Simple Past Tense against Past Perfect

My email dated July 20, 2007 to The Editor of Mind our English of The Star:-
The sentence reading, "The boy had killed his tuition teacher's daughter five years ago" has appeared on the front page of the Star today, and another one,
"The High Court had on July 1, 2003, found the boy, then aged 12, guilty of murdering the 11-year-old girl at her house in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, by stabbing her 20 times with a sharp object on May 30, 2002" in the news proper on page N8. Both instances have seen the use of the past perfect tense instead of the simple past tense though a particular past time has been mentioned in each. The past perfect or pluperfect tense serves only to place a narration in the "more distant past," without determining its particular time or duration" as explained in http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Pluperfect_tense. Regards, Kengt, Penang

The Editor’s reply dated July 23, 2007

Thank you for pointing out the error. I have sent the message to everyone in the Editorial Dept including the Group Chief Editor.
Best wishes,Kee Thuan ChyeAssociate EditorEditor of Mind our EnglishThe Star