Scottish Television has aired a programme about the racist murder of white schoolboy Kriss Donald — a day after a black transgender model ranted “all white people benefit from racism” on the BBC.
The Science of Murder episode ‘Killers on the Run’, which aired on Channel 3, recounted the case of Kriss Donald, a 15-year-old white schoolboy whose brutal killing at the hands of a Pakistani gang led to Scotland’s first-ever trial for a racially-motivated murder.
Just one day previously, black transgender model Munroe Bergdorf had ranted that “all white people benefit from racism [through] white privilege” on the Victoria Derbyshire programme — a platform given to her by the BBC after L’Oreal Paris UK sacked her for declaring “[the white] race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth”.
Kriss was set upon and dragged into a car in March 2004 by Imran ‘Baldy’ Shahid, Daanish Zahid, Zeeshan Shahid, Mohammed Faisal Mustaq, and Zahid Mohammed, who targeted him because he was white.
The gang drove the teenager around for hours trying to find a place to torture him. They eventually brought him to woodland near Celtic football club’s training grounds, held him down over a pile of logs, and stabbed him thirteen times, before drenching him in petrol and setting him on fire.
Kriss was still alive when this was done, and he dragged himself some distance towards the nearby River Clyde before succumbing to his very extensive injuries.
“He looked very small,” recalled forensic scientist Pauline McSorley for the Scottish Television programme. “In fact, he was a child at that time; he was 15, and it was a very, very bleak sight.”
The programme recalled how Kriss had pleaded “I’m only 15, why me?” with his attackers when they pounced on him as he walked down the street with friend Jamie Wallace, who was told: “Do you know what pain is? You’re next.”
Ringleader Imran Shahid was ultimately identified using DNA from the lining of a leather jacket he attempted to burn in the abduction vehicle, but was not brought to justice for over a year, having fled to Pakistan with two of his accomplices.
Zahid Mohammed, a convicted criminal who was wearing an electronic tag and had to be home in time for curfew, had been dropped off by the gang prior to the actual murder, and was released after serving just two-and-a-half years for his part in it.
Mainstream media — particularly the BBC — was criticised for offering little more than fleeting coverage of the case, despite its exceptional and ultra-violent nature.
Peter Fahy, then Chief Constable of Cheshire and a spokesman on race issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, conceded two years later that the media were not much interested in white murder victims.
“The political correctness and reluctance to discuss these things absolutely does play a factor,” he admitted.
“The difficulty in the police service is that the whole thing is being closed down because we are all afraid of discussing any of it in case we say the wrong thing — and that is not healthy.”
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