According to newspaper reports, the Metropolitan Police is blaming the theft of two Sony PSPs for the brutal deaths of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez. The two French students were stabbed more than 200 times before Bonomo's flat was torched.

The reports from the mainstream media vary in their use of the consoles as 'cause', however.

The Times reports that, "Detectives believe that Laurent Bonomo and his friend, Gabriel Ferez, could have been the victims of a bungled burglary. The theory was strengthened today when officers revealed that two new Sony PSP games consoles were missing from Mr Bonomo's flat."

The Mail has it that, "It is thought they could have been tortured for hours so that they would give up PIN numbers to their bank and credit cards.

"The theory has gathered pace with the discovery by detectives that two mobile phones and two new Sony PSP games consoles had been stolen from Mr Bonomo's flat."

The Evening Standard states that, "Among the items that police believe were stolen were the men's phones and two Sony PSP games consoles. Scotland Yard issued an urgent appeal to anyone who may have been offered these items for sale in the past few days to contact them."

The Daily Telegraph, however, decides that the two handheld consoles were definitely part of the motivation - blaring the headline: "French students murder: Stabbed 'for computer games and PIN codes'".

We've looked over the Telegraph story for the quote in which police state that the murders were 'for computer games'. Guess what? This is what we found:

"Det Chf Insp Mick Duthie who is leading the investigation, said: 'The search of the address is not yet completed, but we have established that two Sony PSPs are missing and believe they were taken during the incident on Sunday when the two men were killed'. "

So, no mention of 'computer games' or the fact that the murders were 'for them'.