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Killer blamed his broken home
Paul Cheston4 Mar 2009
Knife-obsessed Karl Bishop tried to blame his broken home for making him "an angry kid."
Bishop, 21, was treated by a child psychologist and attended a prison calming course in a vain attempt to control his fury.
He lived in Sidcup with his mother, who worked at a taxi firm yards from the Metro Bar where he killed and wounded in a violent frenzy.
His father left home when he was young and he was expelled from his primary school in Chislehurst. After two years at secondary school and a short-lived mechanics course at Bromley College he finished his formal education at 15.
By then he had already started his criminal career. "I haven't seen my father in years. I had problems with my anger. I was a very angry kid when I was younger," he told the jury.
Repeated appearances at the juvenile court for criminal damage and theft suddenly escalated as his love of knives developed.
"Why do I carry a knife? It's protection, innit," he said blithely. He spent time in a young offender institution after pleading guilty to a knife assault in 2004 which left another man with a chin wound requiring five stitches.
On his release, the only time he worked was for a few months with an air conditioning firm and a spot of window cleaning.
Apart from that his life consisted of living with his mother, claiming benefits and drinking. "Whenever I could I was drinking to get drunk, proper lagged," he said.
Reader views (1)
And the appropriate sentence?
- Leigh Oats, Sydney, Australia, 05/03/2009 00:47
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