020
Daily Record (Scotland)
By Richard Elias
AN EMINEM impersonator murdered his lover by battering her unconscious and stuffing her into a suitcase where she suffocated.
Psychopath Christopher Duncan, who dressed like the rapper and had the same tattoos all over his body, yesterday admitted the horrific killing.
He is now facing up to 30 years behind bars. A court heard how the 21-year-old Scot took Jagdip Najran back to his flat in the east end of London after wooing her with karaoke versions of Eminem songs.
Once there, the couple slept together before Duncan, high on a cocktail of LSD, ecstasy and cocaine, set about her with a metal baseball bat, shattering her skull.
He then stuffed her body into a suitcase because he "could not bear to look at her".
A pathologist estimated it took at least an hour for the slightly built student to die.
Duncan fled toarelative'shomein Blackpool but gave himself up three days later.
Asked why he attacked her, Duncan said he flipped after the "beautiful and clever" law student smiled at him.
Duncan had been due to stand trial at the Old Bailey but pleaded guilty yesterday.
Detectives who searched the killer's flat in Bethnal Green discovered violent videos, knives, samurai swords and ninja weapons.
A martial arts expert, Duncan also wrote his own songs using lyrics described in court as "full of the most unpleasant sentiments".
Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, said: "His motive for this unprovoked and brutal killing of a defenceless and vulnerable woman has not been established.
"There is no sensible explanation." Jagdip, 26, had seen Duncan performing at a pubafewweeksearlierandhadgoneback to the bar a second time on May 13 last year.
Mr Laidlaw said: "As the evening progressed, the defendant sang Eminem songs and he also knew the dance routines.
"His behaviour was described as aggressive and he went over to one group of women and called one of them a 'bitch'."
The couple left the pub together but, within hours, the young woman was dead.Wendy Johnson QC, defending, said her client had suffered a "damaged personality".
A witness impact statement read out on behalf of the Najran family described her as "beautiful and determined, someone who touched the hearts of people she met".
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boxall said that Duncan, who was born in Glasgow but moved to London at a young age, was a particularly brutal killer.
He added: "This was a callous murder where the victim was viciously attacked from behind with a metal baseball bat.
"Duncan has demonstrated that he is an extremely violent man, who, after murdering an innocent woman, fled to avoid capture."
The killer will be sentenced on Monday.
Eminem lyrics are blamed for sex attack
News.telegraph.co.UK
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 29/08/2021)
A sex attack on a nine-year-old boy may have been inspired by the sordid lyrics of a song by the rap star Eminem, a court was told.
Eminem: 'Ken Kaniff' track was played in court
The child was twice ordered to perform a lewd sexual act with a boy three years his senior.
On the first occasion he was threatened with a piece of metal, while on the second his attacker said he would kill the younger boy's dogs unless he complied with demands.
The older boy, now 13, is due to be sentenced at a later date after being convicted at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, on charges of indecent assault.
Earlier, the jury was played a recording of the Eminem track, Ken Kaniff (skit), after William Baker, prosecuting, said: "One possibility is that the 12-year-old boy [now 13] in adolescence heard the track and thought it would be a good idea to make someone do that to him."
Judge Barry Woodward, who listened to the track with the jury, described it as "quite disgusting". Afterwards the victim's mother said: "My son likes Eminem but I have only let him listen to tracks that make the charts. When they played that awful song in the courtroom I felt sick."
Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape, the child protection charity, criticised the music industry for giving such records "a platform."
She said: "There is something disturbing about a record or video egging people on to behave outside social parameters. I personally find them disgusting and don't think we should give them a platform. If you are already disturbed, listening to something particularly unpleasant could give you the rationale that it is okay."
Obsessive Eminem fan beat girlfriend with bicycle chain
By Maurice Weaver
(Filed: 02/06/2021)
A TEENAGER'S fascination with Eminem, the rap singer, triggered a violent outburst during which he went berserk with a carving knife and a bicycle chain, according to his former girlfriend.
Donna Grimwood, 18, who was injured in the attack at the women's hairdressing salon where she worked, was speaking of the "complete nightmare" that left her injured and unconscious in a pool of blood. Of Luke Bass, 19, her former boyfriend, she said: "I never thought he could have been so vicious. All I could see when I looked at him was this horrible Eminem person."
Bass admitted wounding Miss Grimwood when he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on May 25. He is to be sentenced on June 28 and is likely to be sent to a secure hospital.
At her home in Newark, Notts, Miss Grimwood said that Bass, whom she met in 1998, was her first serious boyfriend but they had split in October when he became jealous and possessive. He had become "obsessed" with Eminem, she said. "He bleached his hair and used to listen to Eminem's albums all the time."
Bass spent hours listening to the record The Marshall Mathers LP which contains references to murder. His favourite track was Stan, which is about a man who drives his car off a bridge with a woman in the boot. On the day before the attack in January, Bass jumped on her and began punching her. "He said he was going to prison for what he was going to do but didn't care."
The next day he walked into her salon and swung a padlock and chain at her head. "I held my hands over my face to protect myself," she recalled. "I was screaming. I fell to the ground, falling in and out of consciousness. Then I saw a pool of blood on the floor and realised it was mine. I saw blood all over his face and so I played dead.
"There was nothing else I could do. I thought it would stop him. There were people screaming at him, crying and saying, 'You have killed her'. I was told afterwards by a colleague that he just smiled, took the padlock and smashed me in the face again."
When police searched his home, they found it filled with Eminem posters, albums and merchandise. Miss Grimwood said: "Luke told police he expected everyone to throw a party for him for what he had tried to do to me. He reasoned that would have happened to Eminem."
At last week's court hearing, Miss Grimwood was urged by Martin Elwick, defending, to move from the public gallery in case Bass became violent at the sight of her. Bass, also from Newark, was remanded in custody for psychiatric reports.