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Thursday 22 March 2012 - After the sentence was read out
today, about 40 of Ms Corp's family and friends clapped and smiled, with calls
of “scumbag” and “dog” directed at Clifford.
Outside court, Elsa's father Andy Corp, a former UK
policeman, said hearing the details of what happened to his daughter in the
last minutes of her life had made him “sick in the guts” and he called for the
return of the death penalty.
“(I'm) so disappointed that a human being
could sink to that level and be so much of a scum bag that he turned out to be,” Mr Corp told reporters.
“People like that shouldn't be allowed to
live.
“If you had a referendum now on hanging,
I guarantee 90 per cent of the caring public, especially parents, would vote
yes.”
Andy Corp
is the father of Elsa Janet Corp - David Patrick Clifford, 30, will serve a minimum 19
years in jail after pleading guilty to the murder of 26-year-old Elsa Janet
Corp in a Melbourne hotel room on February 1, 2010. The pair had been on a
blind date when the hairdresser was brutally beaten to death before the hotel
room was set on fire. The 26-year-old hairdresser had electrical cord wrapped
around her neck when her body was found in the hotel room by firefighters on
February 1, 2010. Her spinal cord was severed at the neck. She'd also suffered
60 incisions, lacerations and abrasions to her head and neck, severe fractures
to her ribs, skull and face, tearing to her liver and a puncture wound on her
back. Bloodstains were found on the walls and furniture, mirrors had been
smashed and the smoke detector, air conditioner and bedhead ripped from their
fixtures. Justice Hollingworth said Clifford had been using amphetamines in the
days leading up to the murder and was becoming anxious and paranoid after three
days without sleep. Clifford was arrested at his home hours after the murder,
having hit two pedestrians with his car along the way. When police found Ms
Corp's handbag beneath bushes at his house, containing a bloody towel and
shirt, Clifford claimed she had attacked him. Clifford had a long list of prior
convictions for assault, harassment and drug trafficking and possession. At the
time of the murder, he was on parole for drug offences and on bail after being
charged with the violent assault of two men in 2008.
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Ms Douglas said she had never believed in
capital punishment, but her attitude had changed.
"Bring back the death penalty
as a punishment for this cowardly breed and hopefully deter any future monsters
acting out their sick and twisted depraved fantasy on any more unsuspecting
innocent victims,"
she said. "Those
who have shown no mercy shall be granted none."
Kara Douglas
was almost killed when Hell's Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson shot her during a 2007 rampage that claimed the life of lawyer Brendan Keilar and critically injured Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard. Shen has since founded the Beautiful Kaos Foundation, a group aimed at helping the victims of domestic and dating violence. The 2007 Melbourne CBD shooting was an incident that occurred in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Victoria on 18 June 2007. Three people were shot, one fatally, by Christopher Wayne Hudson, 31, a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, who opened fire on two men and a woman during an argument on the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane
at about 8:20 am. Hudson fled from the scene and went into hiding for
two days, before turning himself in to police on 20 June 2007 in Wallan, north of Melbourne. In May 2008, Hudson pleaded guilty to the murder of Brendan Keilar and was sentenced that September to life imprisonment with a minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole.
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Thursday 21 June 2012
- SURVIVORS and relatives of the 202 people killed in the 2002 Bali bombing
have reacted with anger over the sentence given to the last of the plotters to
face justice, saying Umar Patek should face a firing squad.
Patek, who spent
almost 10 years on the run as one of South-East Asia's most wanted, was
yesterday sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in building the explosive
devices used in the bombing. He could be released within 15 years if granted parole.
The 45-year-old was found guilty of mass murder for the attack on two
nightclubs in the popular tourist area of Kuta which left 202 people dead,
including 88 Australians, and injured scores more.
He was also found guilty of a number of other terrorism-related charges,
including a wave of bombings of churches across Indonesia on Christmas Eve in
2000.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence, although they could have pushed that
the man dubbed the "Demolition Man" for his reputation as a master
bomb-maker be sentenced to death.
The decision has
reignited painful memories for Perth mother June Corteen, who lost her
39-year-old twin daughters Jane and Jenny in the destruction unleashed by Patek
and his co-conspirators almost a decade ago.
Fighting back tears, she said Patek should have been sentenced to death.
"I really feel that he should follow in the
footsteps of the other guys. He should be put in front of the firing
squad," Ms Corteen told AAP.
"I have to live every day without seeing more
grandchildren, and my daughters."
Patek is the last of the Bali bombers to face justice.
He had avoided capture for almost a decade but was eventually apprehended in
January 2011 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US forces killed former
al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden less than four months later.
During the trial, an FBI agent testified that intelligence reports had revealed
Patek was in Pakistan to meet with bin Laden in an effort to re-establish links
between South-East Asian terrorist groups and al-Qaeda.
"He didn't give himself up," Ms
Corteen said.
"Until just recently, he really didn't feel sorry
for how much grief he caused other people."
The verdict comes ahead of the 10th anniversary of the attack later this year,
which will be marked by ceremonies in Bali and Australia.
"There will be a lot of tears this year,"
Ms Corteen said.
Patek may yet appeal his sentence.
