The murder of Moira Jones
The murder of Moira Jones in Glasgow's Queens Park. We ask why no one helped when witnesses nearby heard screaming from the park.
One of the many cases that has shocked the city of Glasgow in recent times was the murder of business woman, Moira Jones. It was on the 29th of May in 2008 when Moira had just left her boyfriend’s apartment and was heading home to where she lived on Queens Drive in the southside of the city. Moira was approached by a man and she was abducted. She was forced across the busy road into the nearby Queens Park where she would be subjected to an unimaginable, violent assault that culminated in her rape and murder.
The following day, Moira’s possessions were discovered strewn across the grass then her half naked body was found by park workers under a bush. The police were quickly notified and the park was closed down to the public and a murder investigation was launched. During door to door enquiries the police interviewed a local resident named Lucie Pechtlova who told them she had a Slovakian male staying with her who had recently moved to the city from Liverpool. She notified officers that she had been concerned with his behaviour and particularly on the night of Moira’s murder. Pechtlova told officers the male had been drinking heavily and became aggressive with her before storming out of the flat, telling her he was going out to find “whores”.
This was obviously of great concern to the officers and a forensic examination of the flat was ordered. DNA found from bedsheets in the flat were compared to the DNA found at the crime scene, they found a match and the hunt to find Marek Harcar began.
Police who were forming their case against Harcar would soon realise he had already fled the country. A few days later, a European arrest warrant was granted by the Edinburgh Sheriff Court and contact was made with the Slovakian authorities to arrange for him to be arrested. The following day, Harcar was detained and brought back to Scotland to face trial. A digital camera belonging to Moira would be found during a search of his home.
Marek Harcar was eventually found guilty of Moira’s murder and sentenced to at least 25 years before being considered for parole.
It was at the trial when further details of Moira’s murder began to emerge. Shockingly it was revealed that at least four witnesses heard Moira screaming from the park that night yet no one chose to act or seek help. One witness was so concerned by the screams, he noted the time on his phone and said to his partner, “If there has been a murder then we’ve just heard it”.
Another witness who was walking his dog in the park at the time, heard a woman scream “stop it” and went to investigate. He then encountered who we now know to be Harcar sitting on wet ground and staring intently under a bush. The witness explained during his evidence that he felt like someone else was under the bush but he decided to leave the park and didn’t intervene.
The murder of Moira Jones in Glasgow shows some worrying similarities to the now infamous New York murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Kitty was stabbed to death on a street outside of her home by a man named Winston Moseley. It was reported in the New York Times that the murder was witnessed by up to 38 people and this sparked huge debates about why despite so many witnesses no one intervened. The murder prompted interest from social psychologists who sought to provide an understanding for this lack of helping behaviour.
Psychologists Latane and Darley (1969) began creating experiments to find a possible explanation. Their experiments involved participants being subjected to some form of emergency scenario such as smoke filling a room while participants completed a questionnaire or an actor pretending to choke in front of them. In general, they found that participants were more likely to report the apparent emergency situation when alone than when joined with other participants in the room. Piliavin et al (1981) suggested this was a result of “social influence”, citing that we are likely to look to others in the face of an emergency and use other people’s reactions to help them understand the situation.
In the Moira Jones case, referring back to the witness who stated, “If there has been a murder then we’ve just heard it”, there is a suggestion that social influence was at play here. On giving his evidence and describing the moment he heard Moira’s scream, Frederick Graham said “It struck me as if someone was frightened.” Mr Graham then advises that he asked his partner if she too had heard the screams. His partner is said to have replied, “You know what the park is like with kids”. Mr Graham took no further action other than to note the time on his phone.
Darley and Latane (1968) also discussed a process termed “diffusion of responsibility”. This process explains that when other people are present, or believed to be present in a helping situation, the individual responsibility for helping is shared amongst the others. The psychologists also formulated a decision model of helping behaviour where each point in the model must be satisfied before helping will occur:
1) Notice the event
2) Interpret as an emergency
3) Decide they are personally responsible
4) Decide how they might help
5) Implement that help.
As a result of testing this model they found that people are simply less likely to respond to emergencies if there are others available. This is known as the “bystander effect”.
In regards to the Moira Jones case, the witnesses being described are likely to have stumbled on the decision model at points two and three. For Frederick Graham, evidence suggests he stopped at point two on the model as he was socially influenced by his partner when the emergency situation was downplayed. Other witnesses may have stopped at point three. Queens Drive, where Moira was abducted from, is a busy area of the city so witnesses may have assumed that someone else would raise the alarm or indeed someone closer might help.
One witness may have reached point four and to an extent point five. Steven Hanson who heard Moira shout “stop it”, went to investigate and saw Harcar smoking and staring into a bush. Hanson reported being extremely disturbed by what he saw and left the park. On returning home Hanson made a series of sketches illustrating the man he had seen in the park. Is it possible Hanson felt in danger too? A genetic approach by Dawkins (1976) suggests we as humans are “survival machines” so this may well explain why Hanson’s helping behaviour could only go so far.
Social psychology has provided some form of explanation as to why witnesses may not always come forward to help in emergency situations. Although the theories above are somewhat dated, they have formed the basis for further, more recent study in the area with many more factors now being considered in the debate. This will of course provide no comfort to the family of Moira Jones and indeed other families who have suffered in similar circumstances.
Since the murder of Moira Jones, her family have set up The Moira Fund, a charity that helps families bereaved by murder or manslaughter. The fund provides financial assistance supporting families with costs such as funerals, counselling and respite. An annual fun run takes place in Queens Park in memory of Moira and gives the charity an opportunity to raise money for the fund. If you’d like to donate or find out more about The Moira Fund, please click the link below.