Disgruntled resident attacked over Web site

The creator of a particularly forthright Web site portraying Addiewell, Scotland, as "a hell hole" and "the worst town on earth" finally removed the site today after he received impassioned pleas from the distraught local council as well as an "attack" on his own home.

The local council in Addiewell had suggested that Addiewell resident Matt Rathney-Quinn's work constituted a hate site and threatened to sue in order to have it forcibly removed. However, Rathney-Quinn himself appears to have made the decision to pull down the site after his publicity efforts backfired.

The site had until today displayed blurred photographs of youths drinking cans of lager and apparently throwing things. These incoherent pictures were accompanied by such observations as, "In this picture a teenage girl launches a brutal attack on a small child," and, "It is not uncommon for mobile phones to be seen in the hands of teenagers on the street."

Rathney-Quin even concluded that "I have never in my life seen a level of violence, criminality and sociopathic behaviour as I have witnessed in this tiny hamlet."

Today however, Rathney-Quin's site bears a quite different message. Diatribe has been replaced with sober reflection: "Purely as a gesture of goodwill towards the council and in consideration of the great personal efforts being made by our local housing officer, we have suspended this site until at least September 30th 1999."