Writing newspaper headlines is a skill. It’s much harder than you think. They’re not written by the journalist who wrote the piece but by sub-editors and others further up the foodchain.

The wit and wordplay sometimes used can be very clever. As much as some us decry the redtops, some of the best headlines and headline writers come from them.

So then, consider this headline from today’s Daily Telegraph:

Mental patient allowed out to kill in park

Allowed out to klll. Like you’d allow a kid out to play, perhaps? “Daddy, can I go and and kill, please?”

Underneath the headline is a pretty well-written and balanced account of a terrible case that could probably been prevented. But the clumsy headline undermines that and reinforces both the public’s and press’s attitudes towards mental illness.

Many people picking up the Telegraph today will not even read the article but simply scan the headline, tut and move on, their ill-informed prejudices, that our streets are full of crazed maniacs ready to eviscerate passers-by, strengthened even further.

Five minutes here should reassure any headline writer that the chances of being killed by someone with a mental illness are slim indeed. And that, when these awful events do happen, a sensitive approach is much more helpful in preventing them happening elsewhere, giving comfort to the victims on both sides and not adding to yet another culture of fear.

UPDATE: Ahem. The front page splash - the main headline - on the Daily Mail today is about the same story. KNIFE MANIAC FREED TO KILL. Christ.