Craig Sutherland was at student at Cardiff University. He had an interest in electronic music.
Believing he couldn't get the sounds he needed out of digital instruments, such as synthesisers and computers, Craig spent time in junk shops, scavenging old electrical devices for valves and transistors. He built his own analogue keyboards using the components. Among the items he purchased from the shop was an alien device.
Craig demonstrated the device to his friend Rick Dennis, in an attempt to pick up girls, at a nightclub off St Mary Street in Cardiff. A youth looking for a fight got in the way of the beam and his aggression was amplified locally by the device. Within seconds, Rick smashed a beer bottle on the nearest table and lashed out at the youth, whose friends quickly joined the fight. Within 23 seconds, all five were dead. The bodies had bruises, contusions and stab wounds.
The incident was investigated by Torchwood Three. Gwen Cooper interviewed his friends and relatives regarding the incident. His death was put down to raging hormones compounded by a badly understood alien device and the case was closed. (PROSE: Slow Decay)