A 37-year-old bisexual freezing worker has been found guilty of murdering his stepson, by stabbing him with a boning knife. A jury at the High Court in Rotorua returned the guilty verdict today following the trial of Wanganui man Douglas Ham, who was accused of killing 25-year-old James Galloway near Turangi in May last year. He had claimed Galloway, his stepson, accidentally fell on the knife, after falling down a bank. The Dominion Post reports during the six day trial the court heard Ham killed Galloway after indecently assaulting his stepson while he slept in his house in Turangi. The newspaper says that embarrassed about the incident, Ham took a large boning knife from the kitchen and persuaded Galloway to go with him to a remote road near Lake Rotoaira where he stabbed him once in the chest. Ham is a former male prostitute whose so-called 'homosexual past' was raised by Crown Prosecutor Amanda Gordon during the trial. He had been in a relationship with Galloway's mother for the past nine years, but prior to that had only ever had relationships with men. Ham has been remanded until October for sentencing.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 21st September 2010 - 5:39pm