Dismissal Charges Against Toowong Cemetry Vandals

[John]

I am absolutely furious with the Qld Justice system over this recent court decision. A Brisbane Magistrate recently dismissed charges against four defendants charged with the wilful damage of 82 headstones at the Toowong Cemetery in August 2009. Part of the reason for this dismissal was that the Police had not contacted the owners of the graves to determine whether permission had or had not been given for the headstones to be damaged.

This is patently impossible for most of the historic headstones in the cemetery and local group Friends of Toowong Cemetery has set up an e-petition seeking a law which makes it an offence for unauthorised persons to wilfully damage any grave, headstone or grave ornament with fines large enough to act as a deterrent.

I urge all AFO members to take 2 minutes to sign the petition before Qld Parliament and ensure that these scum of society are severely punished. Not only is it trespassing (after dark), but damaging these historic headstones is destroying our history and disrepecting our fellow families.

There are literally like 2 monumental masons who can carry out the skilful work of fixing these headstones and who pays for them to be fixed? Alot of the time they don't get fixed, or it takes years to be fixed and we end up paying for it.

Click here if you would like to add your name to the petition

[Davo_Dinkum]

bloody oath

i'll sign it .

this part is so stupid .WTF.

Part of the reason for this dismissal was that the Police had not contacted the owners of the graves to determine whether permission had or had not been given for the headstones to be damaged.

if there is no known living relatives who do u contact the dead ,how can u contact dead people.

who would give permission to damage grave stone .

come on.

what is this world coming to .

A Brisbane Magistrate and the 4 defendants need a good ass kicking .

bloody hell.

WTF .

[tugger]

thanks johnny for this heads up these mindless vandals should be prosecuted to the full extent the law can, i have distant relatives in that cemetary but that aside if they get off scott free what mesage are we sending to other future misfits who have nothing better to do than destroying peoples graves and other types of vandalism. some of the youth of today would be better off pursuing a hobie or sport not rome the streets at night with paint tins or looking for something to destroy this just boils my blood

all signed

mark

[kmcrosby78]

Yep, signed also and ditto what the others have said. Magistrates/lawyers responsible for these sorts of rulings need to take a good hard look at themselves!

[crazywalrus]

signed - can not believe they can get off on such ridiculous loophole. I guess this is what keeps lawyers in jobs.

[adambris]

all signed up. makes u wonder what these fools are thinking!!

adam

[smitty]

this is what films about ed gein will do to young minds, i blame the film industry.

[daveylad]

signed, would be intersting to see if the matter was run by the Queensland Government prosecution Service, they should have forseen this problem as with stealing matters the item has to have been stolen from someone,also assaults in most cases the victim has to actually state that they did not give permission to be assaulted.

[tomca]

not suprised at all. I liked the furore over a judge letting someone off for calling a copper a prick, and saying the cops need to get used to it. I wonder if he would have been so lenient if the defendant called him names too?

Oh yeah, petition signed. And just get Booty to send me a PM with the details for these upstanding citizens, and I'll whip up bit of a lynch mob

[Mungrel Jack]

our justice system is nothin but one big joke! Always has been, always will be. What a dissapointment

[bobbydazzla]

Bloody ridiculous! You got my signature!!!

[qbkami]

Done! :dry: dont think its right how you can get away with ruining 80 somethin tomb stones

[bootyinblue]

Mungrel Jack wrote:

our justice system is nothin but one big joke! Always has been, always will be. What a dissapointment

Welcome to my world

And signed up a a private citizen

[Angus]

Signed. Loop holes or no its just a cheap act in the first place.

Angus

[shortie]

I think efforts would be better concentrated on the punishment of offenders of violent crimes against people, rather than this, but hey everyone had their own aganda.

I agree that the offenders should be punished, but the severity of the crime really pales in significant to violent crimes.

[John]

shortie wrote:

I think efforts would be better concentrated on the punishment of offenders of violent crimes against people, rather than this, but hey everyone had their own aganda.

I agree that the offenders should be punished, but the severity of the crime really pales in significant to violent crimes.

