Middle-Aged Gamer Assaults Teen Over Black Ops Beatdown

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Middle-Aged Gamer Assaults Teen Over Black Ops Beatdown


A 13-year-old boy got the scare of his life when a middle-aged man he trash-talked in Black Ops tracked him down and "throttled" him.

46-year-old Mark Bradford of the U.K. was getting a rough ride in his online Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Xbox-360/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317403816&sr=8-1] match. The beatdown was bad enough, but it was the inevitable trash-talk from the punk kid who was kicking his ass that really drove him around the bend. But when it finally got to be too much, he didn't take off his headset and stop playing. He went looking for the kid.

And he found him. The boy was at a friend's house not far from Bradford's single-room apartment; Bradford went to the house, entered the room where they were playing, grabbed his tormenter around the throat and started choking him. Fortunately, the boy's mother pulled Bradford away before he could be seriously hurt, although he was still left with scratches and reddening around his neck.

"I was just sat playing. We'd had a bit of a joke and then he stormed in and grabbed me," the boy, who cannot be identified, told the Daily Mail [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043589/PlayStation-gamer-Mark-Bradford-46-throttles-schoolboy-Call-Of-Duty-revenge-attack.html?ito=feeds-newsxml]. "I didn't know what was going on."

"It's pathetic that a grown man would attack a defenseless child like this," his mother added. "If you can't handle losing to a child then you shouldn't be playing games."

Bradford, who has apparently suffered from mental health issues in the past, claimed that he just snapped after playing the game all day. "He was baiting me and baiting me and just would not shut up," he said. "He went on and on and I just lost it. I hold my hands up, I lost the plot. In a moment of madness I went round to his house. I didn't know what I was going to do."

Bradford was apparently able to find the boy because he's a "loosely-connected friend" of the family. He also claimed that he's seen him since and apologized for the incident, and that they still play online together. "He's actually a decent kid," he said.

Bradford pleaded guilty to one count of assault by beating. The court requested a full background report before sentencing, which is set to take place on October 24.


Permalink
 

GiantRaven

New member
Dec 5, 2010
2,423
0
0
I'd wager it equally pathetic for a 13 year old to throw insults at a grown man through a videogame.
 

CM156_v1legacy

Revelation 9:6
Mar 23, 2011
3,997
0
0
EverythingIncredible said:
Call of Duty assaults people.

Can we ban it now?
Call of Duty doesn't assault people. People assault people.
You'll get my video game when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Wait, wrong issue.

OT: Crazy person does crazy thing. Video game is involved. News story.
 

Ariyura

New member
Oct 18, 2008
258
0
0
Wow, I've gotten pissed off at little kids but I've never actually wanted to go out and raise my hands to them.
 

Mrmac23

New member
Aug 12, 2011
213
0
0
A man much older and stronger than you loses to you at a game. You relentlessly taunt him.

These are the situations the phrase "tempting fate" was invented for.
 

Jakub324

New member
Jan 23, 2011
1,339
0
0
Does he know there's a mute function? Does he know his headset isn't sewn to his head? Does he know CoD's ONLY A GAME?
 

Beryl77

New member
Mar 26, 2010
1,599
0
0
I know those brats are really annoying sometimes and I would not have minded if he had just scared the kid but he clearly overstepped the line there.
 

Prof. Monkeypox

New member
Mar 17, 2010
1,014
0
0
GiantRaven said:
I'd wager it equally pathetic for a 13 year old to throw insults at a grown man through a videogame.
Eh... No. 13-year-olds are allowed to be stupid (which is good, because they generally are). Assaulting a 13-year-old, on the other hand, when you are old enough to know better and should be aware of how bratty 13-year-olds are is just sad.

Plus, assault is always worse than trash talking.
 

imnot

New member
Apr 23, 2010
3,916
0
0
Well I think most of us could agree that both the boy and the man where both acting like twats that day.
 

Random berk

New member
Sep 1, 2010
9,636
0
0
Christ, people online are such dicks that fantasizing about giving them a kick in the balls is tempting, but to actually go and hunt down a kid because it? Mental problems indeed.
 

Dango

New member
Feb 11, 2010
21,066
0
0
Well, if they made up and they're actually kind of friends now, I'm happy as long as the guy doesn't get an overly long sentence, or a sentence at all.
 

Beautiful End

New member
Feb 15, 2011
1,755
0
0
Yep, sounds like an average CoD player. I'm not saying everyone is like that; maybe I've just had bad luck when I play. But you know there are some players that take their game too seriously. 'Tis why I prefer to remain anonymously and only befriend real friends. :]

Don't even get me started on those who can't lose to a girl...

Or the fact that now we'll have CoD Elite...

Or that MW3 is coming out...

And Battlefield 3...

And a whole bunch of FPS...

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating.
 

Soviet Heavy

New member
Jan 22, 2010
12,218
0
0
Watch the media disregard his previous mental health condition and blame the game for making him crazy.
 

TheBelgianGuy

New member
Aug 29, 2010
365
0
0
Prof. Monkeypox said:
GiantRaven said:
I'd wager it equally pathetic for a 13 year old to throw insults at a grown man through a videogame.
Eh... No. 13-year-olds are allowed to be stupid (which is good, because they generally are). Assaulting a 13-year-old, on the other hand, when you are old enough to know better and should be aware of how bratty 13-year-olds are is just sad.

Plus, assault is always worse than trash talking.
Maybe if we'd call it "disciplined" instead of "assaulted"... assault is such an ugly word :D
 

stickmangrit

New member
May 30, 2008
57
0
0
see, this is why i miss lan parties so much, and generally hate online console multiplayer. the shit talk tends to get reigned in when it can, at any given moment, escalate into actual physical violence.