I am a writer. I produce thrillers, action-packed and occasionally violent works of fiction. They are the product of an over overactive imagination. My latest book is out in early December (see link to my website), it deals with organised crime violence and how seemingly innocent people get embroiled in the mess.

The book challenges, a little tiny bit, the notion of the hero. The hero's actions are, in essence, no different to those of other heroes; but it's his motivation that is less clear. Therefore, it makes the reader question the validity of his heroic actions.

Our fictional and occasionally true-life heroes have always been forgiven their violent acts; they are condoned as being a justifiable response to the initial violence perpetrated by others. Take any Hollywood action film and you'll appreciate what I mean. Die Hard... it's title is implicit about what the hero will do to the 'baddie' and what the 'baddie' will fail to inflict in return.

In the UK we love stories about 'have-a-go' pensioners and the ordinary man that foils a robbery and we care not about the violence inflicted to achieve the result. Take the man who fired at the young intruder in his home. The prosecution of the man for the shooting was greeted with derision by the public at large, incensed at the notion that a person could no longer defend his castle. We salute the triumph of the ordinary Joe for taking a stand against the apparently rising tide of lawlessness in our country.

Then you read the articles based on the horrific death of Baby P.

An innocent conceived and born into an environment that offered him no hope. It is in moments like this that the true human psyche reveals itself. It beggars belief what must have gone through the mind of the three adults that tortured and caused the death of this poor little boy.

The reaction of the Great British public has been total in its outrage - fuelled by the red tops - the public seek the answer to our most heartfelt question; why was there no hero? So many opportunities were missed by a nonsensical nannying local government that happily pokes it's noses into our rubbish and is keen to tell you how to cook but systematically failed to protect an innocent from the very lowest our society has created.

Now there is talk of vengeance, hate fills people’s eyes when they think of the mother and the two men responsible. Normal, sane and reasonable folk snarl and talk of violent acts of retribution that they would commit upon them if the opportunity arose. Many profess their support for the almost guaranteed prison violence that awaits them. An eye for an eye... nowhere is there a call for forgiveness nor understanding... but that is whole different debate.

But lets think about this reaction. Is it so, that violent retribution is permissible for the most hideous of crimes? Our primeval response mechanism, our natural sense of injustice forces the revenge emotion up from the very pit of our emotive stomachs. Who amongst us would deny that if the death penalty were in operation, that these three would be candidates? For many though this may not be enough, for these outraged folk think they should pay, not with just prison and death, but with pain - real unadulterated pain.

 I understand these points of view and sympathise with the anger. As the father of small boy, I too, could not, hand on heart, say what I would do if left alone with the perpetrators knowing there was no consequence to my actions. I'm not proud of this reaction, but i can't fight the emotion. It's too raw and too real, it is instinctive.

I asked myself the question - does violence in our literature, music and our films fuel people like this? or worse, does it create them? Is it coincidence that the 'torture porn' films like Saw and others have become popular in recent times, can there be a link? 

Could my own scribbles have a similar copy cat effect on someone in the future?

I searched for an answer and realised it is too complex a question for me to find any truth. But I do know this - since the dawn of civilisation, man has been capable of hideous acts of barbarity against fellow man. Long before mass entertainment and communication this has been so... What is in someone to do things like this is always there - it just has to be unleashed. Maybe humans never learn from the past, perhaps we are destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over. We will still cause wars, commit murder and inflict violence on others. While we as humans do this, then we will continue to react to others doing it, just as we have to the Baby P atrocities. An eye for eye...

But I still want to know why Baby P had no hero.