Tragic event undeserving of insensitive journalism

ONE would have thought that lessons would have been learned following the death of Liam Lawlor, in which scurrilous and inaccurate reports were proliferated to satisfy public appetite for the lowest common denominator in news.

One would have thus thought and hoped that an emotionally loaded event like Wayne O’Donoghue’s sentencing might have been afforded the professional attention to detail that ought to be the hallmark of journalism.

Instead, a large proportion of people following the case were convinced, without legal justification, that that safety net for all sloppy journalists - sexual deviancy - was a virtually proven part of the tragedy.