I read the full version of this article in ‘The Telegraph’ today:

‘The Rev Simon Boxall said he and his wife, Rachel, refused to be “shackled by bitterness” over the death of their daughter, Rosie, whom they adopted in Brazil when she was three.

The 19 year-old died in May last year after being assaulted and tormented by Oluwakemi Ajose, 19, and 15-year-old Hatice Can, who were found guilty of manslaughter at the Old Bailey yesterday.

The court heard that the two teenagers slapped and punched Miss Boxall and pulled her hair after getting into a row over a boy.

The pair sprayed deodorant in Miss Boxall’s face and branded her a “whore”, before she jumped 30ft from the window of the south London flat that they briefly shared.

Part of the attack was filmed on a mobile phone and showed Miss Boxall cowering in fright with her head in her hands, but not fighting back.

As she lay dying in the street below, Can, who was only 13 at the time, stood over her and was heard saying: “Serves you right, *****.”

Ajose and Can were both known to the police for offences including shoplifting and actual bodily harm.

The older girl is believed to have a personality disorder and is being assessed under the Mental Health Act.

Despite the brutality of the attack, Mr Boxall, a vicar at the Open Gateway Community Church in Thamesmead, south London, said he and his family were praying for the assailants. “We want them to know we forgive them. That does not mean that what they did ‘doesn’t matter’. Of course it does,” he said.

“Forgiveness means that we refuse to be shackled by bitterness and our prayer is that forgiveness will allow the girls to be released from the burden of what they have done.”

The rest of it can be found at this link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6599042/Vicar-forgives-girls-who-bullied-his-daughter-to-death.html

Admittedly its a horrible story but I thought the reaction of the parents was one of the most up lifting and incredible things I’ve read in the news for a long time. It also shows us that religion has a strong place in the twenty-first century. The need for forgiveness is always all around us but some how most people seem to fail to carry it out. So poverty, crime and injustice get worse. Maybe some of the victims of Fort Hood or other recent incidents can take a note out of Simon Boxall’s book. Rev. Boxalls forgiveness seems to totally over rule human nature to want revenge and hold bitterness. What’s also surprising is for once a ‘Telegraph’ headline so far has no comments under the article at all. What are your views on the story?