Victim's mother seeks ban on violent Net porn

Daughter fell victim to Web-addicted murderer

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 8th March 2004 15:16 GMT

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The mother of murdered schoolteacher Jane Longhurst has today launched a national petition calling for tighter regulation of pornographic content on the Internet.

Seventy-two-year-old Mrs Longhurst wants certain adult pornography, such as that showing violence towards women and necrophilia, outlawed in the same way as images of child sexual abuse.

Mrs Longhurst has recently held talks with home secretary David Blunkett, in a bid to lobby for a change in the law.

Unveiling the campaign today Mrs Longhurst told ITV.com: "We are not asking for everyone to become perfect little angels without a dirty thought in their minds, but we do feel these violent images should be stopped."

Schoolteacher Jane Longhurst, 31, was murdered last year by Scottish musician Graham Coutts.

Coutts, 35, who was a voracious consumer of web sites devoted to snuff movies and necrophilia, was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year.

More than 800 pornographic images were found saved on Coutts' home computer - over three quarters of which showed acts of violence against women. The court also heard that Coutts had accessed violent images the day before Ms Longhurst was murdered in March 2003. ®

Net fuelled killer's necrophiliac lust

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