It’s compare and contrast time again.

Yesterday’s edition of The Times reports that London bomb victim lied about rape history.

Garri Holness, who lost part of a leg in the July 7th Islamist terror attacks in London, formerly known as Gary Linton, is revealed as a convicted rapist, guilty, along with six others, of a brutally violent gang sex attack on two sixteen year old schoolgirls in 1985.

Recalling the prominence afforded to Holness recently by a number of BBC programmes, I looked for their coverage of this story. After searching for it, I found Rape past of London bomb victim.

Not surprisingly (to readers of Biased BBC at least), the story had long since been removed from BBC Views Online’s index pages. When it was featured though, it didn’t make News Online’s front page (home to plenty of trivia at the best of times), and was, instead, hidden in the England section, itself below the UK section. Another case of blink and you’ll miss it, but you can’t (quite) say that they haven’t covered it.

Also not surprisingly, The Times report of the story, though not that much longer than the BBC’s, is sharper and more detailed than the BBC’s passive effort, including such facts as:

• Holness’ gang history as ‘Star’ of the ‘Young Raiders’;

   

• The £50,000 that Holness deems inadequate compensation for his injury, in contrast to the £13,500 compensation for victims of rape (elsewhere, News Online quotes Holness saying “I am going to need financial security for the rest of my life” – losing a leg is bad, but Holness, a musician, apparently reckons it’s a meal ticket for life);

   

• Holness lied to the Daily Mail, claiming that he had been cleared on appeal;

And last, but not least:

• Holness was paid £700 by the BBC to appear in six programmes charting his recovery.

None of which, it seems, the BBC deems worthy of bringing to telly-taxpayers attention, and certainly not for any length of time.

P.S. See also today’s update to my post from Monday, below.