It's not often that I'm shocked but a crime has taken place here that sounds like some really sick shlocky crime fiction plot. This happened in rural Cornwall, a beautiful part of the country with a fantastic coastline, wonderful scenery but also mass unemployment and deprivation on a huge scale. An unemployed man and his girlfriend were drunk in their house with their kids. They then had a fight [[he had a history of domestic violence) but then he went really berserk. He broke her jaw, her nose and then, almost unbelievably, he gouged out her eyes! THEN he held her and the kids hostage in the house for 12 hours while she screamed in agony! He's going to prison for ever but even so. God almighty how can anyone do that to someone? He isn't insane, the psychs have cleared him to serve prison time so he knew what he was doing. I can't help feeling that unless we [[as in 'we' the world) address the problems inherent in joblessness and lack of education and self worth [[boredom, booze, thwarted dreams, stone age gender politics) then this sort of thing will keep on happening.