June Corteen
is a Perth woman whose twin daughters, Jenny and Jane were killed in the 2002 Bali Bombings. The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was claimed as the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia according to the current police general, killing 202 people, (including 88 Australians, and 38 Indonesian citizens). A further 240 people were injured. Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death. The attack involved the detonation of three bombs: a backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber; a large car bomb, both of which were detonated in or near popular nightclubs in Kuta; and
a third much smaller device detonated outside the United States
consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage. An audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama Bin Laden
stated that the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of
the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation
of East Timor. On 9 November 2008, Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Huda bin Abdul Haq were executed by firing squad on the island prison of Nusakambangan at 00:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
On 9 March 2010, Dulmatin, nicknamed "the Genius" – believed to be
responsible for setting off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone –
was killed in a shoot-out with Indonesian police in Jakarta.
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It is often said that with rehabilitation and counselling, we are
able to turn cold-blooded killers into normal human beings. But Tuesday's
verdict has proved us wrong. If the original death sentence had not been
commuted, Tracey Greenbury would still be alive. Her children would still have
their mother and a family filled with grief would not have been forced to
confront the heartache of loss.
(Cold-blooded killers by Kate
Lauretta Thursday 1 October 2009 12:00AM)
Kate Lauretta
whose aunt, Valerie Dunn was stabbed to death by Leigh Robinson in 1968. Leigh Robinson was convicted on Tuesday 21 September 2009 for murdering his girlfriend Tracey Greenbury, 33. Robinson's latest conviction comes 40 years after he was sentenced to death in 1968 for the stabbing murder of an ex-girlfriend. That sentence was commuted to a 20-year jail term. Originally sentenced to death, Leigh Robinson was spared the hangman's noose by the State Government of the day and served just 20 years in prison. 41 years later, Robinson was again convicted of murder, this time Frankston mother-of-two Tracey Greenbury. Robinson was found guilty of firing his shortened 12-gauge shotgun into the back of Tracey's head on 28 April 2008. She died instantly.
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Tuesday
15 February 2011:
The
mother of slain Christchurch woman Vanessa Pickering has called for a
referendum on restoring the death penalty in New Zealand.
Rachel
Kitsen told TV ONE's Close Up tonight she wanted the referendum to be included
in this year's election.
"Either yes or no. And when I say that I mean 'beyond
reasonable doubt',"
she said.
Speaking
to Close Up tonight from her Greymouth home, Kitsen said Chaston had cost New
Zealand thousands of dollars and asked "why the
hell are they still keeping him?"
She
said before her loss she had considered the use of the death penalty. Capital
punishment for murder was abolished in 1961.
Kitsen
said Chaston was "pure evil" and that knowing his past "really
churns my stomach".
"I
know that he was out to get someone and unfortunately it was Vanessa," she
said.
Chaston has been remanded in custody
until April 18 for sentencing with two medical reports pending.
Rachel Kitson
is the mother of Vanessa Pickering, a Christchurch woman murdered by Malcolm George Chaston in New Zealand on February 2010. Close Up revealed last night the warnings that had been made by prison guards about Pickering's killer, Malcolm George Chaston, before he became a murderer. One guard said that Chaston had spoken in jail of his determination to kill as many women as possible on his release from prison. Chaston, a 41-year-old freezing worker, pleaded guilty in November to murdering Pickering, 27. His plea could not be reported until yesterday when he also admitted a separate charge of assault with intent to commit sexual violation against another victim. It was also revealed that on the day Chaston killed Pickering, he tried to sexually violate the second woman, but she managed to stop him. Pickering's disappearance in February last year sparked a major search near Christchurch. Her body was found three days later on farmland on Banks Peninsula. Court documents suggested she had been stabbed. Chaston committed the murder while on bail for an assault charge which was laid about a year after he was released from prison. He had served six years for kidnapping and sexually violating his former partner.
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Christopher
Edward Phillips, 37, stabbed his 73-year-old father Barry Douglas Phillips to
death in a frenzied attack on June 6 last year.
As
Phillips was led from the dock, sobbing family members screamed, "rot in hell you mongrel!".
Outside
court, Raymond Phillips said his half-brother should be executed for his crime.
"I believe bring back the electric chair or hang him, anything
like that," Raymon said.
"He (his father) was a gentle man and all that coward mongrel
canine done in there was lie."
Christopher
Edwards Phillips, 37, was sentenced in Victoria's Supreme Court this morning to
23 years' jail for murdering his 73-year-old father Douglas Barry Phillips at
their Frankston North home on June 6 last year.
Mr
Phillips' other sons screamed abuse at their estranged brother as guards led
him away to carry out a minimum 19-year non-parole period.
"You should be hung," one of them yelled.
Another
said: "You took our father's life away," and
"you are gone".
Phillips
yelled "grow up" back at them as he left the court.
Asked
about the severity of the sentence, Mr Phillips said: "To me it's not enough".
"No one can ever bring back the loved one you had and
especially being a sibling that's killed the person," he said.
"I believe bring back
the electric chair or hanging, anything like that. All that coward, mongrel
canine did in there was lie. When he turned around and said he had a violent
upbringing that was dysfunctional, it was all lies."
Family members of Barry Douglas Phillips
who was stabbed to death by his son, Christopher Edward Philips in Melbourne, Australia on 9 June 2009.
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