"Honour" killings and the murderer.

Last weekend I heard an interesting fact from a physician friend who works part-time as coroner in Toronto.

She told me the following: when police are called to the scene of an apparent death by hanging and the victim is a woman, they won't assume it was self-inflicted. The body will be removed with cord, rope, or materials seemingly used to cause death left intact so that the evidence can be examined by an expert. It appears that a high percentage of femicides by strangulation are covered up with evidence planted to suggest suicide. There are some knots that can't be tied by oneself. Post-mortem trauma is different, and a forensic scientist can identify the markers of physical injuries that distinguish a garroting inflicted by a second party.

Bad luck for Chris Little, then. His scheme to pin the "honour" killing of his estranged wife on someone else was doomed from the moment he started planning the double murders.

His defense lawyer John Rosen took an approach that required the demonstration that his client's estranged wife had "cheated" on him before they wed, during their marriage and after they separated. Rosen was hoping to show the jury that Little remained dispassionate about his partner's actions and to infer it was the "wronged" woman who had killed Julie Crocker.

The judge did not allow the prosecution to present character witnesses who would have countered Rosen's claims regarding Crocker and Menendez, nor evidence that would have revealed other aspect of Little's criminal behaviour, because the police obtained it in circumstances that violated Chris Little's Charter Rights.

... the jury didn't hear that Little apparently drugged and sexually assaulted Crocker while she was unconscious, something which was revealed in a court document obtained by The Star.

The jury also never saw the video of the attack, which police found hidden in a basement ceiling of the home where Crocker was murdered. Justice Michelle Fuerst ruled that York Regional Police violated Little's Charter rights in the search that unearthed the video and a pin-hole camera. Exactly when the apparent drugging and sexual assault occurred is not clear.

There are of course like-minded men who claim that Little was unjustly accused and unfairly held accountable for crimes that Crocker provoked with her "immoral" behaviour. That was the line of defense Little's lawyer pursued, and the comments posted wherever accounts of the trial were published are from men who believe that Little is innocent and/or justified in his actions. Those men probably wish Canada still had judeo-christian laws that would justify their particular sociopathic feelings towards women.

Who reads DAMMIT JANET?

This post from C. C. - Who reads the "Christian Science Monitor?" gave me an idea for the hook upon which to hang a couple of thoughts I've had recently about certain types of criminality.

fern hill and I often check our sitemeter because we are curious about how people get to our site and what they read once here.

A few times a week, DJ! gets hits from people who google Fernando Manuel Alves. Most of them originate in BC, which makes us wonder ...

Women are, as demonstrated by statistics and anecdotal evidence, more likely to be the target of violence at the hands of men who know them. Women are vulnerable to alleged serial rapists like Alves who exploit the 'opportunities' provided by his employment and social network.

Fortunately, not all men are prone to abuse, violate, brutalize, and/or murder female family members, intimate partners, spouses, neighbours, work colleagues, parishioners, clients or acquaintances. Unfortunately, the minority of men who engage in these actions are recidivists and their level of violence tends to escalate if they're not stopped by their peers or the criminal justice system.

Of course, the usual apologists like Mark Steyn and Michael Coren, Barbara Kay and Naomi Lakritz, will blame women subjected to violence for the actions of their abusers and killers.

Information about the 12 day campaign to raise awareness to bring an end to violence against women is available here in French and in English, here.