Autism Defense Again

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Speculative at best that these historical figures were Aspies.


That is what I am worried about and why I started this thread. I am seeing this more and more.

A prominent Perth child psychiatrist who secretly filmed young boys' genitals as they urinated in public toilets had an "obsession with urination", a court has heard.

Dr Aaron Voon, the former director of Cockburn Central's Successful Development and Therapy Centre, narrowly avoided a jail term in the District Court of Western Australia on Friday over eight child pornography related charges.

Judge Alan Troy instead sentenced Voon to 18 months jail, suspended for 18 months.

he conviction followed searches of the 42-year-old's Mount Pleasant home and clinic in June 2016, where he was found to have recorded eight videos featuring young boys urinating in public toilets and taken more than 400 still images of the videos - often zooming in, or cropping them to focus on the boys' genitals.

The videos were recorded over nine months in 2015 and 2016 in Perth, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.

During sentencing on Friday, Voon's lawyer Sam Vandongen said his client suffered post traumatic stress after he was detained in Canada for 15 days, during which time to claimed to have had faeces thrown at him.

Voon has since been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder.

The court heard he developed an obsession with toilets and cisterns as a child and had developed a fascination with urination.

Judge Troy described the case as "unusual", saying what Voon had done was clear, but despite several psychiatric reports, why he had done it, was not.

He concluded Voon's motivation for recording the boys, aged between around 7-13, was partly attributed to his psychiatric conditions and urination obsession, but also included some sexual motivation, despite Voon claiming he was a-sexual.

"Your offending was repeated over a period of nine months or so... and could not be said to be spontaneous," Judge Troy said.

"[As a psychiatrist] you had... a greater capacity than a layperson to seek help for your apparent condition.

"You must have known what you were doing was wrong... you sought no professional help."

Judge Troy found Voon's risk of reoffending was low and that he was remorseful, had stopped using urinals as a self-protective measure, and had sought counselling for his conditions.

During sentencing remarks, Mr Vandongen said his client accepted what he did was abnormal and morally wrong.

Maynard had more than one explanation for how he came into possession of Cumby’s van and other personal property, including that they had been together in Idaho Falls. He also said he was going on a shopping trip.

Cumby’s cellphone was recovered from the van’s glove box. Investigators found some recent Google searches on the cellphone, done in Washington state, that had to do with the use of Asperger’s syndrome in criminal defense. Maynard told deputies that he had symptoms of Asperger’s.

The perpetrator of the elaborately planned assault on Roundhouse Road in Monument Beach two and a half years ago will spend the remainder of his life behind bars. Former Coast Guardsman Adrian T. Loya, 33, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. He will be incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution–Cedar Junction in South Walpole.

Jurors were left with competing medical testimony as to whether Mr. Loya has a mental defect that impaired his ability to either fully comprehend the criminality of his actions or control his behavior to comport with the law. Psychiatrists and psychologists on both sides offered diagnoses ranging from Asperger’s to avoidant personality disorder to depression in presenting their opinion as to whether Mr. Loya could be held criminally responsible for the murder of Ms. Trubnikova and the other events of that night.

"Autism is evil" should be the name of this thread.

It makes me people do evil things.

Tom Hayes, the former trader who is serving 11 years in jail for Libor rigging, was due to appear in court via a video link today as he fights his ban from the City.

The former UBS and Citigroup trader is due to argue in the Royal Courts of Justice that his ban from the sector should be held off while the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) decides whether to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.

Speaking from prison, he will challenge a so-called prohibition order imposed by the City watchdog after he became the first person to be convicted of manipulating the key financial global benchmark Libor in August 2015.

The 37-year old appealed on the basis that he did not receive a fair trial because of his Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, and questioned evidence given by expert witness Saul Haydon Rowe.

The "free hugs" man with a history of harassing women is in custody again for attacking a woman in Union Square.

The victim, who told her story exclusively to PIX11, said Jermaine Himmelstein attacked her when she refused to hug him.

