">My Big World Of Crap

William Rowe was participating in a most Australian activity on Christmas Day - playing cricket on the beach with his extended family.  However, a pack of thugs intervened and beat him over the head with his cricket bat, killing him.

Within a day, reports were that the thugs had been helping themselves to drinks from his family’s esky and he told them off.  An argument followed, and shortly afterwards the thugs returned with about 25 of their mates, and things turned into some sort of a brawl, with bottles thrown and one of Mr Rowe’s family being slashed with a broken beer bottle (serious enough to need 35 stitches) and having his jaw and collarbone broken.  Mr Rowe and other members of his family were taking the injured man to their car to drive him to hospital when the fatal blow was struck on Mr Rowe with his cricket bat.

A 21 year old man, Mathew Roy McDonald, later surrendered to police and has been charged (so far) with causing grievous bodily harm.  A second man, aged 45, has also been charged over his part in the brawl (but apparently nothing to do with the death of Mr Rowe or the injuries to his family member).  According to police, other people have been brought in by their families over their involvement in the brawl.

Now what has been barely said or even hinted at in the media is that the thugs were all aborigines.  Given the nature of Western Australia, particularly its country towns, this is not at all unexpected or indeed particularly surprising.  Whether the attackers are aboriginal, white, Asian, African or whatever is not really that important.  What I don’t like is the apparent censorship in reporting.  Again we have media outlets suppressing, or at least blurring, their reporting.  Why?  Can’t we handle the fact that there are groups of aborigines who behave appallingly (or groups of moslems, or other racial/religious groups)?   The first hint I could find of the perpetrator’s aboriginality was in his uncle’s statement:

“Our family, with the help of the Aboriginal Legal Service, in the new year will make an official statement on behalf of the family and until that time we just want the media to respect our privacy,”

Very much like the case of the murder of Andrew Farrugia in Griffith on New Year’s Eve last year.  Pussyfooting around by the media when it was fairly obvious from the outset who the criminals were.  I think we are entitled to be informed about the bad behaviour of different groups in Australia, whether they be aborigines in Geraldton, Lebanese in Lakemba or whites in Cronulla.  Suppressing their identity for reasons of political correctness, or wanting to avoid being accused of racism, serves nobody well.  It denies to the communities from which these dickheads come that they have a publicly acknowledged problem in their midst and it denies the broader community knowledge which I think we are entitled to know.

I’ve seen nothing yet in the Fairfax media or ABC which references the fact that the thugs that attacked and killed Mr Rowe were aborigines.  The West Australian has been more forthcoming about it, with a version of events from a family friend of the Rowe’s, which clearly identifies the problem group as aborigines.  His version of events was reported as below.

When the temperature started to cool after 6pm on Christmas Day, the Rowes had headed to the beach for a game of cricket. It is understood a group of Aboriginals had been lingering on the beach for some time, rummaging through eskies for alcohol, intimidating families and causing some to leave. But the Rowes stayed, confident they had safety in numbers and the situation would settle down. After Mr Neil was bashed, the Rowe family were trying desperately to rush him to hospital but were suddenly surrounded by a group of up to 25, including women and children as young as 12, in the beach carpark.  Mr Morrissey said Mrs Rowe tried to reason with the group and defuse the situation. “She said something like ‘you get your family and go and I’ll get mine and go’,” he said. It is believed a woman in the group called the family “white c…s” and said they were in for a bashing. It is understood that members of the offending group were about to attack an injured Mr Neil again, when Mr Rowe stepped in but was hit once from behind.

Lovely!  Now what sort of person thinks that hitting someone in the head with a cricket bat is an acceptable way to handle an argument, or slashing someone with a broken bottle.  These sort of behaviours are just totally unacceptable and should be treated as such by the law.  No amount of impairment by drugs or alcohol, or provocation, or an underprivileged background, excuses them.  The person who does this sort of violence makes a free choice and needs to pay the consequences of their actions …. there are simply no mitigating circumstances …. they make the choice to use a potentially deadly weapon, there is a risk of death, it happens, it should be murder, no excuses (and in my books young murderers should not see the outside of a jail until they are old and infirm).  However, I’m absolutely sure that in this case, all sorts of things like the accused’s background, him being drunk or stoned, being overtaken by a mob mentality, will be trotted out in his defence.  As I’ve said, he hit a man on the head with a cricket bat …. it doesn’t exactly take a huge amount of intellect to figure the damage that could do, so he clearly intended great harm to Mr Rowe, and should be punished as such (severely).  Regardless of all the other factors at play, at the end of the day, he chose freely to be a violent, evil shit.  His choice, nobody else’s!

