Current Courtney Herron 25yo - Bashed to death in a Melbourne city park

[Bombermania]

The media coverage of the whole thing has been horrendous from start to finish. Never before have I seen an attempt to make both people involved seem like your "average suburban person".

The media really can't go that hard at the victim's background, and when it comes to the alleged killer, he clearly is loopy as we saw when he appeared on TFS street talk but he has come from a well heeled background and when it comes to their backgrounds being made look suburban, considering where many journos live then they would be seen as your average suburban types.

 

[SunGirl89]

I've been wandering around the area where Courtney was murdered a bit weeks past, travelling in and out. It's so dark there at night, even the street pavements seem very dark and sudden blackness. It's like all the light is being sucked out onto the roads. I don't step off into the park areas at night not because I'm frightened to so much but because I don't think I could even see where I was going.

I'm very familiar with the park and travel through it frequently. As you said, it is very dark, especially around the Native Grassland Circle (map link), although that section is the other side of the tram line. The whole area is definitely not somewhere to be after dark. It is disappointing that this whole area and Princes Park are so poorly lit.

 

[HTPunter]

What shits me more is the legal team for the accused murderer are now trying to claim mental illness as the reason, seeking a lenient outcome. The fact that mentally ill people aren't inherently violent isn't a new discovery, yet again and again our media reinforces the perception that violence is often caused by mental illness and therefore people with mental illness have a greater capacity for violence. Research has confirmed that the number of violent acts committed by mentally ill people is disproportionate to how widely covered it is on the news and other media.

It's far too easy to easy to claim, 'they must have been so mentally unwell,' followed up by, 'we need to do more to reform our mental health systems'. But mental health care deserves its own separate and thoughtful conversation, not just to be a stand-in for preventing criminal behaviour. Continuing to emphasise the link between criminality and mental illness is harmful. It might sell news and TV shows, but in reality, it's stigmatising people with mental illnesses.

If he truly has illnesses such as Delusional Disorder that remain unmedicated, then it's not an unnecessary emphasis. It doesn't make him more likely to commit crimes, but it the event of a crime being committed it does offer an alternative for possible motives outside of the more 'conventional' crimes-on-women (sexual assault, spousal murder etc).

 

[Thegibbsgamble]

If he truly has illnesses such as Delusional Disorder that remain unmedicated, then it's not an unnecessary emphasis. It doesn't make him more likely to commit crimes, but it the event of a crime being committed it does offer an alternative for possible motives outside of the more 'conventional' crimes-on-women (sexual assault, spousal murder etc).

Look up the drug ritilin. Look up all the court cases where users have successfully sued for that drug causing the very behavior the accused has done.

This is why the media have reported on the story like they have. The Media are nothing more than a properganda machine for those drug companies.

 

[BonzaRam]

'No justice' for Courtney Herron's family as her killer ordered to spend 25 years in psychiatric hospital

Henry Hammond, who used a tree branch to beat Ms Herron to death in a Melbourne park, is ordered to spend 25 years in a secure psychiatric hospital — an outcome Ms Herron's father says fails to deliver justice.

www.abc.net.au

 

[footscray1973]

'No justice' for Courtney Herron's family as her killer ordered to spend 25 years in psychiatric hospital

Henry Hammond, who used a tree branch to beat Ms Herron to death in a Melbourne park, is ordered to spend 25 years in a secure psychiatric hospital — an outcome Ms Herron's father says fails to deliver justice.

www.abc.net.au

"No criminal conviction"! So she was killed, but the act was not a crime? Even though she was beaten to death over the course of 50 minutes. What a terrific criminal justice system we have here.