Website Used By Montreal Shooter Linked To Other High Profile Murder Cases
Posted September 14, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Twenty-five-year-old Kimveer Gill published several disturbing comments on his blog on vampirefreaks.com, a goth culture site with some 600,000 members that’s been linked to a triple murder in Medicine Hat and the slaying of a 12-year-old boy in Toronto.
In the Alberta case, the two accused – a 23-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl – reportedly started a romance on the site.
And a mistrial was ordered in the “Jonathan” murder case in Toronto after it was learned that a Crown witness may have perjured herself by posting information about the case on the website.
Gill’s pages have been shut down, but according to Maria Hale, CHUM’s V.P. of Content Business Development, vampirefreaks did have rules that could prevent police from taking down the site.
“He does have rules currently … eliminating or not allowing any illegal activity on the site, so without that, without having anything illegal, there’s not a lot that the police can do, other than ask for co-operation from the hosting companies,” she explained.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said it’s impossible to police the entire Internet and said parents will have to play a major regulatory role.
“I’m not sure it’s reasonable to think that we can regulate the worldwide web, but as parents, I think we can take some responsibility within our homes and take an active interest in what our children are doing,” he said.
The Montreal tragedy has also raised concerns about video games available on the Internet, including a game based on a similar rampage in Colorado called Super Columbine Massacre that Gill said he had played.
“They’re very, very common. There are billions of web pages on the Internet. It’s difficult for parents and the police to find. Kids tend to find them quite easily,” Internet expert Rick Broadhead explained.
