Welcome to Vice City

Fatal stabbings, sex games gone wrong, citizens involved with armed robbery and pot-smoking students. These are the stories hitting the local headlines in Bournemouth. They may even be similar to the archetypal reports across the rest of the nation. That is, except for one important exception. These are all close to home.

This isn't post-modern revelling in Bournemouth's murky underworld nor a puritanical critique. This is just life and the current state of affairs in a town beset by scandal, intrigue and circulating rumours.

After an initial ban on releasing details of the deceased in the ongoing Moordown stabbing case, the Daily Echo appealed to the courts and more information has been released.

Mahmud Ibrahim Bakir, a 28-year-old man from Wimborne Road, Bournemouth, near the scene of the crime, has been charged with the murder of 20-year-old Kewen Khorsheed in the early hours of the fateful morning of Thursday 27 January.

Along with three other men, Bakir will appear at Winchester Crown Court on Monday 7 February.

Bournmouth man Anthony Bado was involved in a criminal gang responsible for the theft of watches and jewellery worth more than £3.5 million. The spate of robberies, mainly across southern England, led to Bado of St. Clements, Boscombe, being jailed for 12 years.

Meanwhile, another murder case filling column inches has been that of Julie Bywater, 32, last May. She was allegedly strangled by ex-boyfriend Alan Pickersgill, 37, a trainee masseur who had become obsessed with Ms Bywater after their brief relationship fizzled out.

Pickersgill, of Southbourne, Bournemouth, had invited Bywater to his flat where the incident took place. He claims the murder was a result of a 'sex game gone wrong', a strangulation intended to generate erotic pleasure at the point of asphyixiation rather than a cold, brutal murder by an obsessive, as portrayed by Anthony Donne QC, prosecuting.

As that case continues, Bournemouth residents have also been regailed with accounts of the explusion of 'a number of students' from the Bishop of Winchester school in Mallard Road, Bournemouth.

The familiar cause of their exclusion-hash, blow, pot, weed, cannabis, green, the herb. Although the school was not prepared to expand on the exact reasons for their actions or the number of pupils permanently excluded, Principal Paul McKeown said: “The academy is determined to demonstrate zero tolerance towards behaviour that threatens children’s safety.

“As a consequence, it is with regret that a small number of students involved in this isolated incident will be permanently excluded,” he told the Echo.

These are the narratives of modern-day Bournemouth. From the bunga-bunga parties of sleepy Winton back streets to the drink and drug induced haze of Charminster Road, the local media has had much to ponder in the trickle of newsworthiness to emerge recently. This is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. This is Vice City. Keep looking.