She said she was out with her mother and friends taking photos when he approached her multiple times.

"I did not expect for this guy to attack us," she said. "From behind he runs and hits me right in the face with an open palm and just knocks off my glasses ... and then runs off," she said.

Himmelstein was arrested in 2016 for attacking a Canadian tourist in the eye after she refused to tip him in Times Square. Police say she suffered a black eye, bruising and severe swelling to her face.

His parents claims he has autism and prosecutors found him mentally unfit to stand trial in the Times Square case so the charges were dropped.

The charges were dropped. So... what's to be done to prevent him from hitting anyone else?

Antony Theodosius also caused £500 of damage when he set fire to two bins in a communal area outside the block of flats in Avon Way, Greenstead, Colchester.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard the arsonist was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 18 and has the mental capabilities of a 13-year-old boy.

Theodosius said he set the bins alight when he was drunk and persuaded to do so by a friend.

“At 18 he was diagnosed with autism and Asperger’s. It is quite severe to the extent his support worker believes he has the mental capabilities of a 13-year-old boy.”

And if a 13 year old child did that, they will still face charges. So the guy is just slow. I didn't know autism can make someone's IQ be low.

Britain’s markets regulator said on Wednesday it would postpone banning jailed former trader Tom Hayes from the financial services industry until an investigation into his conviction has been completed.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said Hayes, a former UBS (UBSG.S) and Citigroup (C.N) derivatives trader serving an 11-year sentence for conspiracy to rig global Libor interest rates, was not a “fit and proper person”.

But it said the case has been put on ice until after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates where people have lost an appeal but believe they have been wrongly convicted, examines his case.

Hayes, who became the first person jailed worldwide in 2015 for Libor manipulation offences, maintains his innocence and said he welcomed a decision that allowed him to concentrate fully on the CCRC investigation.

If the conviction is not upheld, the FCA will need to begin fresh proceedings on different facts if it maintains Hayes is not fit and proper, the Tribunal said.

Hayes, a gifted mathematician with mild Asperger’s syndrome, was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to rig the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a benchmark for rates on around $450 trillion worth of loans worldwide, while a Tokyo-based trader from 2006 to 2010.

The sentence - one of the longest for white-collar crime in Britain - was reduced to 11 years on appeal. But his attempt to overturn his conviction failed and London’s Court of Appeal blocked any further appeal at the Supreme Court.

Hayes and his family have raised more than 90,000 pounds ($118,000) through a crowdfunding campaign to fund the appeal.

An Ohio judge is trying to decide how to deal with a man who has been diagnosed with autism and has repeatedly violated his probation for sexual battery by asking women to touch their bellybuttons.

29-year-old Graig Burrier (GREG bur-EE-ur) pleaded guilty Wednesday to a probation violation after he asked a female jogger if he could see her bellybutton. He had been convicted of sexual battery in 2011.

The judge must decide whether to send Burrier back to prison or to a treatment program for sex offenders.

Prosecutors say Burrier isn't autistic and that earlier treatment didn't change his behavior. Burrier's attorney disagrees, saying Burrier is autistic and needs more intensive treatment.

A man with a condition on the autistic spectrum said he may have 'misread the situation' when he had sex with a woman and said: “If I have misinterpreted it, I am horribly sorry.”

Lewis Vidler, 18, told police the woman never indicated she didn't want sex on July 22 last year.

A trial has heard Vidler, 16 at the time he had sex with the woman, has Attention Deficit Disorder, learning disabilities and mild Asperger’s Syndrome.

The woman has told the court that she 'froze' and pretended to be asleep as Vidler had sex with her

He said that he had not been drunk at the time and said she had been awake because they were doing “sexual stuff” before intercourse.

Vidler said: “She did not say ‘No’ or anything. She did not give indication. It just kind of like happened.”

He added they never spoke about what they had done and he could not recall much of what happened.

Vidler admitted he had pornography on his phone but denied watching it after sex.

