OFFICIAL: All crime that happened in mid-September was GTA V’s fault

At least, that seems to be what a new article from The Daily Mail is implying.

Carrying the headline CCTV shows dramatic moment ‘model pupil’, 15, held up bank workers at gunpoint in Grand Theft Auto-style robbery” the story goes on to highlight among its six-bulletpoint strap that:

• Judge said at previous hearing the child was ‘acting like a real-life action video game’
• The raid was carried out in the week Grand Theft Auto V was released

Dressed all in black, with the fur-lined hood of his coat pulled tightly over his head, the teenager is shown pointing the weapon at staff members during the raid, which he carried out in the week Grand Theft Auto V was released,” the story says.

District Judge Ian Lomax told Liverpool Youth Court last month that the teenager was ‘acting like a real-life action video game’.”

Only when the reader delves deeper into the story is the following statement, which could easily have set a very different tone for piece, discovered:

• Judge Clement Goldstone said ‘it was not that sort of case at all’ as the boy’s family would not allow him to watch ‘inappropriate’ television programmes, films or video games.

Indeed, the guilty party was only apprehended after his mother discovered the fake firearm and dye-stained cash haul in his bedroom and decided to hand him over to the police.

Prosecutor Kim Egerton said: She (his mother) had raised him to understand if he did something wrong there would be consequences and though she loved her son it was the right thing to do.

‘As such, my lord, the honesty, integrity, and decency of this family shone through by their actions.”

The court was also told that the youngster had been driven to robbery because he not only ‘envied the material possessions of his friends” but also wanted to reduce the financial burden on his family, who were having to pay for private tuition for him as his school grades were declining”.

Anyway, sense and reason aside, if GTA V is responsible for all crime during its launch week is it also responsible for everyone who decided to get a haircut? Or go mountain biking in the hills? Or visit the beach? Or play tennis? Or STOP a robbery? All of which can also be done in GTA V.