Dixons and the Game chain removed from sale Manhunt, a game which awards players points for inflicting the most grisly death possible.

The mother of Stefan Pakeerah, who was battered with a claw hammer and stabbed to death, said her son’s killer was “obsessed” by the game.

Dixons said it had withdrawn the game out of respect for Stefan’s parents, and in response to complaints from customers. Other retailers, including WH Smith, are considering whether to withdraw the top-selling game, which should only be sold to customers over the age of 18. It has already been banned in New Zealand.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport told shop managers that they faced up to six months in jail if they supplied 18-rated computer games to anyone under the legal age. But although experts insisted there was no proof that computer games could influence the behaviour of adolescents, ministers appear to be on a collision course with Britain’s £2 billion computer game industry.

Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, called on games manufacturers and retailers to take action to prevent children being exposed to the “extreme violence” of Manhunt and other titles.

The Pakeerah family’s local Leicester MP, Mrs Hewitt had taken a special interest in the case and said more must be done to protect children.

Mrs Hewitt said: “As a mother myself I share her (Mrs Pakeerah’s) anxiety about the violent computer games that too many teenagers are exposed to.

“It is illegal for retailers to sell these games to under 18s, but we all need to do more — manufacturers, retailers, parents and schools — to protect our young people from immersing themselves in images of extreme violence.”

Games are monitored by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the British film censor, and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa). Ratings are only compulsory under the Video Recordings Act (1984) for games that contain violence or sexual activity.

Manhunt was awarded a rating of 18, the most severe certificate available, for its extreme and voyeuristic violence. Elspa said yesterday that it had no plans to change its ratings.

Roger Bennett, Elspa’s director-general, said that Ms Hewitt and Dixons were indulging in “kneejerk” reactions.

“It has been considerably overblown,” he said. “There is no substantive evidence in this case to link this tragic event to the fact he was playing a game. The police have confirmed that they found Manhunt in his room, but there was no mention of it during the court case.”

He said that he believed Stefan’s parents had jumped to the wrong conclusion. “There are always scapegoats. Inevitably the family will be searching for explanations and they have come to the conclusion, wrongly, in our view, that a game was responsible.”

Ms Hewitt’s department claimed that Britain had “the most restrictive video classification system in the world” and noted that there was no evidence that Manhunt had been sold to a minor.

Guy Cumberbatch, a psychologist who specialises in violence and the media, said that he was sceptical as to whether violence in computer games could be linked to real-life violence. He said: “The claim that the boy who killed Stefan was obsessed with the game came from Stefan’s mother. We don’t know whether he was obsessed or not. The connection has come from the distressed parents.”

But Mark Griffiths, a professor of psychology at Nottingham Trent University, said that more research was needed into how video games influenced adolescents.

He said that a link had already been proven between violence and video games in children aged eight years or below, but more study was needed into the impact of games on the behaviour of children as they grew up.

The creator of Manhunt has become one of Scotland’s great hi-tech success stories and the company fiercely defended its products.

The Leith-based Rockstar North, which also produces the top-selling Grand Theft Auto games, said Manhunt was intended for a “mature” audience and had been cleared with an 18 rating by the BBFC.

A consumer boycott of Manhunt could threaten Scotland’s thriving computer games industry. Rockstar North employs about 50 software experts and the Grand Theft Auto series has generated £1 billion worldwide.

PROGRAMMED TO SHOCK

• Grand Theft Auto: Points are awarded for stealing cars and shooting innocent citizens. It attracted controversy as bonuses are awarded for running over Hare Krishna followers
  
  
• Hooligans: Storm Over Europe: The object of the game is to take a gang of football supporters to continental Europe, get them drunk, and terrorise the locals.
  
  
• Postal 2: Players are encouraged to resort to violence as the main character undertakes mundane tasks such as buying milk. It was rated 18 for violence and humour
  
  
• Doom 3: The third title in the ultra-violent Doom series, released this summer, is billed as “the most terrifying and visually mind-blowing gaming experience ever”.

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