Law and Order Game Pulled from UK Shelves Due to Image of Murdered Boy
By Jonathan on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 2:49 PM PST In Computer, Gamer Life
The PC game Law and Order: Double or Nothing has been pulled off of store shelves in the UK following the discovery of an in-game image of a real-life kidnapping. At one point in the game, it seems a CCTV still, pinned to a detective’s wall, is referred to as a visual clue in a fictional kidnapping case. In actuality, the image shows two-year old James Fergus being led away by ten-year olds, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who later murdered him in February 1993. Though the game was released back in 2003, it seems no one noticed this; but when the mother of the boy, Denise Fergus, discovered the image, she called for stores to immediately stop selling the game:
“Using that terrible picture of James as part of a game is sick. To know that he has been turned into a clue in a game makes me very angry. The people who made this game have treated James as though he is public property. It is like they think he is some kind of fictional figure. It dehumanises the memory of my lovely son. I want it stopped immediately.”
I’m hoping this is just a case of a game developer taking a random image without realizing where it came from. I can remember when this story first broke and it was a really big deal, particularly to parents of young children.
I agree that usage of that image was wrong. However I bought this game back in 2003 and the character seen above never brought attention to the image, nor was it involved in the story line.
To actually realise what that was you would’ve had to of been looking for it, I never noticed it before either.
I wonder if they (the devs) even knew it was a real image or just thought it was a stock image of a CCTV feed.
I do notice how before we get all the facts people are on a witch hunt already…
It was James Bulger, not James Fergus as far as i remember.
it was james bulger, however the mothers last name was fergus. thats probably why it was confused. i think that the usage in this computer game is sick and hopefully has been stopped.