Murderer Uses Google Earth to Target Victim
A British woman has been murdered after a heroin addict used Google Earth to pick out the target for a burglary.
A burglar in the United Kingdom used Google Earth to target an elderly woman in her 80's. Steven Hodgson is said to have broken into Patricia Thompson's home and tortured her until she gave him her bank PIN number. Once he had her bank information he killed her, filled two suitcases with her jewelry and other valuables and phoned for a taxi.
London's Telegraph this week reports that 33-year-old Stephen Hodgson checked out the neighbourhood on Google Earth two days before breaking into Thompson's home. Files found on his computer by police indicate he spent time looking at aerial images showing a corner of the sheltered accommodation where Patricia lived. Mr. Hodgson is said to have selected Patricia's home because it was 'an easy target.'
"You knew the house was occupied by an old lady, that’s one of the reasons why you deliberately targeted it," said Mr. Justice Davis at the trial. "I can detect at no stage the slightest degree of remorse on your part at the death of this lovely woman. You are a very dangerous man."
Hodgson was unanimously convicted of murder and burglary after a six-day trial in Teesside Crown Court. He has been ordered to serve at least 34 years of a life sentence before being considered for release.
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yet another casualty due to the internet.
what a creep,
but how did he find out that an 84 year old woman lived there from google earth?
They ought to tack on a death sentence for creepiness...I could understand 34 years for something done out of rage, but this is some serious shit.
and he could have just drove by and looked...
I just hope other crazy people with internet do not get this idea.
dear god I can see it now.. like every freaken privacy advocate will jump on this like a tick on a dog.. They act like he could of just drove by their house when they weren't home and took pictures..
Yep, the Internet is evil. We already knew that. I suspect this crime will be the basis for more government spying and another lame TV movie.
what a creep,but how did he find out that an 84 year old woman lived there from google earth?
he didn't....
he probably found some random old lady living near him, followed her to her house to get the address, looked up the address on Google Earth, then "researched" what the surrounding area of he woman's house was like...
it's not all that different from walking up/driving up to a house to find out more information...he was just being more "high tech" by going online to stakeout his target....
34 years u cant be serious, shoot him in the head, burn his body, lock his ashes up and throw out the key. thats ridiculous.
The only reason this is such a big deal is because Google is some how connected. If the guy would have studied the streets with a Rand McNalley map you wouldn't even be reading this.
In other news: Burglars check out every inch of a pre meditated job using their eyes. I don't see how google earth helped him pick this target. He probably noticed it in real life, then checked it out some more.
Do they not have the death penalty there? Just execute him and be done with it. 34 years with a chance at parole seems pretty light.
...no one has blamed Google Earth yet, shocker!
Glad people are seeing if there's a will theres a way, and it's not only technology that's to blame.
Do they not have the death penalty there? Just execute him and be done with it. 34 years with a chance at parole seems pretty light.
By "there" i assume you mean the UK, and thankfully no, we don't have the death penalty. The murderer is clearly F*&cked up, and he is now in prison. This crime is clearly involving alot of problems that our society has to deal with. Sadly, executing him will not solve any of them.
Capital punishment is remarkably ineffective, in fact, the countries with the highest murder rates all have capital punishment. I'm not saying one causes the other, but clearly, one is not preventing the other either.
I swear, what the heck is wrong with the world's system of justice? Why in god's name would they let him live, and eventually let him free, for what he did? Back in the old days, you would have been shot on sight after doing something like this, but now of course, we have to give you a fair chance to have someone try to make it sound like nothing happened in court. In my mind, there's nothing at all to explain about it - you killed someone. You should now be killed in return. Heck, execution is even painless these days; you should be tortured first, and THEN shot.
I'm sure people will rate this down because they feel that killing people is wrong, but tell that to the poor old lady who was shot for no reason whatsoever in her own home, and to her family who lost her. If someone killed your parents in their own house, would you still want the killer to get 35 years in prison for it?
Just my $0.02 on the subject...
I hate the media, its not like you see
"Child pornographer uses Sony SLR camera to take indecent images of children"
or
"Terrorists use Apples iphone to communicate"
such headlines do nothing but give a negative image and sometimes imply collaboration or intention. Seriously what could google earth tell him that just looking at the house wouldnt? i bet all he did was look it up once just to see what the garden was like or something. You imply that the crime couldnt have happened without the aid of google earth but i'm sorry but i dont believe that
Ban Google Earth! It's the only way to be safe!