PS:

I mentioned the Andrew Farrugia murder earlier.   The legals and reporting around this are bullshit.   His killers were identified by the court and in the reporting of the case as only CK and TS.  They got 6 year sentences for manslaughter, and with parole etc are likely to be out of jail by the time they are 19 or 20.  Thats just wrong!  These evil turds completely deny an innocent stranger his life, and screw up his family and friends’ lives, but essentially are given a slap over the wrist and basically get to enjoy their adulthood uninterrupted (at least theoretically, no doubt they will spend much time in jail for crimes they commit once out of jail for this killing).  I’ve said before, I think youths who commit major league adult crimes should be treated as adults in the justice system.  By committing big boys crimes, I believe they forfeit their childhood and need to take full adult responsibility for their actions.  At present, they are treated as children, instead of as violent thugs, and will be out of jail almost as soon as they are adults, with no-one else knowing who they are or what they did.  And what of the judge’s tough talk and little action in the sentencing:

“entirely senseless, unprovoked and callous”.

“That they could deliberately inflict harm upon another young man who like them, had family waiting at home to see him, a future to look forward to, a life full of promise, for absolutely no reason at all beggars belief.”

4 years for that is a joke.  Try adding a zero on the end, and its in the right ballpark.

On the evidence of a study by the Wesley Mission, there are a very large number of people in this country who should not be permitted to fuck each other, let alone have children.

What about this?

“A report is made to the police or other agency across Australia every 35 minutes regarding an instance of child abuse, the numbers of notifications have almost doubled over the past five years and our research suggests that many other incidences go unreported.”

Or this?

In a survey of 1,200 people, 33 per cent had suffered one, or a combination of sexual, physical abuse or violence in the home and 40 per cent had suffered emotional abuse.

Just staggering!

If people can’t handle children, don’t have them. Simple! Becoming pregnant and having children is nowadays a largely discretionary choice. If you’re not smart enough to take control, you’re not smart enough to have kids. If you can’t afford them, don’t have them. Its all largely within your control, and if you’re unfit to take responsibility for that you shouldn’t be rooting each other.

Speaking of such people, Blakely and Sharon Ward must be right up there. Arrested yesterday for the murder of their 7 year old daughter, Shellay, who was found allegedly starved to death at their Hawks Nest home earlier this month. She weighed just 9 kgs, less than half the weight of a typical 7 year old, near Wollongong, after having fled their home a week ago. Surprise, surprise, according to the police, during the afternoon they were taken, separately, to Wollongong Hospital.

“They were taken to hospital because they have certain medications that they’ve been prescribed,”

Let me go out on a limb here …. I’m betting on methadone. What a surprise, substance abuse behind a child abuse case! Hardly surprising, the father looks like a dero.

(For the full spectacle, you need to see him on TV, covered in tattoos, including EVIL on his knuckles, and long straggly hair - and that tattoo is something he seems to have lived up to, allegedly anyway).

Interesting too that they have been charged with murder. Does that suggest they actively harmed Shellay rather than simply neglecting her?

The Department of Community Services has been copping a hammering over this and other cases. While they are far from blameless, DOCS does not kill the children …. thats usually the swine these kids have for parents (mum’s new boyfriend features heavily in such cases too).

It amazes me that DOCS and other agencies give these families so many chances. In the case of the Wards they had 4 children, and they have been regular customers of DOCS for something like 14 years, including having children removed from their care at times. Its not like in most abuse cases there aren’t plenty of warning signs. I’d say its time for the authorities to take these seriously right from the get go …. instead the approach seems to be to give the families the benefit of the doubt and second, third and more chances. I’d have thought with children the onus on the family to get care of their abused children back should be something like “beyond reasonable doubt” that they are fit to do so.

