Stab boy

This disturbed me. On the front page of my Yahoo Mail, the main news headline was 'Life meaningless' without stab boy.


'Stab boy', otherwise occasionally known as Seydou Diarrassouba, was murdered in London last Monday, as the news article explains. His family shared their grief in a press statement:

"This is a very difficult time for our family and we would really appreciate to be given the chance to grieve privately and honour his memory. Whoever took his life took our backbone away.

"Seydou kept us upright and now we feel weak as we have lost a very special part of us. Life seems meaningless without our special son and brother."

After reading this heartfelt elegy from his distressed loved ones, the Yahoo news editor still thought that 'stab boy' was an appropriate way to commemorate Diarrassouba.

I mean, I know that his surname is unfamiliar-looking to most of the British public, but 'stab boy'? It sounds like the name of some kind of depraved super villain.

First of all, he was 18 years old, which makes him a man, not a boy. Also, if anything it should be 'stabbed'. Are we so eager for bite-sized news that we can't spare time for three extra letters which don't even add up to another syllable?

Normally the peculiarly succinct English of tabloid headlines is just another interesting adaptation of language to a specific media. This example stuck out because it seemed so heartless, especially when juxtaposed with the words 'life meaningless'. It sounds almost sarcastic. Imagine the family saying:

"Stab Boy kept us upright and now we feel weak as we have lost a very special part of us. Life seems meaningless without our special son and brother, Stab Boy."

This isn't print media, where every inch of headline costs money; surely the Yahoo news editor doesn't need to trivialise someone's existence for the sake of economy. How about 'Life meaningless' without Oxford Street murder victim? Or what about even using his actual name?