Clayton Weatherston - Poster Child for Capital Punishment.
Does anyone in New Zealand not know who Clayton Weatherston is?
Coming on the back of the hotly-debated Bain and Kahui verdicts, isn't it fantastic to see the whole country unite in seeing Clayton Weatherston as a cold, calculating murderer; so arrogant in his self-belief that he even considered the possibility that blaming the victim of 250 stab wounds might work? Admitting to being on Weatherston's side would be worse than admitting to touching little boys on Scout camps.
Who is not salivating at the thought of the smug, white, weedy Clayton Weatherston being confronted in a prison cell by ten huge, angry Maori convicts. Why else are stories about Weatherston being taunted so popular? I've certainly heard many people expressing a delight at looking forward to the coverage of his beating to a pulp. Media frenzy over the stories is driven by public demand, and the notoriety to be gained by being known as the crim who dealt to Clayton Weatherston will be a drawcard for as long as he's in jail. He will never be safe with other prisoners.
Yet, many of the contenders for the Killing of Clayton are in jail themselves for reprehensible crimes, including murder, rape, child abuse and wife-beating. These are not people that those clamouring for Clayton's Corpse will be inviting to dinner to congratulate.
Clayton Weatherston is a piece of vermin, there can be no doubt, but he is clearly a deeply disturbed young man who appears to be more suited to a lunatic asylum than a prison, but if the death penalty existed in New Zealand, he would walk to the gallows without a single supporter. I am reminded of historical accounts of murderers hanging at Tyburn Tree (gallows), where crowds of people who had never been harmed by the condemned man came to glory in his death. What date is it again?
Clayton's parents don't seem like the type to have raised a monster, and it's certainly my understanding that sociopaths are born, not made, and there seems no doubt that he's a sociopath.
I have little sympathy for Clayton Weatherston, while I have plenty for his family. He has been pilloried in the press, at water-coolers and on blogs around the country and is now languishing in jail, awaiting the 18-20 year sentence about to be handed to him.
I'm quite happy for him to rot in jail for his crimes, but screaming for his blood is lowering oneself to Weatherston's level. Seeking his death at the hands of disgusting filth seems as insane as stabbing someone 250 times. Death by proxy is still death.
One parallel which seems to have escaped most people is the equally-horrific death of Ronald James Brown, aged 69, in Onehunga. Ferdinand Ambach, a Hungarian national, was invited to Ronald Brown's house in Onehunga on Pearl Harbour Day (7th Dec) 2007, when, after drinking sharing some of Ronald's beers, Ronald was forward enough to [allegedly] make a homosexual advance to Ferdinand.
Being a homophobic scumbag, Ferdinand didn't just say "No thanks" to this harmless old man, but instead proceeded to beat him to a pulp, only to finish him off by forcing a banjo neck down his throat. Ronald Brown clung onto life for a few days before life support was switched off at Auckland Hospital. If it's hard to empathise with the rage causing 250 stab wounds, then it must be equally hard to empathise with the rage required to force a piece of wood so far down the throat of an old man that only the tuning keys were outside his mouth.
Yet, in the Onehunga case, the plea of provocation was accepted and Ferdinand was convicted only of manslaughter, despite Ronald Brown being every bit the helpless vicitm Sophie was at Weatherston's hands.
It seems awfully ironic that a case where a homosexual advance was involved should be found to be sufficient provocation to cold-bloodedly kill another human, and I see no prison inmates or bloggers clamouring for the blood of Ferdinand Ambach.
In fact, knowing what I do of prison hierarchy, I can guarantee that while Weatherston is up for grabs by anyone canny enough to spill his blood, Ambach will be treated as a good guy, having rid the world of a hated queer.
Update Feb 2013 - I'm pleased to see attitudes changing - it may be this generation sees the last of homophobia
Copyright © Alan Charman