The mother of Stuart Harling, the 18-year-old convicted of stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss to death, has claimed that his violent behaviour was triggered by playing videogames such as Manhunt.

Speaking to the News of the World Lorraine Harling said, "I knew he was playing the videogames but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were.

"Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn't even realise games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same."

Stuart Harling was recently given a life sentence for his random attack on Moss, who he stabbed 72 times - according to the NOTW, "Just like he'd PRACTISED on the PlayStation in his bedroom."

"Every night he would retreat into his darkened bedroom at home in Rainham, Essex, and enter a grisly virtual world that revelled in sadism, ritual blood-letting and death. Just like millions of other youngsters," the article reads.

"One of baby-faced Harling's favourite games was the notorious Manhunt, where players SLASH and SLICE their victims with meat CLEAVERS, cheese WIRE and CHAINSAWS, or suffocate them with plastic bags."

Harling's mother is quoted as saying, "I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned."