Free Children Who Kill: Profiles of Pre-Teen and Teenage Killers by Carol Anne Davis Page B

he was clearly second best to her friends. So he’d answer in monosyllables and she’d shout at him some more and further alienate him. He’d end up watching TV with her in complete silence or escaping to the privacy of his room.
    Not that his room was as private as he’d have liked it to be. His mother often checked up on him and took away some of his pocket money if his bedroom wasn’t immaculate. If she found one of his toys or games out of place she’d throw it out and refuse to let him fetch it from the trash.
    Desperately lonely and bored, Luke often took a large packet of crisps up to his room with him. It was one of his few pleasures, given that he knew he’d be picked on again by his schoolmates the following day. At other times his mother gave him fattening snacks to cheer him up then criticised his expanding girth. As his size increased he became even more clumsy. Hiseyesight was also worsening and his mother got him heavy-rimmed glasses which further contributed to his already old fashioned look.
    Every area of Luke’s life was going wrong. Mary Anne now worried so much about cash that she refused to allow him to leave scraps of food on his plate. Once he threw some leftovers in the bin and she pulled them out and made him eat them. Like many such parents, she seemed unable to put herself in her son’s place, to recognise that he needed love and respect. His life consisted of church with his mother and of being home alone or with her there, nagging at him. He had no friends and no fun and was old before his time.
    A photograph taken of him at age ten shows how unreasonably he was expected to dress. His hair is cut so short that it looks like he has the receding hairline of a fifty-year-old. He’s peering through the previously -described glasses and wearing a white jacket, shirt and tie. The fact that he’s several stones overweight adds to this impression of someone who is prematurely aged – and his tension is evident from the set of his mouth. It’s as if Mary Anne has subconsciously tried to turn him into the husband that she’d permanently lost. In the photograph he has his hand on her shoulder but she’s half turned away from him, her older son on her other side, smiling at something that the camera can’t see.

Never good enough
    Mary Anne was very interested in Luke’s education but she showed it in an unhelpful way, going to the school if she thought that his grades weren’t good enough. If he got a B, she criticised him for not getting an A. With his IQ of 115, Luke was reasonably bright but was no genius.
    Parents who put academic pressure on their children often find that the child’s grades slip – and Luke was no exception. Learning, which could have been an escape from the physical bullying of his schoolmates, had become a chore.
    Mary Anne would nag Luke about his studies at night and would check his homework before taking him to school in the morning. She also nagged him about his diet, the state of his bedroom and his gardening chores. By now he was silently fighting back, saying that he’d cut the lawn then only cutting a little strip down the centre of the grass. Suburban gardening standards being high, the source of conflicts were endless, a creatively trimmed lawn starting the equivalent of World War Three. Neighbours were used to the shouting, but on at least one occasion they heard terrified screams coming from the house and informed the social services. But Mary Anne opened the door and insisted everything was fine so the authorities went away.
    In fairness, her own life was increasingly under stress. Her part time teaching salary was too small to support herself and her sons so she’d switched to a full-time job as a receptionist. This meant starting workearly, so she had to take her sons to school even earlier. This was also difficult for Luke as it meant he was at school – a place he feared and hated – for well over an hour before his first class. To help pass