A 20-year-old from St. Charles who was on home monitoring on three pending felony drug cases when he was charged with having cannabis oil mailed to him to later sell was sentenced Monday to 6½ years of probation.

"I don't trust you," Kane County Judge John Barsanti said as he sentenced Braham Thomas, of the 1300 block of South Fourth Street. "If you come back in front of me (for a probation violation), I'm not going to make this speech again."

Thomas was on electronic home monitoring as part of his bond conditions for three pending felony drug cases when he was arrested in May after accepting a package containing cannabis oil, according to prosecutors and court records.

Earlier this year, Thomas pleaded guilty to two separate counts of possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, one from a Jan. 26 arrest and another from his May 16 arrest, and left it up to Barsanti to determine his sentence.

Assistant State's Attorney Andrew Whitfield pushed for a three-year prison term on the May case and 24 months of probation on the January case. Whitfield noted Thomas was convicted of a drug offense as a juvenile and was on electronic home monitoring on three pending drug cases when the state police got a search warrant and saw Thomas accept the package containing $2,100 worth of THC oil.

"What we have to look at is someone who is flagrantly violating the law," he said. "People who are on bond who commit more felonies should be sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections."

Defense attorney Tim Mahoney argued for probation, citing Thomas' mental health history -- which included four concussions as well as diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and bipolar disorder -- and his client's maturation while serving nearly seven months in jail while the cases were pending.

Additional men have come forward to accuse John Draper, the hacker pioneer and early Apple associate known as “Cap’n Crunch,” of inappropriate behavior, stalking, and sexual assault.

Draper, now 74, was revered by many as an inspiration to early hackers, particularly as a “phone phreak” who discovered in the 1970s that people could place long-distance phone calls at no charge by playing a specific tone into their telephones. He adopted the nickname “Cap’n Crunch,” after the cereal, which included a whistle whose sound was the precise right pitch. Before founding Apple, cofounders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs sold a variant of a device Draper built to mimic the sound.

But his reputation has taken a hit after BuzzFeed News on Nov. 17 published allegations that Draper had acted inappropriately at hacker conventions, pressuring young men to join him for private “energy” workouts in hotel rooms and climbing on the backs of men who agreed. One of the men threw Draper off and fled. Another felt Draper’s erection against his back as Draper urged him to bounce up and down. Wozniak told BuzzFeed News that Jobs told him Draper once urged him to engage in an exercise, an offer Jobs turned down as “out of the ordinary.”

Draper is promoting an upcoming memoir, Beyond the Little Blue Box. Through the book's spokesperson, Allie McKay, he refused to comment on any of those allegations before they were published and declined a request for an interview. Draper later did speak to the Daily Dot, which had previewed his book in October, and admitted that he “might have had an erection” when conducting exercises, though he denied that he knowingly committed assault.

Since BuzzFeed News' initial report, three more men have come forward with similar stories, a series of hacker conventions have announced that Draper is no longer welcome at their events, and two organizations have rejected his proposed donation of book proceeds to help fund research into Asperger’s syndrome — a condition Draper now says he has and that may have contributed to his behavior.

“I think that it is possible that someone with Asperger's could engage in this kind of behavior because of a lack of understanding of what it would mean for his subjects or victims,” Laraine Glidden, a psychologist and researcher at St. Mary’s College of Maryland who specializes in developmental psychology, told BuzzFeed News. “Did it occur in this instance, or is it merely an excuse to get away with the consequences of his actions? Certainly that’s possible.”

Contacted for this story, McKay offered an apology on Draper's behalf, but denied that Draper had committed sexual assaults.

“Mr. Draper offers a sincere apology if anyone has ever misunderstood his intentions and as a result feel they have encountered him in a negative capacity,” the statement said. “Mr. Draper rejects any claims of sexual misconduct or assault, as well as any claims whatsoever involving nefarious intent or deeds posted on any social media platform at any time.”