What's wrong with the world? someone please tell me. It makes weep when i see how inhuman people can be... True, life should not be wrapped in cotton wool and sterilized , but then, what possible reason would any decent human being have, to call this entertainment? ...

Chris , Cambridge, UK

I really felt for caitlin when i read this. Even without watching the video I felt sick and it was on my mind for days and still is 2 months later. caitlin, did you ever get this out of your head, i do hope so

anne dewing, Reading, UK

I am used to seeing horrific videos and pictures which don't really affect me that badly but this video is the sickest and most horrifying thing i have ever witnessed. The worst thing about it is that the poor man is concious throughout the attack and that he was completely innocent. DON'T VIEW IT!x

Amy, Tipton, West Midlands,

The verdict in this case was delivered on 11 February 2009. Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko received life imprisonment, while Alexander Hanzha (who did not take part in the hammer attack video) received nine years. See the Wikipedia article "Dnepropetrovsk maniacs" for details.

Ian, Paignton, UK

DON'T VIEW THIS VIDEO!
I used to be the inqusitive type, searching for the truth to do with war and propaganda videos, etc. NO MORE, as now I am severely damaged with mania, after seeing this evil film (and I only watched it a little). Surprisingly the killers came from influential normal familys!

Jamsie West, Edinburgh, Scotland

I've also seen the video. Unfortunately I didn't stop it soon enough. By the end of the video my whole body had stiffened, and all I wanted was to hug someone I loved and cry softly. I know human nature makes you want to see it after reading this. Please, you don't want these images in your memory.

Alexander, Wichita, USA

I understand EXACTLY what you are saying in this article. I listened to the 911 call made by Kevin Cosgrove during the 9/11 attacks. I can't get past it.I feel like something fundamental has changed within me. Nothing matters anymore after hearing that final scream.He dies over and over in my head.

J.W., Valdosta, USA

I've seen it. I don't think it will ever leave me. I am sickened beyond what I thought my imagination and movies could ever prepare me for.

Sean, Cardiff, Wales

I saw the exact same video. I didn't make it very far through it. It was a couple months ago as well, I wonder if we got it from the same site.

I can't go back to the point before watching it where I never knew evil. It has permanently changed me.

Laura, Houston,

I had a similar feeling after reading a transcript of a police interview with a child murderer/molester. It is one of the few things in my life I truly wish I had not seen, and I've got a pretty strong backbone. I nauseated for an entire week. Hard to shake something like that off.

Julie, Chattanooga, TN, USA

I was a bit stunned when I turned to caitlin's column, expecting the usual briliant, breezy stuff and read this. I watched some scenes from 'The Passion' on youtube the other evening and they have stayed with me. Good article - up there with her best.

steve wise, bakewell, uk

I haven't seen it and don't want to. I wonder about mainstream media, particularly TV news. We know children are horribly murdered, often by their inadequate parents. When "all the news that is fit to print" held sway we would be spared the vile details, but not now. Every injury is described. Why?

John Andrews, Doncaster, UK

The worst part not mentioned here is the fact that basically these guys did this as a lark, simply because they could. The only justification seems to be, "we were bored."

Sam, Pittsburgh,

Thanks for demonstrating just how sheltered most people's lives are. How can you hope to deal with a problem that you can't even imagine? Try visiting an ER or a burn ward, you'll see just how badly people can suffer. Or maybe you don't want to know?

Donovan, Reno,

It will go away... I've seen people die on the internet and in real life... it's never fun, and i know exactly that lightheaded "high" feeling you're talking about.... some nasty things happen in this world but i just try to focus on the good things

lynstly, Cincy, US

When i was little i used to hang around the hospital my mom worked at.i remember one day in particular extremely vivid.I was walking down the hall and heard people yelling really panicky. So i looked in and watched an elderly man with yellowish hair die 5 feet from me. That look of death is chilling

Ricky, Camano isl., America

I have experienced the same emotions as a result of seeing a murder video. However, the video was shown to me by a giggling teenage relative - who had the video on his phone. I found the image disturbing, but I was equally disturbed by the fact that kids are passing these images around for fun.

Bob, Toulouse, France

Utterly brilliant piece. I've seen and read a lot things on the internet that I wish I hadn't, but inquisitiveness always makes me click. I think these experiences do leave scars that fade with time but never quite go away completely.

