BBC Uses Skype Links In Murder Hunt

Nico M writes "The highly publicized UK murder hunt for the serial killer(s) of five young sex workers in Suffolk is using Skype to ask the public for information. BBC News is embedding freephone Skype links to both the police incident room and Crimestoppers UK. Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?"

Sex workers?

[Dan East]

Sex worker, is that the PC term for prostitute?

Dan East

sex workers?

[puto]

Well although my nick is Puto, which is technically male whore in spanish, and for the umpteenth time I am not gay and I know what it means it some countries.

But when in the hell did hookers become "sex workers"? What happened to prostitute?

Whore, escort, streetwalker, lady of the night, etc. Sex workers?

I guess this is like the "sanitation engineers"(garbagemen) or "network engineers"(i got a website and a linksys router and have 15 workstations to manage at work.)

Puto

Re:This is probably a really bad idea

[hjf]

use tor (tor.eff.org) and you're most likely safe.

i cant see them

[Anonymous Coward]

nowhere in the article can i see Skype mentioned or see any Skype links, perhaps the submitter has a Skype BHO (browser helper object) or a Firefox plugin that creates Skype links from phone numbers

iam on WinXP with FF2 and IE7 but i have Skype 2.5 (not the hideous mess called v3.0) perhaps Skype V3.0 installs such a facility by default

Re:Sex workers?

[b0s0z0ku]

I am amazed that so few slashdotters (reading the first 10 posts or so) are unfamiliar with that term. (Do you all live under rocks or something?)

A lot of Slashdotters are American and the term isn't really used in the USA, probably since prostitution is illegal in most parts of the country (excepting Nevada but not Las Vegas city). So terms that "legitimize" it are less likely to be used.

-b.

Why do people suddenly care?

[pembo13]

This women have been suffering for ages now. And have been killed by all sorts of people before. Why do people suddenly care about them? Society is very wierd. I personally think these women needed help long before one dude started taking them out.

Re:Sex workers?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

prostitution is illegal in most parts of the country

Seriously? Illegal? (not just regulated?)

Why is it illegal to sell a (much in demand) service in the land of the free?

Re:Sex workers?

[TapeCutter]

Yep, I will second that. Here in Oz we have something called the sex workers union [google.com]. Personally I think the "deadhookers" tag is extremely bad taste, it is disrespectful toward both the dead and their greiving relatives.

Yeah .. hilarious

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine if every anti-U.S. story on /. were tagged with deadiraqis. The /. left would be up in arms. Dead hookers is ok though. Because you know, they weren't human.

Re:This is probably a really bad idea

[RealGrouchy]

2) You can anonymously use skype from an internet cafe (most have it installed, with mic + headphones these days)

Notwithstanding your other points, if I were concerned about anonymity/privacy, I wouldn't be blabbing about this kind of stuff in an internet cafe.

- RG>

Re:Why do people suddenly care?

[b0s0z0ku]

I personally think these women needed help long before one dude started taking them out.

Agreed, but can you really help them if they don't want to go into drug treatment or maybe even don't think they have a problem? AFAIK, Britain has one of the best systems in this regard anyway, since they'll actively pay for drug treatment for addicts rather than just jailing them.

-b.

Re:Sex workers?

[MichaelSmith]

Agreed about the "legal but voluntary" part. As far as US police, I don't think that they try *that* hard. They may run an occasional sting operation in some cities to look like they're doing something or if the residents of the neighborhood complain, but the law isn't enforced all that severely.

The big advantage of having prostitution legal and recognised as such is that you can require regular checks for STD's, as well as enforce standards for working conditions.

Slashdot's most offensive moments

[gjuk]

So, someone posts a non-story about Skype being used by the police and bbc to report infomration on murdered women. Slashdot users don't discuss the fakeness of the story, or the skype marketing angle, or the future of telecoms. They feel it appropriate to make declarations and guenuinely offensive 'humour' about murdered women.
Seriously, these women may be prostitutes, but the key facts are: 5 people were murdered in a market town in the space of a couple of weeks. These people were people; daughters, mothers, sisters. They were all, I believe, hooked on drugs. And one day they may have got off drugs and enjoyed a normal life. Not now. The fascination some /.ers have shown for the 'sex angle' makes me worry about who I'm associating with here, and says far more about the writers than the victims.

Re: Why do people suddenly care? Answer & Cont

[evilandi]

pembo13: Why do people suddenly care?

The answer: This case involves a large number of murders within a short space of time in a quiet semi-rural area where murders are exceptionally rare and crime very low.

Let's not kid ourselves that anyone (significant) cares about prostitutes, especially not drug-addicted ones. This is about five murders within a fortnight in a middle-class provincial town (100,000 folks). Ipswitch [wikipedia.org], contrary to London-based journalists misunderstanding, doesn't have a "red light district". It has a corner of a road near a truck stop. Not even one whole street. Think almost the furthest town you can imagine from The Bronx. Think Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple".

To give context, the town is only a few miles from where Constable painted The Hay Wain [wikipedia.org], possibly the most famous English countryside scene of all time. Imagine five naked dead women on the banks of that painting- the bodies were found in similar locations. THAT is why people suddenly care, because it is so incredibly unusual given the semi-rural location.

Re:advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA, BBC.co.uk article doesn't mention Skype at all.

Re:Yeah .. hilarious

[odourpreventer]

I don't cry when I chop up the hooker.

Now replace "hooker" with "nigger". Still laughing?

Re:Why yes...

[TheRaven64]

And, of course, not all prostitutes are "sex workers". For example the average CEO...

It's always struck me as a strange comment on our society that those who are willing to sell their bodies are regarded as lower than those who are willing to sell their souls.

Re:Yeah .. hilarious

[Goaway]

I should expand on that: Nobody cared about these women when they were alive. Few people would work up any indignation if they were mocked then. But in death, they are suddenly elevated to this sainthood where making fun of them is absolutely verboten.

This is nothing but hypocricy. Nobody cares about all the prostitutes who die every day just from doing what they do. Nobody cares about the prostitutes who are alive and suffer. Nobody would care about a single murdered prostitute, but when suddenly several of the turn up dead in a short while, it scares people. And they mask their fear for their own lives as concern for those murdered.

The "deadhookers" tag is one of a million jokes that are funny because they pierce the hypocricy, and remind people that normally they don't give a hooker a second thought. And that's why it offends.

Re:Murderers MySpace Profile!

[ear1grey]

Important correction: The man has been arrested on suspicion of the five murders; he is not, unless proven guilty, "the murderer".