The Strange Case of Digby Bamford

15th of March 1964 a school boy in New South Wales, Australia, committed suicide, shortly after being expelled from school. His name was Digby Bamford, he was 13 years old. Bamford was expelled from school after it emerged he had been involved in 'promiscuity' with another pupil, there was an uproar in the local community and both Bamford and his girlfriend were expelled. Digby Bamford was found dead the following morning.

19th July 2011 was the day Rupert Murdoch claimed was the most humbling of his life. He was sitting before a parliamentary committee who where asking him questions with regards to the phone hacking scandal that shocked much of the nation. Murdoch claimed he was shocked that his publications and people in his employ were guilty of such a heinous crime. Both he and his son, James, claimed to disapprove of the phone hacking scandal.

The revelations concerning Digby Bamford emerged on the 12th of March 1964 on the front page of the Sydney Daily Mirror, a paper that was acquired by Murdoch earlier that year. Bamford and his girlfriend where subject to a local scandal when the information emerged, information that was acquired from the secret diary of Bamford's girlfriend. Journalists under Murdoch's direct employ had discovered the information about these school children which not only led to the expulsion of the two children, but ultimately to the suicide of a 13 year old boy.

Rupert Murdoch has been embroiled fully in the phone hacking scandal and has seen politicians which once went to great lengths to court his favour, now reject him. He went from being as popular as Gary Glitter in 1977 to being as popular as Gary Glitter in 2007. Murdoch claimed to have made mistakes, ones in which he had no direct involvement, ones which where the fault of employees he had no contact with, ones which he disapproved of, ones which he would never have done.

It would be trite of me to claim that Murdoch's involvement in the suicide of Digby Bamford was anything more than an unfortunate mistake. Rupert did not know that Bamford would commit suicide over the scandal and perhaps it was due to his memories of the Bamford situation that he felt so appalled with the phone hacking. One suicide, at the very start of his media career, is not reason enough to suspect him of wrongdoing. No, in all likelihood Murdoch felt deeply about Bamford's suicide, and (after an extensive cover up which lasted until the mid-seventies) vowed never to make such a mistake again.

Samantha MacAlpine may disagree with me. Well perhaps she would do if she where still alive. In 1977 MacAlpine was embroiled in a sex scandal involving BBC employees which was revealed by our favourite paper; The News of the World. Samantha was 15 years old. The News of the World revealed details of Top of the Pops presenters having sex with the young music fans, revelations which emerged from the secret diary of Samantha MacAlpine. The very next day Samantha committed suicide. A post-mortem revealed MacAlpine, who's name had been dragged through the mud, to be a virgin. A police enquiry lay the full blame for the suicide on Murdoch's News of the World. Both of these pieces of information where hidden by Murdoch after he curried favour with rival papers to prevent these revelations from emerging. Let us learn from our mistakes.