Matthew, Oxford, UK

So true!
A few years ago I worked on a medical project and was shown a recorded heart trace. No picture, no idea of whose, no idea of when. I watched as it faltered and could see the dramatic failed attempts to save them. The reality of what I saw deeply moved me then and has stayed with me!

David, Colchester,

Interesting how despite Caitlin's warning, that several people have gone and viewed the video and then regretted it...

Kris, London, UK

Once had a 'friend' say look at this; and push his mobile in front of me. Thinking he was going to play me a funny vid I looked. Video title was russian soldier. There was a man pinned down and they were cutting his neck with a bread knife. The worst bit was the terror on his face.

Guy, Tunbridge Wells, uk

A part of me knows where you're coming from in writing this, the mixed emotions, the strange haze you see the world through for the next few days, and the shock when something unexpected stirrs the memory again.

But the larger part of me knows that far worse happens and goes unnoticed.

James Whyley, Nottingham, UK

I'm pleased to say that I realised, just as I was about to click on a link to that appalling video of some beheading of a british hostage in the middle east, that I wouldn't be able to unsee it after. And I switched off. Passed that on to my children too who happily took the point (it seems)

jon, portsmouth, UK

Isn't it funny how seeing one murdfer can evoke such emotions, and yet our emotions our much less powerful when hundreds or thousands of people are killed, every day, around the world.

Human nature?

A Mark, B'ham,

I felt the same way after someone sent me (I have no idea why) an article listing all the terible things that were done to Jamie Bulger. I felt contaminated having read it and the images which popped into my head when reading it will never leave me.

LisaB, Manchester, UK

The worst feeling is knowing you can do nothing to stop it. You're right, you shouldn't put this in your mind, and you shouldn't have put it in mine either, it was a kind of cowardice on your part. And that's the worst thing about it.. once it's in.. how do you get it out?

Richard, Leeds, UK

"frankly you must be a very delicate soul indeed to be so rattled" - weird that you feel the need to say this. I dont know why anyone wouldnt be 'rattled' seeing another human being dying in agony. Closeted? I'd say empathetic actually. If you arent 'rattled' then maybe its you with the problem?

Jane, Nottingham,

I've also seen some shocking videos online, I note Caitlin is very clear about how and why she came to see this video. For me trying to explain the curiousity that lead me to intentionally view such 'reality' is the hardest thing to explain. The darkness fades, until you read about who he was..

Rob D, London,

Caitlin is right. It really matters what we fill our minds with. The passivity we enter into when we watch someone else's dying agony is deeply ignoble. Concerned reading about, say, the Holocaust is different. You can step aside, take a deep breath, pray you'll be different. But the images infect.

Richard Drake, London, UK

It's the people that say "that's the way it is" and move on that allow the world to be this way. If everyone stood up against wrongdoings, there wold be much less of this horror in the world. This does not have to be just the way it is...

Graeme, Toronto, Canada

when i was at school there was a video going around on people's phones of a US soldier being beheaded in Iraq or Afganistan, (i dont know which). i refused to watch it thinking it was dis-respectful. it angered me that people tried to spread it around saying "Ive got this cool video." sounds similar

ROb, Exeter, England

How awful, I wish I could get half the contents of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho out of my head and that's only a book! I despise people who host violent video clips from the internet or think they make for fun curiosities to show off on their phones! Worst of all it desensitizes other idiots!

Liam Sheils, Liverpool, UK

After reading Caitlin's article I thought the video could in no way be as horrific as she described it but, having just seen it in its entirety, I am sickened to the core and know that it will take a long time for the memory of what I have seen to fade - how I wish I could go back and "unsee" it

Katherine, Ryde, Isle of Wight

Your reaction to the realization that there is suffering in the world is to block your eyes and ears.

Yet, in this way what you have seen will remain with you always.

The solution you seek is to work to grow your courage large enough that you can bring comfort to those who suffer far worse things.

Antoine, Cape Town, South Africa

Really interesting article. I've seen similar videos myself before and it can really have a damaging effect on your view of the world but unfortunately, that's just how things are.

Poony D, London,

I am sorry he & others suffered and you've been affected by it. I don't share the glib views of some that stuff like this happens all the time, especially since you didn't write how bad it was. I don't know whether to find the video & open my eyes or be relieved the BBC & others censor violence. RIP

David, Canterbury, UK

I saw footage of another victim from the same perpetrators. Only I walked into it knowing full well what I was about to watch. It is truthfully the most horrible thing I have ever seen, and I wish I could un-see it. It cured me of my morbid fascination. I no longer wish to see bad things. Only good.