Obviously a violent crime is a terrible thing but there are already laws in place for these cases. This is an issue that needs legislation to stop this happening. Hopefully some harsh penalties can provide some deterrent to the scum that do it.

If you knew the scale of destruction that occurs in Toowong Cemetery you would be horrified. This occurs on a regular basis and this case where these vandals destroyed 80 in like a night has only brought it to the attention of the wider public. Have a wander through and look at vast amount of handywork of these vandals.

It is very sad

[Angus]

Agreed. It is my running track after all

Shortie as Johnny said this is not so much a case of comparing crimes against one another.

Its about setting a standard in the first place!

Angus

[tugger]

i agree with johnny and angus plus if these vandals are able to get away with this they may go on to commit a more serious crime after getting away with these acts and not found guilty in the courts

[snapsnap]

maybe we should take note of the people involved and smash thier families headstones see what they think. from memory they were gothic try hard wankers

[Angus]

snapsnap wrote:

maybe we should take note of the people involved and smash thier families headstones see what they think. from memory they were gothic try hard ****

Thats what I heard. But if thats the truth why destroy the things you love

When I was younger (like maybe 10 years ago) I remember some so called satanists made and set off a large pentogram fire bomb in there!

Angus

[hooked_on_trout]

Of course it would be very interesting to find out the names of these people, obviously wealthy types.

I can guarantee that no lawyer could get a case like that together in such a short time unless he/she was paid very big bucks.

The time frame alone wreaks of an efficiency only well paid lawyers and money could attain.

Somone forked out a lot of dough to keep these turds from getting flushed.

Money walks and poor people get driven.. (in the back of a paddy wagon to gaol).

Cheers

[mac]

signed

the problem with todays kids are they have too many rights and they are aware of them

in my day when a copper seen you do something wrong he would take you out the back and give you a kick in the arse and tell you he was going to ring your parents

a 6 foot something copper did this to me and put me on the straight and narrow

[hooked_on_trout]

mac wrote:

signed

the problem with todays kids are they have too many rights and they are aware of them

in my day when a copper seen you do something wrong he would take you out the back and give you a kick in the arse and tell you he was going to ring your parents

a 6 foot something copper did this to me and put me on the straight and narrow

mate these "kids" were over 18 by a long way.

cheers

[fenelious]

The number of times I've heard an angry parent or member of the public say something like Mac's comment about cops kickin kids up the backside back in the good old days, I've lost count. The trouble is we've only got ourselves as a society to blame for it not being like that anymore, because we've winged and cried too many times and put in complaints about coppers who've done this sort of thing to our kids to try to discipline them and teach them a lesson. Eventually the cops get sick of being accused of wrong doing and laws are made to prevent them doing it. Of course, the odd copper who takes it too far and crosses the line is just as responsible for having these powers taken away from them.

So when I'm sending a kid to court for an offence where he's gonna get nothin for it but a stern word, and the parent says to me, "back in my day the cops just took the kid out the back and gave him a kick up the bum and that was the end of it." - in my head I'm thinking, "yeah and back in my day our parents kicked us up the backside themselves so the cops wouldn't have to parent for them. Do your own job as a parent."

The court system is to blame in my opinion - we catch em, send em, and they get bugger all punishment if any. Adult system is just as bad as juvenile system.

Anyway, petition signed by me for what it's worth.

-Steve.

[Davo_Dinkum]

if i read the right news article ,they are adults not kids .

between 18 and 27 .

[MoparKevUk]

Done.

[daveylad]

Just a point of interest but many serial type killers start of with mundane type offences which show they have a lack of empathy for other peoples feelings this type of offence is typical of a lack of empathy for peoples feelings in fact it probably was done to deliberatley upset, SO SHORTY theres an old saying, "A stitch in time saves nine"

[Stinger]

Some of the judgements made by judges make you wonder what part of their brains they left at home that day. They have proven so many times that a lot of them don't live in the real world.

I donn't like the chances of any petition getting much of a response from this government but I have signed it..