Report in The SMH 9 June 2011:
A Melbourne man who was angry at being propositioned by his gay housemate assaulted him with a platypus statue during a fatal fight, a court has heard.
Aaron James Johnstone, 29, "lost it" after his drunk and naked housemate Phillip Higgins propositioned him in September 2006.
Johnstone told police he assaulted Mr Higgins before dropping the platypus statue on him.
Johnstone has pleaded not guilty to murder and is facing trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.
In his opening address to the jury, prosecutor Mark Rochford SC said an office chair was also used in the alleged murder.
He said Johnstone carried out a sustained attack on 46-year-old Mr Higgins.
Mr Higgins, who was openly gay, was found lying dead on the floor of their Seaford home with a pair of underpants beside him.
There was blood beside his body and on the office chair, Mr Rochford said.
Also nearby was the 8kg platypus statue, he said.
Mr Higgins suffered numerous injuries including a fractured bone in the neck, and abrasions and lacerations to the head, Mr Rochford said.
A post-mortem showed he had a blood alcohol concentration of .32.
Mr Rochford said in Johnstone's record of interview he told police Mr Higgins had come out of the bedroom and said he would like to have oral sex with him.
At that point Johnstone told police he lost it, hitting and kicking Mr Higgins.
He said he then dropped the statue on Mr Higgins.
Johnstone intended to kill or cause really serious injury to Mr Higgins, Mr Rochford said.
Johnstone's barrister, John Desmond, said while he did not dispute his client's actions caused the death of Mr Higgins, he did not intend to kill him.
"The evidence will show that Higgins propositioned Johnstone in his drunken state," Mr Desmond said.
It was not the first time Johnstone had been propositioned by a drunken Mr Higgins, he said.
Mr Desmond urged the jury to look closely at the evidence about the platypus.
The trial before Justice Robert Osborn continues on Friday.
(From what’s on Tianjin)
A Melbourne man who fatally bashed his gay housemate with a platypus statue during a fight has been found guilty of murder.
Aaron James Johnstone, 29, "lost it" after his drunk and naked housemate Phillip Higgins propositioned him in September 2006.
Johnstone told police he assaulted Mr Higgins before dropping the eight-kilogram platypus statue on him.
Johnstone had pleaded not guilty to murder in the Victorian Supreme Court but a jury took less than a day to find him guilty.
In his opening address to the jury, prosecutor Mark Rochford, SC, said Johnstone carried out a sustained attack on 46-year-old Mr Higgins.
Mr Higgins, who was openly gay, was found lying dead on the floor of their Seaford home with a pair of underpants beside him.
Johnstone's barrister, John Desmond, said in his opening address that while he did not dispute that his client's actions caused the death of Mr Higgins, he did not intend to kill him.
Johnstone, formerly of Seaford, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as the verdict was delivered.
He will face a pre-sentence hearing next Tuesday.
Report in The Southern Star Observer:
Victoria Police may appeal a three-month suspended sentence handed to a Melbourne man for his part in a violent gay bashing on Sydney Rd last year.
The man, Billal Ali, was also fined $1500 and placed on a 12-month community-based order for the brutal attack which left a gay couple with bruising, cuts and one victim with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The incident occurred at 9.30pm on Christmas night 2010 when Ali and his cousin Houssain El Halabi, from a car, approached the two men who were holding hands.
Ali and El Halabi hurled homophobic abuse at the couple and Ali threw a bottle at the head of one of the victims before the two offenders set upon the pair, chasing them down and viciously kicking and punching them.
Two of Ali’s brothers, Haydar and Barry, later arrived at the scene and joined in the attack. The three Ali brothers were sentenced in the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on Monday. Haydar Ali received a 12-month community-based order and was fined $1500 for his part in the attack.
Barry Ali was fined $1500.
In 2009 Victorian sentencing laws were amended to require judges to take into account crime motivated by hate or prejudice when handing down a sentence.
Magistrate Peter Mellas told the court he was satisfied, given the evidence, the victims had come to Billal Ali’s attention because of their sexual orientation.
However, in sentencing Haydar and Barry Ali, Mellas said he could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the pair were specifically motivated by prejudice in the attack.
Mellas rejected Billal Ali’s use of steroids, said to have given him ‘roid rage’, as an excuse for the attack.
El Halabi did not show up at the court for sentencing and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Victoria Police prosecutor Danielle Pastoors said an appeal will be lodged with the Office of Police Prosecutions (OPP) in the coming days to challenge the leniency of the sentence in line with changes to Victoria’s hate-crime sentencing laws.
Victoria Police launched its first-ever strategy to combat prejudice-motivated crime earlier this year to train police to better respond to hate-motivated crime.
The case is thought to be one of the first to test the state’s new sentencing laws on homophobic-motivated crime.
