Posted on 11/20/2019 12:22:58 AM PST by naturalman1975
An apprentice chef has been found not guilty of murdering a home invader.
Benjamin Batterham, 35, chased down a man who had broken into his Newcastle home in 2016 and held him until police arrived.
The court heard he chased Ricky Slater, tackled him, put him in a chokehold and repeatedly punched him.
Batterham was charged with murder following the Easter weekend burglary in March, 2016.
On Wednesday, the jury found Batterham not guilty of murder and a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Doctors testified that Slater had most likely died from a pre-existing heart condition and a large dose of the drug “ice”.
He went into cardiac arrest twice in hospital the next day and died in hospital
(Excerpt) Read more at 7news.com.au ...
There are limits on that - the force used must be appropriate to the circumstances - but all Batterham did was take hold of Slater and punched him when Slater tried to fight him.
It is unfortunate for Slater that his health, caused by his drug use, lead to his death - but Batterham did not knowingly use an excessive level of force. He did what he had to do to restrain a criminal, and stop that criminal injuring him.
This article doesn’t mention it - but Slater was also a convicted rapist, and when Batterham first found him he was in Batterham’s baby daughter’s bedroom - because Batterham did not know Slater’s history this was irrelevant to his defence, but I hope it makes him feel better about what he had to do.
Batterham was quite seriously injured in the fight with Slater, which makes the fact he was charged even more egregious.
This poor guy has had to live for the last 3 and a half years with these charges hanging over him. Thank goodness the jury of ordinary citizens had more sense that the prosecuting authorities.
For any American readers who might not know, ice is methamphetamine.
Here, it’s called shabu.
The prosecutor should be looking for a job.
That’s a new one to me. There are so many names for it, including “417.” Here’s a news piece that was published in Australia in 2012.
A walk through Missouri’s valley of meth
https://www.news.com.au/national/a-walk-through-missouris-valley-of-meth/news-story/611efc4177422f67419228442af8011d
Mexican cartels are flooding the U.S. with cheaper, stronger meth and many other drugs. Pills are really big, because young women will try them. All kinds of garbage goes into them, with date rape drugs sometimes in the mix.
It’s a Tagalog word.
[It’s a Tagalog word. ]
I hate it when Americans say “crystal meth” as though that type is more exotic than plain old meth.
Wow, that’s a scary article.....
The people here probably have no idea that it might come from any other language. After I am asked numerous times, if Sweden is part of the US, I shake my head and wonder.
Many baby girls in the Midwest were named Crystal in the 1990s. I guess their addicted mothers got away with that easier than they would have with names like Crank or Tweak.
“Batterham’s partner and daughter were not at home at the time.”
I guess they won’t bother telling us if his wife was home during the invasion.
Yes, and the folks in the photos were some of the prettier ones in the Midwest.
We had to send a couple people from our corporate HR dept. to help their HR dept. with the hiring of replacement workers.....LOL!
Maybe they were fans of Crystal Gayle which was a stage name suggested by Loretta Lynn after the hamburger chain Krystal.
The Process IS the Punishment.
“It would have been better if it had never been taken to trial.”
There’s a saying here in America: “You may beat the rap, but you won’t beat the ride.”
It’s a very nasty method of extra judicial punishment that’s designed to strike fear in the hearts of people.
And it works.
L
LOL! Reminds me of a Mexican-American friend who prized humor over all. He once entered a Taco Bell in west Denver during the ‘90s and said in an excited tone of voice, “La Migra! La Migra!” He did it just to watch the resulting stampede. Mean...
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