How absolutely tragic!

[elusivelaine]

I think people who pulls these kinds of pranks have absolutely no concern about the fallout that happens as a result of their desperate attempt to be "funny". They are callous and completely thoughtless, in my book.

[Workingman]

Actually, when you think about it, they were not getting at The Palace or Will and Kate or the private hospital she was in, they were taking the pee out of the staff.

'Let's see if we can fool the nurses, at 5.30 in the morning, into believing we are the Queen and Prince Phil, what a jape that would be, make the stressed staff look stupid.'

[Oojamaflip]

WM I don't think they even thought that far, ie to intend to make the staff look stupid. It was such a bizarre thing to do, at that time in the morning (UK time) and with such ridiculous not-at-all sound-a-like voices, it was just a stupid jape. Had the person who took the call been at all thinking or professional, they would have politely put the callers in their place. People who work in such hospitals who routinely deal with royalty, etc, would know that her Majesty herself would not make such an initial call - she'd have a flunky to do it for her.

[Kaz]

The person who took the call is dead

[shazsha]

I'm probably one of the very few people on this planet who actually feels sorry for the DJ's concerned.
A great many radio stations, including many British ones, do these prank type calls and they do appear to be popular with the listening public. They were probably encouraged by their employers to make these calls to up the popularity of the station(I'm almost certain they didn't just do this off their own bat).
They didn't set out to cause the death of someone-they simply wanted to up the radio station figures and the amount of publicity garnered by the prank would certainly have done this.
I really don't think they could have foreseen that someone would actually take their own life over this....I, myself, cant understand why anyone would choose suicide over something so trivial especially when they had children. However I hasten to add here that I don't judge the victim in any way as she must have been in a really dark place in her own head to do this.
I think it's very sad that someone has lost their life over this, that 2 children are left bereft and that the DJs concerned will have this hanging over them for life.
A couple of things should be considered too....was the woman under pressure re her workload. Any hospital I have ever phoned has a receptionist as the first point of contact-I find it strange that a nurse was manning telephones.
I also find it strange that the hospital had no protocol in place for dealing with enquiries re the Royals-they've had them as patients before and I would have imagined they should have had rigorous checks to ascertain they weren't giving out confidential information to the media, etc.
Lastly, I've read a few sites tonight and am amazed at the level of venom aimed at the 2 DJs by people who profess to feeling for the suicide victim and the pressure she was under...they can't see they are heaping the same pressure onto the DJ's<------the previous sentence probably isnt explained well but I know what I mean!!

[Gal]

I also feel desperately sad for her family but I really don't think the two idiots who made the call can be blamed.

Very, very sad though.

I agree Debih. I can't understand why they did it, but people so silly things sometimes and clearly they thought it was a jolly wheeze....never for a second expecting the outcome to be so tragic.

Has she taken her own life? I don't understand why she would do that....it's so sad.

[shazsha]

The person who took the call is dead

Well not really Kaz... the suicide victim simply connected the call as far as news reports go...it was the ward nurse who entered into a short convo with the DJs.

[Kaz]

Hmmmm that's all very well Shaz but you would have thought they might have learned from that last 'prank' when they tricked a 14 year old girl into admitting on air that she'd been raped!!

Nope I don't feel sorry for them at all although I don;t of course wish them any real harm that would be malicious! I hope this stops them doing such stupid things in future. They were still revelling in it all on Twitter yesterday!

Oh and speaking for myself I have never thought this kind of thing is funny - I was appalled by the Andrew Sachs thing! Stuff like this is spiteful

[shazsha]

Hmmmm that's all very well Shaz but you would have thought they might have learned from that last 'prank' when they tricked a 14 year old girl into admitting on air that she'd been raped!!

Nope I don't feel sorry for them at all although I don;t of course wish them any real harm that would be malicious! I hope this stops them doing such stupid things in future. They were still revelling in it all on Twitter yesterday!

Oh and speaking for myself I have never thought this kind of thing is funny - I was appalled by the Andrew Sachs thing! Stuff like this is spiteful

I'm sure it wasn't the same 2 DJs involved in the rape 'prank'....the same station, yes, but not the same DJs.

As for them still revelling in it on twitter on Tuesday...this was before the news of the woman's suicide. They were revelling in the success of a prank which they didn't know would cause someone to kill themselves.

And it really has to be asked...As we all know many people are blaming these DJS, does that mean we should blame others for the actions of a suicide? Do we blame the ex boyfriend of the young girl who can't live without him, the wife of the husband who takes his own life because she met another,etc? As I said before, it appears that many want to foist the blame of this death onto the DJs but using that logic we are heading into waters I'm not comfy with.

[Rodo]

Two very stupid shallow people who did a very stupid, thoughtless and callous thing.

I hope they are sacked.