Dad faces manslaughter charge | The Courier-Mail
A trial in a very tragic case is underway in Queensland:
RYAN Brooks, 18, arrived home after a late night out with his mates and asked his mother Cheryl to get him up early for work, and then disappeared into his bedroom.
Later, he went to the fridge to get a drink of cold water and took a mouthful of clear, odourless fluid from an unmarked glass spirit bottle.
Within moments he was screaming for his mother and writhing. The liquid he had swallowed was industrial-strength cleaner used to rinse beer-lines at the hotel where his father, Ian Francis Brooks, worked as a janitor.
Ryan died 2½ weeks later, during emergency surgery at the Ipswich Hospital from massive internal bleeding. Four years on, his father is being held criminally responsible and yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to the manslaughter of the youngest of his two sons on February 24, 2002.
Criminal offences which are based on negligent or reckless behaviour with unintended effects have always made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. Some cases clearly call for criminal charges (eg, a driver who loses control while hurtling down a street and hits a pedestrian.) But when the victim is a loved member of the accused's own family, it raises the question of the value of prosecuting the accused if he has already gone through anguish over what happened. The defence will surely be playing on this, and I suspect that the jury will find it a difficult call. After all, I can see the counterargument that it would not be appropriate to abandon all cases where an accused shows sufficient grief.
Of course, if he is convicted, his personal anguish (assuming he has some) will no doubt be heavily relied upon in a plea in mitigation before punishment is decided.
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