Interesting argument by solicitor Chris Murphy, lawyer for actor Matthew Newton, who is accused of assaulting his former girlfriend, actress Brooke Satchwell. Murphy told reporters outside the court:

“Ninety people died in Iraq today, most of them kids. This is a very minor matter.”

So no problems then, feel free to slap your wife or girlfriend around, its no big deal. The Federal government should be asking serious questions of its advertising agency behind all those domestic violence advertisments that have been all over the TV lately … they don’t seem to have made any impact on Chris Murphy.

When I first heard about these comments today, I thought that really does make Murphy and his client look bad. Its one thing to downplay the seriousness of the matter, but this comparison is so stupid it totally trivialises it. Using the Murphy scale of relativity he could have used the same argument in defence of the likes of Martin Bryant, Bilal Skaf, the Murphy brothers and John Travers, and many others.

By the way, given Newton has at least some “celebrity” at least here in Australia, bet you he gets no more than a slap on the wrist from the magistrate at worst, or else the charges will be withdrawn down the track.

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