Raoul Moat’s Funeral In Pictures, Starring Mrs Bystram, The Who And Chelsea
RAOUL Moat has been buried. After the made-for-TV death, the service. The Sun leads with news of his “fans” at his funeral. The Star says on its front page that “Ghouls sob for monster.”
Might these be the ghouls who watch the funeral of a dead killer through a camera lens and then write about those ghouls who came to stare? Or are these the ghouls who place a wreath forming the word “DAD” on a grave?
The Belfast Telegraph says that the 20-minute private service at Newcastle’s West Road Crematorium “attracted a crowd of friends and acquaintances from the killer’s years as a doorman”.
Although we do get to meet mother-of-eight Theresa Bystram, who “travelled on an overnight bus from Weybridge, Surrey”;
Mrs Bystram, who took three of her sons with her, said: “I absolutely loved him. I just think he is a hero and I wanted to pay my respects.”
We are not told is she knew the dead killer in person or through the media.
The Mirror says it know, labelling Bystram one of the “twisted ghouls”. She “had never met the former bouncer was a mother and her three children who travelled nine hours on an overnight coach to be at the service.”
The mother gave this warped explanation for her attendance: “We just felt we needed to come up. We feel Raoul was a legend. We watched it on the news all the way through and we prayed that he wouldn’t get caught. I absolutely loved him… Fair enough people died but they must have deserved it. He didn’t deserve what he got in the end.”
Only one person died – Chris Brown, Sam Stobbart’s lover. Ok, two died, if you included Moat – but Bystram says “people must have deserved it”, so “fair enough”…
The Death In Pictures:
Mrs Bystram is spotted by the Star. She is decked out in funeral weeds of blue Chelsea FC replica kit. The Star makes the link:
She wore a Chelsea shirt bearing a pin badge of the west London club’s notorious firm of hooligans The Headhunters…
Mrs Bystram hought Moat a “hero” for how he was portrayed on the telly and in the news media. As the Mail, which also spots Moat’s ghouls, says:
As the funeral started, the clouds broke and bathed the scene in sunshine. Dressed head to toe in black, several mourners were powerfully-built, looking like body builders or doormen.
It’s a beautiful tableau. It’s as if the Heaven’s welcomed him, right?
Yet again, the only ghouls we meet – the Moat Maniac – is Mrs Bystram and her three children. Although there do seem to be a number of journalists at the scene.
As Moat’s body enters the chapel, The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes is played. The Mail reproduces the lyrics so that readers can sing along:
No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it’s like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That’s never free
And what about that shrine where Moat died? Well, there isn’t one. But what if there were one? What if..? In the Star:
Steven Bridgett, who represents the town on Northumberland County Council, said: “If they do decide to come up here I think it is a silly thing, to be honest.”
So. No-one has turned the place of Moat’s death into a shrine, then.
As the Express reports:
After the service, the Moat family asked for privacy.
Indeed. What more is there to know…
The Life In Pictures
Posted: 3rd, August 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (13) | TrackBack | Permalink
