When tragedy hits, Jesus calls us to stand in solidarity

In the face of abhorrent evil, such as the Southport murders or the Nottingham attacks, the desire for revenge is a very natural one, says George Pitcher. But what does it look like to stand together, in hopeful solidarity; to acknowledge the pain and work towards something better?

It’s an all too human instinct to seek vengeance against psychopathic killers, especially those murderers of children and youngsters. If we’re honest, we can all feel a primal urge to inflict, in retribution, the pain, death and suffering that they delivered on victims and their families.

That must be why the murderer of the three little girls at a dance class in Southport - Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King – was reported to have been beaten to a pulp by fellow prisoners. It went momentarily viral with the help of former support-actor Laurence Fox, who writes in short sentences because he thinks in them, claiming he’d heard it “on the grapevine”.

The story was only slightly undermined by such giants of investigative reporting getting the jail where the convicted prisoner is incarcerated entirely wrong.