Mayhem as Burwood murderer gets minimum 10-year term

Family of a Burwood murder victim were ordered out of court shouting and swearing as the confessed killer was given a 10-year minimum non-parole term as part of his life sentence.

They abused the judge, Justice John Fogarty, and the defence counsel for admitted murderer and mental patient Paul Andrew Gottermeyer. “Get out of here,” shouted one. “It’s an injustice,” said another.

Court security officers ordered the group out, but they remained outside shouting and crying.

In court, one called Gottermeyer a “dirty, filthy, rotten bastard”.

“You don’t know what it’s like,” one woman shouted at the people in court.

Another cried: “When he gets angry what’s he going to do? Come back to court with another victim?”

Gottermeyer was jailed for the murder of the woman at her home in Burwood, after voicing a public apology for his actions.

Justice Fogarty said at the sentencing in the High Court at Christchurch that it was “a horrible attack of the utmost gravity”.

The wounds on the throat of the victim – a 24-year-old whose name is suppressed – showed that more than one cut was needed to cut her throat. Her body showed evidence of 12 wounds to her head, throat, chest, back and hands.

Gottermeyer, a 30-year-old farmhand, admitted the murder charge and was sentenced to life imprisonment almost a year ago but the non-parole term decision was delayed to get further psychiatric reports.

Justice Fogarty said Gottermeyer had committed the crime when he was sane and knew the difference between right and wrong and was responsible for his actions.

He had faced stresses, but they were no different to the stresses that thousands of Christchurch people lived with every day, said the judge.

He said Gottermeyer had no criminal history of violence and had clearly been suffering from a depressive illness. He asked whether it was just that he should be subject to the same sentencing regime as people, including drug dealers, who had longstanding histories of violence.

This included “genuinely evil men” who had committed a series of violent offences, culminating in murder.

He said he did not think Gottermeyer was likely to offend again against the community “independently of a serious mental illness”.

“I know it’s not going to be popular,” said Justice Fogarty before he imposed a minimum non-parole term of 10 years as part of the life sentence. Then the session degenerated into shouting and swearing from part of the court’s public gallery.

The Crown had asked for a starting point of 17 years for the non-parole part of the sentence.

Ahead of the sentence being imposed, Gottermeyer apologised to the family of the woman he stabbed to death, and to his own family.

He asked to speak directly to the family members gathered at the sentencing, and Justice Fogarty asked people who did not wish to hear him or thought they could not contain themselves, to leave beforehand.

Several people in the gallery then left, and Gottermeyer stood up in the dock to say he apologised to the family of the woman, and to his own family “for the heartache I have put them through”.

“I take full responsibility for my actions that morning. I am so deeply sorry.”

The judge had spent the morning hearing evidence from psychiatrists and submissions from counsel.

Forensic psychiatrists do not agree on the role that depression played in the murder of the woman, who was killed in a terrible knife attack.

The clinicians gave evidence about their various findings before the sentencing of the 30-year-old farmhand.

The sentencing was delayed for a time today while three clinicians held a meeting to discuss their findings. All agreed that Gottermeyer was suffering from depression, but they did not agree on the role that it played.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Helen Austin told the court she believed that depression was only one of a many factors in the homicide. “Human behaviour is very complex. It is very difficult to separate out one particular factor as being the sole cause.”

Crown prosecutor Chris Lange asked: “Would you agree with the proposition that but for the depression, the homicide would not have happened?” She replied: “It’s possible.”

Associate professor of psychiatry, Professor Philip Brinded, said he thought depression was an significant contribution to the tragedy that occurred. He agreed that he put more weight on depression as a factor, while Dr Austin was looking at “all the factors in play”.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr David Chaplow said: “I think depression was a factor in terms of exposing his vulnerability.” He was asked about the range of factors and agreed that they were very important when “taken together”.

The court was told that Gottermeyer had been under treatment for depression, and had been discharged from Hillmorton Hospital, but then did not continue taking his medication. He was under stresses arising from a marriage break-up, childcare issues, financial issues, and red zone issues following the earthquakes.

Counsel for Gottermeyer, Tony Greig, pointed out that barely two months before the murder, records showed that Gottermeyer had asked for help, saying that he was distressed, depressed, and suicidal.

The name of the murdered woman has been suppressed, as well as the name of her three-year-old daughter who was in the house at the time of the attack and apparently saw something of the attack.

At the first part of the sentencing last year, the court was told the Gottermeyer and the 24-year-old woman argued before he produced a knife he had taken to her house in Burwood, and began the attack. The Crown said he inflicted wounds to the woman’s head, chest, back, and hands before cutting her throat.

Gottermeyer shut the door to the kitchen where the attack took place, but left the child in the house when he left. She later told police that she had heard her mother scream “and mummy did bleed everywhere”. The attack took place on July 11, 2012.

Crown prosecutor Anselm Williams said the murder was committed with a high level of brutality, callousness, and cruelty which required a minimum period of 17 years. It was premeditated, unprovoked, involved extreme violence, and it was committed when Gottermeyer was aware the woman’s daughter was in the house.

Mr Greig said the threshhold requiring a 17-year term had not been reached. He said Gottermeyer had the knife with him because he had been using it for cutting pumpkins. There was a gasp of disbelief from people in the public gallery when he said the 12 wounds were a relatively small number compared to similar cases one of the psychiatrists had referred to.

He said that in other countries Gottermeyer might not even be convicted of murder. “Are we that behind in our approach to mental health and our recognition of its role in this?” he asked.

 

Category: News