Death Drive for Daughter

~ Midnight + 1 ~

This is one of those stories to savour and re-read and just let the whole ghastliness seep in.

The black humour of it all surpasses the best scripting:

'Devoted' father Edward Goddard (that's him over there looking like some Incredible String Bandista) 'accidentally' kills his daughter trying to 'teach her a lesson' for asking for a late-night lift home.

By God, isn't that what we try to ram home to our kids?

Not to try anything silly

Not to assume we'll be angry

To count on parents.

At any hour?

And at what awful hour did she inconvenience her dad that she deserved being disciplined with"catastrophic head injuries"?

Dreaded 4am?

Dastardly 5am perhaps?

Nope - 1am.

One hour after midnight and you couldn't find the patience to bring her home safely?

You asinine creep - I hope they gave you the news real slow and turned the knife with equal patience at each sentence.

Oh poh poh - I woulda loved that job as you came to.

Le Bon Dieu planned it well there, boyo.

"He was annoyed at being called out at short notice at that time of night."

He didn't even give her the chance to wear a seatbelt for this little lesson.

This is the bit where I started smiling, where I read that Goddard himself had incurred head and spinal injuries and was unconscious for 12 days. That would have been a star-studded awakening.

Can you imagine the titters and expectation among the medical staff? They shoulda filmed it for YouTube; you don't get this sort of thing in the Vicarage Pantomime

"Goddard had no memory of the crash or the events leading up to it when he emerged from unconsciousness." Well, I guess we have to give him the benefit of the doubt there. But what a juicy sight to watch his expression change as they rubbed in what he hath wrought.

Jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for five years? I suppose that's enough to be going along with, time for it to sink in, yeh? But still lacks a certain imagination.

If I was the Beak I'd've ordered the culprit bollard cast in some cheap silver - dents and all - and presented to Goddard for placing amid the garden gnomes.

Snopesy comments - most as ill-considered as Goddard's original goof