3.30PM: Initial reaction to the prison sentence handed out to a young Hungarian tourist for bludgeoning to death an elderly gay man is mixed, with Rainbow Wellington unsurprised by the sentence and Outline NZ concerned the killer got off lightly. Both organisations believe, however, that the use of 'gay panic' defense was inexcusable and must be disallowed. Ferdinand Ambach, 30 at the time of the attack, pleaded provocation in that he alleged his victim had made a sexual overture. He managed to get a murder charge dropped to a jury finding of manslaughter after he killed Ronald Brown, 69, in his Onehunga home in December 2007. "The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment, and this was one of the worst cases of manslaughter, yet Ambach will be released after a sentence of between eight and twelve years in prison," says Outline NZ counseling and advocacy service chief executive Lesley Belcham. "Ronald Brown was beaten to death and left with a broken banjo neck stuffed in his mouth," she says, "yet the jury felt that he provoked this and that Ambach's ghastly attack was somehow understandable. I hope that the Bill currently before Parliament to strike the partial defence of provocation provision from the statutes is passed and removal of the ‘gay panic’ defense can be the legacy of this terrible homophobic crime." Rainbow Wellington's Tony Simpson, who made an impassioned presentation to the select committee considering the government's Crimes (Provocation Repeal) Bill, says the twelve year sentence with a minimum eight year non-parole period, is not surprising. "It's about what I expected," he says . Simpson says he noted with interest that the sentencing judge, Helen Winkelmann, considered an alleged slight touch of Ambach's thigh by Brown as very low level provocation and that Ambach has shown no remorse. He says the current law allows lawyers to "muddy the waters" and juries to "express prejudice" in their decisions. Simpson speculates that the Ambach jury was prejudiced against the elderly, gay victim whereas in the other recent high profile 'provocation defence case, against Clayton Weatherston, that jury empathised with the young, female victim.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 18th September 2009 - 1:51pm