Dodgy looking character isn’t he?

Dante Wyndham Arthurs, 23, was sentenced yesterday to life in jail, with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years, for the murder of eight-year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu in a shopping centre toilet cubicle last year.

The facts of what he did are chilling.

He strangled her, stripped her and digitally penetrated her before propping her body against the cubicle wall and fleeing.  The court heard it was an opportunistic bid to touch the girl sexually when she appeared at the toilet door as Arthurs was leaving.  According to a psychologist giving evidence:

“He has described to me and medical practitioners it was like he was watching someone else doing it,” Mr Richardson said.

He said Arthurs admitted wanting to touch the girl sexually but denied wanting to kill her.

Arthurs recalled seeing his hands around a throat and panicked when he noticed bruising around the girl’s eyes and neck, and that she had stopped breathing.

He tried to revive her with mouth to mouth resuscitation and shook her violently when she did not respond.

“I tried to shake a response from her, then her arms broke,” Arthurs told him.

“I heard a large snapping noise.”

Mr Richardson said Sofia’s legs hit the toilet before Arthurs dropped her to the floor.

“He watched himself go across to her to remove her clothing and insert one finger into the vagina. He noticed there was blood.”

Prosecutor Sam Vandongen said Sofia’s upper arms and shins were fractured, and she had significant bruising and lacerations in the ano-genital area.

And it looked like Arthurs was a serious serial pedophile, or at least starting out on a career as one - police found a bag containing latex gloves, handcuffs, a small knife and rope, along with a collection of pictures of young girls when they searched his home.  Plus he had form on the board it seems, but a case against him for a 2003 assault on another 8 year old girl fell apart due to police incompetence.

There has been criticism of the sentence Arthurs received …13 years before he is eligible for parole, at the still relatively young age of 36.  According to WA attorney general, Jim McGinty:

“Such a brutal shocking murder I think most people thought deserved a longer non-parole period than 13 years,”

“At the moment the judge’s hands are tied, he could give no more than 14 years non-parole period because of the archaic nature of our laws.”

He also said a Law Reform Commission report has recommended changes to the State’s murder laws, including amalgamating the two homicide categories of wilful murder and the less serious charge of murder. If these changes were in place now, Justice McKechnie would have been able to rule that Arthurs never be released, or sentence him to a non-parole period of 30 years.

Hey, Mr McGinty, who’s job was it to push these laws through parliament?  Perhaps if you’d pulled your finger out a bit sooner those laws would have been in place for Arthurs to be subjected to?

Anyway, he has made his position clear on the subject of Arthurs’ fate:

“It was a light sentence and it will be up to the attorney-general of the day as to whether he is released or not.”

I suspect that 13 years will prove much longer than Arthurs’ life in prison lasts.

Why does Luigi Vitale get blasted by the Coroner for not being able to recall things about the events surrounding Dianne Brimble’s death, when it seems to be a perfectly legitimate excuse for politicians and public servants - eg in the AWB inquiry, forgetfulness was contagious, businessmen - eg Alan Bond (not only did he have memory loss but supposedly some brain damage to go with it, from which he’s made a remarkable recovery post his legal troubles), Jodee Rich and others, football players - who seem to regularly forget that someone punched them when it comes tribunal time?

Vitale is one of the 8 men of interest over the death of Mrs Brimble.  He repeatedly answered “I don’t recall”, even after counsel assisting the inquest, Ron Hoenig, had told him there was no evidence to date to implicate him in the death.   The coroner got sick of this, and told him:

“You are answering questions as if you have got something to conceal - whether personal or trying to protect someone else, I don’t know,”

Spot on there, Ms Coroner!

The inquest should get interesting when recordings of intercepted phone calls between the 8 men discussing their evidence (thats polite for getting their stories straight) get played to the court.  That will be revealing … wonder if it will get one or more of them to break ranks and rat on whichever ultra-sleazy subset of them actually drugged Dianne Brimble to death.