Victim's homosexual advances a factor in sentence

[No One]

http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_11212.php

Sexual advances made by gay stabbing victim Denis Phillips have
been taken into account in the five year sentence given to his
teenage killer.

Willie Ahsee, 17, has been given the jail term for the
manslaughter of the non-sworn police officer, who he stabbed
four times in his Papakura home last July.

At the High Court in Auckland this morning, Justice Asher
pointed out the aggravating factors that Ahsee used a knife,
there was extreme violence and the most extreme harm was done.
He then took a sentencing starting point of six and a half years
jail, due to the context of the amount of alcohol Ahsee had
drunk with Phillips on the night of the killing and the sexual
advances the 59-year-old victim made towards him before he was
killed.

"There had been sexual actions by Mr Phillips that Mr Ahsee
would have found difficult to deal with," Justice Asher said.
"Mr Ahsee clearly was not homosexual and there was no indication
that he'd had any homosexual sexual experience."

Both the Crown and defence painted Phillips as a "homosexual
with a liking for teenagers" and Justice Asher took into account
that "unwelcome and intrusive advances" were a trigger for the
stabbing.

The sentence was then reduced from six and a half years to five
years due to Ahsee's youth and his remorse, which included
leading police to Phillips' body on the day after the stabbing.

Ahsee contends he had been drinking with Phillips, his boxing
trainer, when the pair started drinking and continued for four
hours until they were drunk. In his evidence during the trial he
told the court Phillips had touched his upper thigh and his ear,
but denied the Crown's assertion that there had been full sexual
contact, something indicated by saliva stains on clothing in the
forensic evidence.

The teenager said after the advances Phillips left the room
momentarily and he opened a drawer too hard and utensils spilled
on the floor. He said as he bent over to pick them up he was
knocked over from behind by an angry Phillips, which is when he
grabbed a knife, the first thing he touched, and swung around
and stabbed Phillips in the neck because he wanted him to get
away. He said a fight then ensued.

The neck wound was fatal and Phillips was discovered by police
face down in his hallway in a pool of blood the following day,
after the teenager led them to the house.

However the full facts of the case remain murky, with some key
points of Ahsee's statements at odds with forensic evidence and
his memory patchy due to his alcohol intake on the night.
Justice Asher conceded that apart from the undisputed facts,
"where the truth lies, it is not possible to say".

The judge told the teenager he has to live with the terrible
thing he has done and must accept how "dreadful and unjustified"
the events of the night were. He said he hopes Ahsee, who was
studying motor mechanics before his arrest, will go on to learn
a trade, live a prosperous life and make his family proud of him.