Manchester Canal Deaths – Too Many, Too Often

Another Monday morning, another report of a young man fighting for his life after being rescued from a canal in Manchester City Centre. This one, a lad in his 20s, was pulled from the Rochdale Canal on Dale Street near Piccadilly Station at around 10.30pm last night. He was taken to the Manchester Royal Infirmary where he's described as "critically ill".

It seems that every time I look at the Manchester Evening News website there’s another body in a Manchester canal. 2014 is only three weeks old and this is the FOURTH one so far this year. The first died on the 7^th in the Ashton Canal, the second, died on the 10^th in the canal near Great Ancoats Street and the third was rescued on the 14^th from the canal in Princess Street. What’s going on ?

Chilling Statistics

This isn’t a recent thing either, It seems to be happening more and more frequently with young men going missing after a night out in Manchester. A quick internet search reveals the official numbers from Greater Manchester Police are that between 1^st January 2008 and 18^th March 2013 there have been 61 bodies retrieved from Greater Manchester waterways. That’s almost one a month. I know it's not a particularly useful comparison, but if a particular stretch of road was that dangerous, I'm sure they'd be looking at safety improvements.

Why Manchester?

Why does Manchester seem to have so many young males meeting a watery grave. It does happen elsewhere in the UK, but not at anywhere near the same frequency. Are we really to believe that young men in Manchester are just phenomenally clumsy compared to the rest of the country? It all seems very strange to me.

Birmingham, has a large canal network around bars and clubs but there’s no reports there of men falling in canals after a night out and being killed. Indeed, Birmingham has more canals than Venice, so you'd expect if it was just drunk people falling into them (and some of the Manchester victims had relatively low levels of blood alcohol), you'd expect it to be a weekly occurrence there – but it’s not!

With all these young men’s bodies being dragged out of Manchester canals/rivers in the space of a decade you do wonder is something else going on here? Of course, it may just be coincidence, but the first thing the police seem to say in all these cases is "no signs of anything suspicious". That's pretty dismissive really isn't it?

No Suspicious Circumstances

As I say, most of these incidents seem to eventually get dismissed as "no suspicious circumstances". I suppose part of the reason for this is that if there's no CCTV near the canals (which there isn't near most of them in Manchester), then how are they supposed to prove anything untoward has happened? Even if the body has cuts, bruises and they can see that something has happened, water can wash away any DNA and other evidence. Still, there’s no way on earth this many young males are falling into canals though.

Why Is It Always Young Men?

The one thing that really bothers me is the age and type of person that keeps slipping into the water and drowning. With only a few exceptions, these victims are all young males in their late teens or early twenties. Why should that be the case? They’re usually leaving a party not even in the area of a water way late at night. It seems females don't slip or leave party's late at night in the Manchester area.

If there is ‘no suspicious circumstances’ and they’re not being pushed in or thrown in then one way to help prevent more deaths is some sort of fencing around the death black spots on the water ways, or is that too simplistic?

It may sound a bit of an obvious, even silly thing to say, but it really should be impressed upon young people, never ever walk along close by a canal or waterway at night. It's too easy to trip, when tired, when stumbling in the dark.

More Sinister?

Personally I feel there's something more sinister happening with all these canal deaths; there’s far too many of them in Manchester, and the lads are rarely intoxicated. Most incidents happen around the 'Gay Village' - Canal Street and its environs - quite a civilised place until the small hours, and the towpaths there are also seen as a short cut home for some. How many people have died in that canal after being thrown in? Canal Street breeds drugs and violence late at night. Are these young men’s drinks being spiked (rohypnol etc) disorienting them to a state where they end up falling in the canal? Is something sinister going on in the gay community there? Something's going on for sure!

I begin to wonder if this is just a host of coincidences or is there a serial killer at large? This theory never even entered my mind when I started writing this blog and I don't see why there is any reason to believe there is one at this point, but I do think it's chilling and very sad that cases of young men disappearing and later being found dead are on the increase.

I don't really think I believe that serious, organised  foul play is occurring, it's just that if these deaths were young women people would be sympathetic and worried. I find the total lack of reaction about the increasing number of young men dying (whether they die innocently or because others have done them harm) sinister and sad.

Doesn’t Make Sense

None of it makes any sense. Why the hell are there so many young males going missing, then being found dead in water in Manchester? What are Greater Manchester Police doing about this? Something quite dodgy and disturbing is going on. If I'm thinking there's a possible serial killer about, and I know I'm not the only one thinking this, then maybe the likes of the Manchester Evening News should be doing some ‘investigative’ journalism rather than ignoring it.

A question to Greater Manchester Police. What are you doing about this? Why are there so many 'not suspicious circumstances' when you can't get any more suspicious than a load of young men being found dead in canals? What is going on?

Whether foul play is involved or not, these deaths and disappearances need investigating and reporting on a lot more. Maybe if a little more awareness was raised, these young men could avoid harm. There again, I suppose because they aren't blonde haired, blue eyed middle class girls the media just doesn't give a shit.