http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5367901.ece
You know what pisses me off about the treatment of Stagg? the way he aroused suspicions because he was that most awful thing "a loner" like he was a weirdo because he preferred his own company,wasn't out shagging and on the piss every night ffs
now if he was a proper geezer loike
Yes, as a loner or perhaps more accurately, introvert, I know exactly how this feels. There is such an emphasis on social activities these days that you can easily be seen as something of a weirdo if you want to spend a bit of time on your own when given the choice of socialising instead. I remember despairing when I first heard the idea of book clubs. For goodness sakes, reading a book, you couldn't get a more traditional solitary activity.
Anneli Rufus was very good on this in her book 'Party of One'. She found that the vast majority of people whom the press dub 'loners', invariably only after some sort of serious crime (and nearly always with the suggestion that being a 'loner' was partly why they did it), are in fact usually not loners but lonely people who don't have many friends but want lots of friends. So in fact, ironically, one of there own frustrated extravert brethen.
The worrying aspect about this case is that Stagg appears to fall into the geniune loner category and has therefore got caught up in all of this - possibly partly due to this poor rep that has been culivated for 'loners'. I note the police, on why they targeted him so vigorously, despite having no real evidence, said that he 'fitted the profile given by criminal psychologist'. For me, when I read that I can't help of the 'Daisy Harris murder investigation' sketch from Monkey Dust:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1n9u4LTjtI
"...but the main focus of our invesigation remains, as it was from day one...... does any member of the general public recall the name, or wherebaouts, of *ANY*, local nutter?"
,the old Bill who fitted him up were never charged and prob enjoyed their well pensioned retirement 
