Death and the maidens

Yvonne O'Brien and Vicky Hall were both brutally murdered, yet the contrast in the way their deaths have been reported in the British media is striking. O'Brien, who was murdered in Majorca in Sep. 1999, has been portrayed as a lonely 44-year-old divorcee searching for love who died after playing masochistic sex games with her killer. Hall, a 17-year-old student, has been portrayed as pretty, vulnerable and innocent. The revelation that Hall had not been sexually assaulted made headline news while the horrors of O'Brien's killing were described in detail. Hall was a 'good' murder victim but O'Brien was not.