Devout christian jailed for athiest axe killing

[Rain ForestMoon]

Greetings,

I was not sure where else to post this, but I had to laugh when I read it, so I imagined "humor" is the correct board.

This comes from today's "The Australian" newspaper:

Man jailed for athiest axe killing

23dec04

A DEVOUT Christian who killed a man and injured his wife in a frenzied axe attack after they told him they were atheists has been jailed for 18 years.

Drifter Ashley John Appoo, 40, pleaded guilty in the Queensland state Supreme Court to manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm.
The court heard Appoo was hitchhiking in November 2001 when John Leslie McDonald and his wife Alois picked him up and took him home for lunch.
He ended up staying two days at the couple's home in rural Queensland before Alois told him she and her husband were atheists.
Appoo began punching the woman than turned on her husband when he tried to intervene.
The court was told Appoo then went outside, seized an axe and began attacking the couple, hitting John McDonald in the head and leg. McDonald died from his injuries and his wife sustained fractures to her jaw, ribs and ankle and an axe wound to her leg.
Defence lawyers said Appoo had suffered from violent rages and a personality disorder since 1995 when he was hit on the head with a didgeridoo.

So there you have it. It's the didgeridoo that made him do it....

Blessings

[katsu]

I fail to see the humor, nor do i feel the need to laugh at the death of anyone.

[Kystar]

Personally, I find it more ironic than humorus.

After all, how many times do you hear about a "cult" killing or "satanic" murder that casts a bad light on us.

But I agree, someone's death is not a funny thing.

[Librarian]

I fail to see the humor, nor do i feel the need to laugh at the death of anyone.

I agree, so now it's in "News".

[Linny]

So someone who is supposed to be a "devout Christian" went nuts and killed an atheist. I'm sorry for the victim's wife who now has to live without her husband. I thought Christians were supposed to love everybody.

[FyreGarnet]

I thought that Rain put it in humor because it was funny that it was christian, who is supposed to be loving, killed and atheist. While the death part isn't so funny, it is the irony of the situation that Rain found funny. Not to mention the fact that this man claims that he is purely psycho because someone hit him over the head with a didgeridoo. While hitting someone over the head can cause some serious damage, the item that he was hit with makes it seem really odd, and somewhat funny.

FyreGarnet

[Kobak]

also, those "evil" atheists extended a hand of friendship to this guy and let him stay in their house for two days, whereas the "good" christian...y'know. goes berzerk.

while death isn't funny, and i do feel for the wife, the story up until the murder is amusing, at least to me.

that bit about the didgeridoo reminds me of that one guy from the early 20th century that got a railroad spike through his head and lived, but his personality and temperament were completely altered. 's a text book psychology example of....something or other.

[Kiril]

No matter what someone's persuasion is, religion can never save you from mental derangement. So the fact he is christian is ironic, but still useless in the whole picture.

[dragonflydrummer]

I work with a guy like that. So -- it was a blow with
a didgeridoo that made him so blindly righteous. I somehow thought
it was endemic to being fundamentalist...

[Artemisblessed]

sorry i'm so late, but i must agree with Rain. even though death isn't funny, it's not the overall idea of the post. he wasn't saying "hey look, someone died," he was saying "hey look, and they think WE'RE crazy!"

so, in short, i dig it.

[Kelreth]

stupid fundies......

irony is the spice of life

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I'm completely lost on the legality of this case, I'm trying to work out what got him to manslaughter and why it wasn't taken down as automatism.... but I'm know contradicting my own legally arguments and getting a headaches lmao

(*sorry for the legally thing but I'm taking this in to my tutor to find out )

[Paganlight]

Weird! Very,very very wierd.

[Ragnar]

I'm completely lost on the legality of this case, I'm trying to work out what got him to manslaughter and why it wasn't taken down as automatism....

Because murder requires pre planning. Which due to the disturbed state of the mind, and the timing was not a probable conviction.

They may have charged him with murder, with a lesser charge of manslaughter. Two bites of the cherry in effect.

The defence would be "that the balance of the mind was disturbed", therefore no murder conviction, so the prosecution fall back on the second charge of manslaughter. (Involuntary homicide in the States). Virtualy a sure conviction, as the defence to murder had to be an addmission of the later.

[Kelreth]

the b!@#$%^ is still going to get out of jail at some point. Meanwhile one person is the dead, the other seriously injured. Yes the US judiary system works perfectly......