Anti-Violence Project Victoria convenor Greg Adkins told the Star Observer the outcome of the case does not clearly demonstrate that changes to sentencing laws are having an effect.
“It may take this case moving to a higher court before the gay and lesbian community can see the evidence that the prejudice motivation provision in sentencing is truly in operation,” he said.
From the Star Observer:
By Mike Hitch
Since NSW homicide detectives arrested a man as part of an investigation into the murder of Scott Johnson last week, police are now appealing for new information in other unsolved suspected “gay hate” crimes.
Last week, NSW police arrested Scott Phillip White and charged him with the murder of Scott Johnson in 1988.
Johnson’s body was found on the morning of Saturday 10 December 1988 at the base of a cliff at Blue Fish Point, near Manly’s North Head on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Johnson, an American-born mathematician who was based in Sydney, was just 27-years-old when he was murdered. His death is now the most high-profile gay hate crime in Sydney’s history.
Strike Force Welsford detectives arrested 49-year-old Phillip White at Lane Cove at around 8:30 am last week, before a search warrant was executed at a nearby home.
Speaking after the arrest, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner, Tony Crandell said that there are now at least 23 unsolved murders that occurred at Sydney’s notorious gay-beats during the 1970s through to the 1990s.
Crandell noted that the breakthrough discovery had given him hope that arrests are now possible in many similar unsolved cases.
“There are other cases that are around Alexandria… that we attribute to gay hate crime [that] have not been solved,” he said.
“Ross Warren [and] John Russell are two cases that come to mind.
“I’m very hopeful that cases like this reverberate through the community and we can get more information. We need more information in order to pursue these cases.
“As the Commissioner said, they are not closed, they are not frozen. We will work on them. Anybody out there who committed such offences should be looking over their shoulder.”
More than 80 gay men disappeared or were murdered in NSW at coastal parks in Sydney’s eastern suburbs during the ’70s 80’s and ’90s.
Many of these fatalities were thought to be accidents or suicides at the time of investigation, with many pointing to a police force that failed to properly investigate due to blatant homophobia. This was confirmed when a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into gay hate crimes last year found that “pervasive prejudices” within the NSW police force led to failures of justice for many victims.
However, the tides are now turning as many are now revisiting potential historic gay hate crimes, particularly the murders of Ross Warren and John Russell – so here’s what we know.
Ross Warren, a successful newsreader for WIN TV in Wollongong, was last seen on 22 July 1989 while driving along Oxford Street, Darlinghurst after drinking with his friends.
His car keys were found two days later on a rock ledge below a cliff at Marks Park, Tamarama. A well-known gay-beat, Marks Park now has a memorial dedicated to those who were the victims of historic gay hate crimes.
While police believed Warren had staged his own disappearance, and then later thought he had fallen into the sea, his body was never found.
However, in 2005, then-NSW deputy coroner, Jacqueline Milledge scorned the “grossly inadequate and shameful” investigation and noted that she believed Warren to be “a victim of homicide”.
“To characterise it as an ‘investigation’ is to give it a label it does not deserve,” Milledge concluded in 2005.
These failures were further confirmed last year when the NSW Upper House committee found that police officers looking into Warren’s disappearance chose to “sideline” the investigation.
Later in 1989, John Russell, a barman working in the eastern suburbs, was also found dead at the clifftop in Marks Park on 23 November 1989.
In 2015, NSW police announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction and now consider his death a “probable gay-hate crime”.
Police have also issued a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of those responsible.
As more information is gathered for Warren and Russell’s murders, Police are now digging deeper back into the past for other unsolved cases.
27-year-old French national and suspected victim of historic gay hate crimes, Gilles Mattain, was also last seen walking along the coast at Tamarama on September 15, 1985.
Strangely, his friends did not report his disappearance until 2002.
However, in 2005 a coronial inquest found he may possibly have died after being thrown off the cliff at Tamarama.
A $100,000 reward is also on offer for information regarding his death.
Cyril Olsen, another suspected gay hate crime victim, was assaulted and later fell into Sydney Harbour at Rushcutters Bay on August 22, 1992. Rushcutters Bay was a known gay beat at the time.
An inquest initially declared Olsen accidentally drowned. However, police now believe he was the victim of a gay-bashing before his death.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller affirmed last week that gay hate crime victims had been failed by police and apologised for “the mistakes of the past”.
Fuller also noted that last week’s arrest will hopefully encourage people with further information to come forward.
“Please don’t underestimate how one small piece of the puzzle can lead police to solve some of the most terrible crimes in our state’s history,” he said.
“The NSW police force will never give up… There is no such thing as an unsolved crime.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers confidentially on 1800 333 000 or online here.
GAY AND LESBIAN HATE CRIMES - BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RECOMMENDED READING LIST