Gay bashing accused sentenced
A Melbourne man found guilty of bashing his gay flatmate to death has been sentenced to 18 years jail, The Age has reported today.
Aaron James Johnstone, 29, was found guilty of murder for attacking his openly gay flatmate Phillip Higgins, 46, with an eight-kilogram platypus statue.
Johnstone claimed he had “lost his temper” when Higgins had allegedly propositioned him.
The Age report said Johnstone had punched Higgins and kicked his head “like a football” until he bled profusely.
Justice Robert Osborn said the attack was a “savage betrayal of [Higgins’] trust and generosity”.
Johnstone had pleaded not guilty to murdering Higgins, however, a jury took a day to find him guilty in a retrial of the case.
Johnstone had earlier been found guilty and given an 18-year sentence for the crime.
Be strong and gay
I remember as a young gay man in the 90’s reading about a guy who met someone at a park, brought him back to his house, then he was stabbed over 50 times, and the killer walked free using the legislation that said if a homosexual person propositioned someone, you could argue a special defence, the legislation was supported by the Liberal Party. Rob Hulls in the Labor Party led the charge when Labor won government and got rid of this legislation, resulting in killers going to jail just like any other killer.
In 1995, the current Liberal Party Attorney-General Robert Clarke said of homosexuality to parliament, “I believe homosexual practices form a destructive way of life, destructive to the individual and destructive also to other individuals who are brought into that way of life. I suppose it is most readily demonstrable at a physical level; it is a physical fact that the human body is not designed for many homosexual practices and it is clear that physical problems follow from those practices.” Mr Clark went on to quote a student medical text stating that homosexual male pedophiles commonly reported molesting hundreds of victims, while heterosexual pedophiles “molest only a few”. (Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/libs-take-dim-view-of-homosexuals/2005/11/26/1132966006762.html ). I think there is a strong link between hate speeches such as those given by the Victorian Liberal Party Attorney General Robert Clarke, and hate crimes committed against people in the GLBTI community.
When defendants who kill in response to homosexual advances are not convicted of murder, courts and juries reinforce the notion that homosexuality is culpable behaviour and that gay men do not deserve the respect and protection of the criminal justice system.
Tasmania abolished the partial defence of provocation in 2003. Victoria followed in 2005, in the wake of the outrage over the Ramage case and the subsequent release of the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s 2004 report on defences to homicide. In 2008, Western Australia also abolished provocation in an overhaul of its homicide laws. While the Northern Territory, ACT and South Australia still have provocation on the books, amendments have been passed that prevent the defence being invoked in the context of nonviolent sexual advances. Effectively, the ‘homosexual advance defence’ can now only be used in New South Wales and Queensland.
In 2005 the Victorian government moved to abolish “Provocation” as a defence to murder with Victoria’s Attorney-General Rob Hulls announcing that accused murderers could no longer claim they had been provoked to kill. Such a defence, he said, “promotes a culture of blaming the victim and has no place in a modern society”.
In March this year, a spokesman for the Liberal Party Attorney General, Robert Clarke, says he has been concerned about the use of defensive homicide since its inception in 2005 by Rob Hulls. He is seeking a “Review” and wants “Changes” as he says the law is not working as it should be. I think Phillip Higgins murderer treated as a murderer, shows the laws are working very well. Given the history of Robert Clarke’s hate speeches about people who are in the GLBTI community, I am concerned. Given his abolishing the police institutions that exist to protect us, to facilitate justice, and the removal from public office those that support justice for all such as the Police Commissioner, does not help my concerns. In addition having abolished rights at work for thousands of GLBTI people in the Equal Opportunity Act, I think we all should be worried. Our lives are worth as much as the next person. Our justice should be worth as much also.
I do not want us in Victoria to return to the days when you could stab someone 50 times and walk away free, as they dared to ask you out. But the actions of the Liberal Party lead me to no other conclusion. Even Clem Newton-Brown of Prahran promised to mend the relationship between the Liberal Party and our community, but when it counted, he did not cross the parliament floor to protect us, and gave the excuse “I was just following orders”.
Equality is about living as freely as the next person, but it appears the Liberal/National Party feel some should be more equal then others, and some should be free to murder.
This was murder, pure and simple. The judge found that, the police found that, the jury found that and so did the law. Imagine if every time someone propositioned us we grabbed a stone and clubbed them to death. This killer deserved longer than 18 years, he deserved never to be released. All this and as a criminal barrister once told me, the dead cannot be a witness, only the killer.
This killer is a cold blooded killer no different to the rest of them. Killers always complain the deceased asked for it. That is what makes them killers.
you have to also consider that he was defending himself. I think the sentencing was too harsh and hope an appeal comes through!
My deepest Sympathy goes out to the family and friends of Phillip Higgins.
I thank Simon Overland, the former police Commissioner who was run out of office by the Liberal/National Party, for encouraging dignity in the police force, for training police. I see with great sadness, that the police GLBTI Unit is being abandoned. It is with great Sadness that the Attorney General of the Liberal Party, has refereed to homosexuals as sick animals, and that in Prahran, they are led by Clem Newton-Brown, who has said when voting recently for the vilification of people in the GLBTI Community, ” I was just following orders”.
The sad fact is that although justice was delivered in the case, the Liberal/National Party are seeking to have us killed again now they have power.
I call on them not to nail us to a cross, not to promote the hatred and killing of us, but to remember we are part of the community also.
I’m rather impressed the basher’s name was published in the media. Yay, now he can’t run in anonymity, and may have to actually face up to his crime.
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