Well, what other conclusion am I supposed to come to? The media's war on Google is 100% right, 100% of the time!
He should be sent to death. I mean seriously after all he got did he even have to kill her for Christs sake? People like this should just be removed from society rather than wasting tax payers moeny to keep them alive in a jail cell for their ow screw ups in life.
This is why people should keep at the least one dog. My grandmother keeps a pitbull and a 45mag along with a few other back ups in case of this.
By "there" i assume you mean the UK, and thankfully no, we don't have the death penalty. The murderer is clearly F*&cked up, and he is now in prison. This crime is clearly involving alot of problems that our society has to deal with. Sadly, executing him will not solve any of them.Capital punishment is remarkably ineffective, in fact, the countries with the highest murder rates all have capital punishment. I'm not saying one causes the other, but clearly, one is not preventing the other either.
Have fun paying taxes for a murderer. Probably costs more than the average yearly salary to keep him holed up in there. Capital punishment for many people isn't so much about preventing the crime, it's about preventing having criminals leeching money from the people for the rest of their lives.
I see it as less of a story to bash Google than a way of incorporating this story into a tech news site.
I hate the media,... such headlines do nothing but give a negative image and sometimes imply collaboration or intention.
right on the head. more people need to look critically, and be like 'whats wrong with this', and actually think for themselves
this just in, murderer used car to get to victims house, DOWN WITH CARS!!!
seriously people, if it exists i can be used for evil. just look a candy and vans.
I hate the media, its not like you see"Child pornographer uses Sony SLR camera to take indecent images of children"or"Terrorists use Apples iphone to communicate"such headlines do nothing but give a negative image and sometimes imply collaboration or intention. Seriously what could google earth tell him that just looking at the house wouldnt? i bet all he did was look it up once just to see what the garden was like or something. You imply that the crime couldnt have happened without the aid of google earth but i'm sorry but i dont believe that
no, u will find that iphone actually diagnosed someone with appendicitis and saved his life.
really, its just media hype. and a not so subtle jab at Google.
I agree with most people here....the death penalty should have been given. 34 years should be given for a robbery with an accidental death, a little less (25 or so for rage [aka temporary insanity]....without it being robbery though), and death for anything premeditated. I mean come on, its not like he just killed her, he tortured this poor lady....he is scum.
I wonder what type of car he drove there with or scoped the place out.. Maybe we can blame Sony for the camera he used and ford for the car too.. LOL
By "there" i assume you mean the UK, and thankfully no, we don't have the death penalty. The murderer is clearly F*&cked up, and he is now in prison. This crime is clearly involving alot of problems that our society has to deal with. Sadly, executing him will not solve any of them.Capital punishment is remarkably ineffective, in fact, the countries with the highest murder rates all have capital punishment. I'm not saying one causes the other, but clearly, one is not preventing the other either.
One reason for capital punishment has nothing to do with solving the problem, and you are completely correct. There is a problem and this just shows that we as a society needs to address it and try to prevent this. Although keep in mind that this is a more rare circumstance (heroin addict...this is not an average person to start with). Anyways one reason for capital punishment is that the person is truly beyond repair. So you get rid of him so that he is not released into the general public and do this again.
Ok, how long has this kind of behavior been going on? For Eons. This is ONNNNNNE person out of 8 billion people on the planet that has been actually caught using Google Earth as a tool for destruction. Such corny bullshit.
uk is stupid, so is the judge, but i guess he is just following uk's stupid law. Jail for life, instead of death is the only acceptable compromise (stupid law so the people will have to pay for it), 34 years and possible release, there is no justice.
By "there" i assume you mean the UK, and thankfully no, we don't have the death penalty. The murderer is clearly F*&cked up, and he is now in prison. This crime is clearly involving alot of problems that our society has to deal with. Sadly, executing him will not solve any of them.Capital punishment is remarkably ineffective, in fact, the countries with the highest murder rates all have capital punishment. I'm not saying one causes the other, but clearly, one is not preventing the other either.
I wish more of my fellow Americans realized this... until that and some other changes are made here, we'll keep our murder rate in the 5-figure area.
Absolute bullshit, i can also garauntee you even though it states minimum of 34 years he will be out in much less. He will also no doubt launch countless appeals for his sentance at extra cost to us taxpayers not to mention the total cost of keeping him in there.
Kill the evil scum, thats what i say.