Many sympathetic comments under the Daily Mail article, some apparently from people who knew him.

- Daily Mail: Headmaster, 60, at £20,340-a-year Danes Hill private school is found dead in woods near his £2million Surrey home - days after arrest 'for sex assault on an adult victim'

- SurreyLive: Head teacher found dead in Surrey woodland had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault

- Danes Hill School announcement: W. Murdock

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday (February 16), seen by SurreyLive, Vernon Educational Trust, which manages the school, confirmed that Mr Murdock had been the subject of a police investigation.

The letter, written by chair Hugh Monro, said: "I regret to inform you that, in the days prior to his death, Mr Murdock had been the subject of an investigation by Surrey Police and had been suspended from his role as Head.

"It is important to reassure you that the allegations did not concern children or any child safeguarding matter."

Surrey Police subsequently confirmed that the force received an allegation of sexual assault on Friday, February 5. The offence, involving an adult victim, is alleged to have taken place on Friday, January 29.

A spokesperson said: "A 60-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and subsequently released on conditional bail."
Past discussion on teacher suicides following sex crime charges, including two in Surrey when MWT was on the force:

www.kingofhits.co.uk/component/option,co...w/id,190630/catid,2/

I wish they would be more careful with language - "adult complainant" would be accurate "adult victim" is presupposition before due process. Words matter; a lot.

They set the tone and get into our heads. I won't start on Covid coverage as I know it puts you off Jo; but the same thing applies.

I agree, Wyot. That choice of words very much skews things.

Jo wrote:
I agree, Wyot. That choice of words very much skews things.

And it is completely deliberate. They have had the difference pointed out to them repeatedly, so there is no excuse for it.

Hard to believe it's not deliberate, since journalists choose words for a living, but perhaps not all of them, or their editors, are particularly fussy, especially if the general assumption is that anyone who makes an accusation is telling the truth.

Another aspect to the ubiquitous use of the word "victim" is that a lot of genuine victims object to being labelled by the word for life. It can feel like a perpetual semantic (further) control exercised over them by the perpetrator.

Those claimants with a financial motivation will want this label and no other will do.

Wyot wrote:
I wish they would be more careful with language - "adult complainant" would be accurate "adult victim" is presupposition before due process. Words matter; a lot.

They set the tone and get into our heads. I won't start on Covid coverage as I know it puts you off Jo; but the same thing applies.

Not sure if it's slackness or deliberate but exactly the same is happening in Oz over alleged sex assault in Parliament House in Canberra 2 years ago with now 4 people making similar claims (one says accused tried to kiss her..devastating)

Seemingly sane normal experienced journalists and "celebrities" simply accepting claims as made ( I wouldn't have a clue) calling the accused a "rapist" and so on.

Apparently the accused has checked into a psychiatric clinic (who wouldn't?) and some of the same media offenders are weaving the Cardinal Pell (now enjoying retirement in a Vatican apartment and regular lunches / dinners at fab Rome restaurants) matter into the mix as though his innocent judgment in the High Court was an aberration.

I think it's more to do with the total dumbing down of society and especially the media who use social media to vent their true prejudices.

Needless to say..it's all an attack upon Conservatives who are viewed as "rape apologists".

My thoughts on this are on the Surrey Police thread.

The Oz incidents mentioned are becoming highly political and may possibly delay a general election (with now claims the serious matters were shelved just days before the last GE)..and I couldn't have a clue what the truth is..which frightens me as I've seen it in the recent past in different countries.

While anyone would be an absolute rotter not to have sympathy for a rape victim so many high profile incidents have skewered the thinking of the general public.

I can't stand Donald Trump but he was accused by several women of sexual assault (one matter still happening as an alleged victim is suing him) yet he sailed through the entire scenario. Yet his former pal the late Jeffrey Epstein was crucified in what looks like several former prostitutes making lurid accusations ( and he did break NY law) while the hapless Ghislaine Maxwell rots in prison in what seems (guilty or innocent) the result of a vicious media campaign against her.

It's the media which is in a desperate race to the bottom as the online world of media shapes the future. The media can build you up and tear you down in a heartbeat when they wish.

I've faced the fury of friends who think I'm a great Pell supporter which I'm far from. He comes across to me as a right wing extreme conservative with some really retrograde views (yet I wonder why he such a good and trusted friend of the left wing Pope?).

And the worst offenders? Many in the media and journalists. I was proved spot on before any of them over the prejudicial court cases against Pell (much of it politically driven) but of course hardly alone..seemingly the majority of Victoria's legal fraternity were horrified by the botched Pell case.

In the current Oz matter I've seen some quite big names simply ignore the word "alleged" and steam in as though guilt has already been established.

Yet I can see a real case of any potential prosecutions now being delayed for ages due to prejudicial social media postings and often by those who should know better.

No-one is served well when this happens..not the accused and definitely not victims.

## The way some media personalities are behaving in the Oz matter makes me understand why a genuine victim would be reluctant to come forward immediately and take a couple of years to finally tell their story. The accuser must be now going through mental hell.