Matthew, San Francisco,

I saw a similar video once involving hand to hand combat.I just had to pass it off as something that happens everyday that I have no control over. Its a very cruel world we live in and just becasue you dont see it dosent mean its not always happening. Things like this happen in your hometown.

Bob Gilboy, scranton,PA,

So your response to the realization (belated?) that there really is evil, and life is much more cruel and grim than the telly lets on, is "you should take great care in what you choose - often in a cavalier moment - to place in your memory."

Okay. But don't, next week, ask why the world is a mess.

Geoff, New York, US

Lady, if the internet hasn't made you lose faith in mankind, you just haven't really looked.

Jon, Dallas,

I felt obliged to respond. Your post was a noble response to the ignoble that you witnessed. Thank you for writing about it and for giving voice to your discomfort. I hope you gain a sense of ease rather than anxiety, and that those poor folk are now at rest.

Claire Nolan, Dublin, Rep of Ireland

The footage sounds terrible, but frankly you must be a very delicate soul indeed to be so rattled. Perhaps what you illustrate most is how closeted many middle class british people are from the nastiness of the world.

andrew, andover, UK

They only got 20 years a piece for that. They will be back on the streets in 2029.

Sean, pasadena,

For me, the issue is the relatively new ability to film and spread such things. We should resist temptation to follow links, even if we just want to see if they are real (assume they are and assume the corresponding consequences). Those who host and spread this material had a lot to answer for.

Gaz, Edinburgh,

Please please... Do not go searching for this video. Caitlin said to be very careful what you place in your memory forever.
I should have read that sentence twice.

brianie, Dublin,

I started watching the video a few weeks back and only got about 30 seconds in... it's still in my mind's eye too.
There is a transcript of the video available which is shocking enough.

Brian Smith, Glasgow, Scotland

Pics or it didn't happen

B Murray, London, England

That feeling is what it is like to a child who grows up having been raped or molested. That shadow taints everything, steals your sleep, your hopes, your faith. It is always there.Something you can't unsee or unfeel. Something unwanted, evil.

Cypress, Houston, Texas

I don't know the video you've watched but it's nothing compared to what happens everyday, in every country

Ian, new york,

I have to agree with Jerome. Many people in our society have a romanticized view of war and violence. When I got back from a deployment in Iraq, I realized how clueless many people are about what war really is. I think seeing images of war and suffering can sometimes help to open the public's eyes.

Jon, Salt Lake City, USA

Oh god, I saw that video... What a horrible thing. I've seen shock imagery before but that was beyond the pale.

I'm sorry to hear you have had some trouble trying to adjust mentally after seeing that. I'm doing fine, but my heart seriously aches for him and the other victims. What insane cruelty.

James, Minneapolis, United States

Yet another example of man's inhumanity to man. What this world needs is JUSTICE administered by a world court and we are getting there viz the Bahai Faith. The culprits will be punished may be not now but in the next world for all their heinous crimes against humanity.

Phillippo, Newcastle, UK

I tell my children that they cannot un-see something that they see, which is why they must stay away from pornography and why I don't even have a television in my home. There can be no value in planting these perverse things in your head.

Use wisdom in choosing what you consume.

Charles, Palm Bay, FL, USA

I'm sorry you saw that. I've seen two videos of people dying when I was younger and it was months before the visual was diluted in my brain. Since then, I don't watch horror films anymore. I think violence rapes the mind and wish I had, and never do, see anything like that again.

Joshua, McAllen, USA

Whilst I empathise with the disturbing thoughts you've undoubtedly had, it's crucial to think about the horror, as you put it, in the context of the things our lifestyles and opinions force on others.
Imagine being Palestinian or Sudanese. Imagine the old man was your father. Our lives ruin others'.

A Jerome Wright, London, UK

Thanks for the warning!!!

Rachel Beckett, Llanelli, Wales

It sounds familiar. I had a similar experience in high school when I watched a video described to me as 'brilliant'. That was nowhere near the horror of what you describe here, but the feeling of being high afterwards and of not being able to forget what you've seen are what I remember.

Jeff, Salisbury,

I had a similar reaction to the video, even though I've seen a lot of the shock videos on the internet this got to me in a way that none of them did. As you said it's the details that stay with you, particularly towards the end of it, and reading a translated transcript brought it home even more.

David , Manchester,