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Melbourne mum who tried to kill autistic son avoids jail

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ASPartOfMe
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25 Mar 2018, 2:17 am

https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/melbourne-mum-who-tried-to-kill-disabled-son-avoids-jail-ng-b88680526z

Quote:
At the end of her tether after decades of caring for her autistic and epileptic son, Yvette Nichol wanted the pain and suffering to end.

After writing letters to family members, she tried to take her life and that of her adult son out of “love, not anger”.
But she woke and so did he, and feeling regretful, she called an ambulance.
Nichol, 63, later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and on Monday she was spared jail by a judge who said the case called for mercy.

“I’m not going to send you to jail,” Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan said.
“As a community, we ultimately ought to be judged not on our ability to punish, but on our ability to show compassion.

“There is a place for compassion and for mercy. I am satisfied that yours is such a case.”

Nichol had been the primary carer for her son Brett, 34, for all his life until the murder-suicide attempt at their Melbourne home on May 27.

Brett suffered from harrowing night terrors, and these had been getting more frequent and severe in the years leading up to the incident.

Nichol was remorseful and her moral culpability was low, given the difficult and unique position she faced at the time, the judge added.

She was placed on a two-year community corrections order.


The suffering of Brett during the attempted murder is irrelevant it seems.


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Lintar
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25 Mar 2018, 7:49 pm

What disgusts me about this whole sordid incident is not so much the actions and beliefs of the mother, horrendous though they are, but the complete absence of sympathy (and empathy) within the article for the VICTIM here! We're talking about attempted murder, and the idiot who wrote this horrendous excuse for an article seems to be sympathising with the perpetrator!

Why the hell should anyone feel ANY sympathy for that rotten b***h?! Oh, that's right, because she just wanted to rid society of yet one more "useless eater", one with no chance of living an independent life and who probably was miserable anyway.

:evil:



Lintar
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25 Mar 2018, 8:01 pm

Quote:
At the end of her tether after decades of caring for her autistic and epileptic son, Yvette Nichol wanted the pain and suffering to end.


Oh gee, the poor thing. She was suffering. :roll:

Quote:
After writing letters to family members, she tried to take her life and that of her adult son out of “love, not anger”.


Of course, because we all know that the greatest gift you can give to someone you love is to deprive them of their very existence. Especially when they have autism, because we all know that those people are all miserable and want to kill themselves anyway.

Quote:
But she woke and so did he, and feeling regretful, she called an ambulance.

Nichol, 63, later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and on Monday she was spared jail by a judge who said the case called for mercy.


I'd be willing to bet that if her son had been "normal" this pathetic excuse for a judge wouldn't have recommended mercy.

Quote:
“I’m not going to send you to jail,” Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan said.

“As a community, we ultimately ought to be judged not on our ability to punish, but on our ability to show compassion.


She didn't show much compassion for her victim when she tried to murder him.

Quote:
“There is a place for compassion and for mercy. I am satisfied that yours is such a case.”


He's "satisfied". I certainly am not. This "judge" deserves to be tarred and feathered, and then strung up by his private parts.

Quote:
“I would challenge anyone to say anything other than she was a woman who did all that she could to care for her son,” defence lawyer Tim Marsh said before the sentencing.

“Quite clearly she got to the end of her tether and this disastrous episode followed.

“She acted in love, not in anger, hatred or desire to gain.”


We ALL reach the "end of our tether" sometimes. This does not justify what she did. "She acted in love..." - Christ, what BS. :huh: :wall:



cyberdad
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26 Mar 2018, 5:43 am

As a fellow Melbournite I was a little surprised by the verdict. The judge clearly empathised with the mother paying no heed to the suffering the son was put through?

There seems to be a pervasive attitude that parents of disabled kids suffer burn out so are not responsible for abusing their kids. I'm not saying looking after a disabled child is a walk in the park, but the mother must take responsibility



League_Girl
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26 Mar 2018, 2:20 pm

So what did they do about her son?


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goldfish21
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26 Mar 2018, 2:55 pm

I'm not saying I condone her actions; but I do understand them.

She didn't bludgeon him with a baseball bat. It sounds like she was trying to end both of their suffering in a way that's sort of comparable to euthanasia.



Aside: When I read the bit about her son suffering from increasingly frequent night terrors I can't help but think this may be caused by a sensitivity to, and buildup of, salicylate food acids. I've read that 70% of people on the spectrum have such a sensitivity and I know that it can be caused by mineral deficiencies of magnesium & sulphur. It's possible that her son's worsening condition is entirely treatable by simple medicine, but that they just simply don't know what they don't know so things have worsened to beyond her breaking point and.. this happened.


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