Lisburn News

Women launch campaign to ban sale of 'sick' dead baby joke book

The young mothers who have organised the petition. US2712.190A0

A GROUP of young women from Old Warren have started a petition to try and stop the sale of the 'Ultimate Dead Baby Joke Book".

Kirsty Kirkwood (21), Kerry Curran (21) and Ciara Robinson (21) branded the book 'sick' and hope to collect enough signatures in Lisburn to ensure the book and its Facebook page are discussed at Stormont.

Their petition, which is also on Facebook as 'Stop the Ultimate Dead Baby Joke Book already has 4,000 signatures.

The three women started their campaign when a picture of a Lisburn baby was stolen by internet trolls from its mother's Facebook page. The picture was defaced to make it look as though the baby was dead.

The Ultimate Dead Baby Joke Book is on sale on Amazon. It shows survival tactics, recipes, sex tips, storing tips, eating tips and what to do when the police find you with a dead baby. The product description reads: "This is outrageous and completely inappropriate. Sick, twisted and totally wrong.

"Celebrities, Government Officials, Corporations, no one is safe from this outrageous parody of grotesqueness that is strewn thru the pages of this hilarious book.

It has everything inside you could ever need when dealing with a dead baby"

The local women said they have contacted Facebook who told them the publishers of the book have not done anything illegal and they are still waiting a reply from Amazon following a request to have the book withdrawn from their sales,

They said that Easons and Waterstones do not sell the book from their stores.

Outraged

Kirsty from Lagan Walk, who is a mother of Caitlin (4) and Jaimie (2) and had a miscarriage at 16 weeks last year, said she is outraged that people are allowed to sell books which upset so many people.

"The book is just sick and I don't know why anyone would want to read it," she said. "When I heard about the woman's baby picture being defaced - she is a friend of Kerry's - we were just so disgusted. I read some of the jokes and I had to go and be physically sick.

I had a miscarriage and they seem to target people who have had miscarriages too."

Kerry said they contacted the publishers of the book.

"They basically told us that we should have a sense of humour," she said. "They also told us that we should know the difference between fact and fiction."

The women have now set up their own charity 'Whispers from Heaven' and have set up a Facebook page to offer support to grieving parents who have lost a baby.

"We wanted to do something to help" said Kerry.

Ciara, a mother of Logan (5), Lucas (2) and Jaydene (five months) said that they have gained support from their local MP.

"Jeffrey Donaldson has supported us on our Facebook campaign," she said. "We hope to get the 10,000 signatures that we need to have it raised at Stormont. We were at the parade last night and we got 336 signatures just from that alone. A lot of people are very supportive of us."

mary.magee@ulsterstar.co.uk

Ulster Star
06/07/2012