Queensland is finally going to get rid of it's "gay panic" defence, which is still on the books up there as a defence against murdering a gay person. What it basically says is that homophobes who are so abhorred by gayness can murder a gay person if the gay person makes sexual advances towards them.
It happened in 2010 (picture above of the crime scene) where two blokes murdered a gay in a church courtyard, subsequently having the charges dropped to manslaughter by using the "gay panic" defence. The Father of the church premises took up the cause to get this bullshit gay panic defence out of the law books. That cause has finally come to fruition under the new Queensland gov.
The Queensland Government is taking steps to ensure a homosexual advance is no longer considered provocation for murder, while also looking at expunging historical convictions for homosexual sex, righting wrongs in Queensland's past which have stood for decades.
The homosexual advance defence, more commonly referred to as the gay panic defence, is a rare but usable legal defence under Queensland law.
It allows defendants to claim they were provoked into killing because of an alleged homosexual advance, by claiming it drove them into temporary insanity, reducing what could be a murder conviction to one of manslaughter.
It was last used in 2010 by Jason Andrew Pearce, who was charged with murdering Wayne Robert Ruks in a Maryborough churchyard in 2008.
He was found guilty of manslaughter and released on parole after serving four years of a nine year sentence.
A co-accused, Richard John Meerdink, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will become eligible for parole next year.
Following the court case Father Paul Kelly, who ran the church next to where Mr Ruks was killed, began a campaign to abolish the use of the homosexual advance defence. It has so far been unsuccessful. more
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