Protecting and Honoring Victims

This week we look at human frailty with some fighting for law and order and others abusing it while disasters show no discrimination.

Law & Order

We begin in Hong Kong where tens of thousands marched at a pro-democracy rally marking the 18th anniversary of Britain handing the territory back to China but while some marched remembering their freedoms others were attacked in Turkey when police fired water cannons, rubber pellets and tear gas to disperse people at a gay pride event in Istanbul.

On the other side of the law this week saw an end to the New York prisoner escape when Richard Matt was shot and killed while the second fugitive David Sweat was shot and taken into custody. Australia saw one of it's largest prisons descend into chaos when a smoking bad was introduced causing prisoners to riot and finally we have a mother who admitted to killing her two children and leaving their bodies in her freezer.

Disasters

The week saw multiple disasters strike across the globe, we begin with an explosion in Taiwan at a water park which has claimed two lives and an explosion at a chemical plant in South Korea which killed 6 workers. In Indonesia a military aircraft crash claimed a staggering 144 lives while an army train accident in Pakistan saw 17 people die followed by 38 people dying when a Philippine ferry capsized.

We end the week with closure on some previous disasters with a report on the TransAsia crash claiming human error when the pilot pulled the wrong throttle shutting down the sole working engine causing the crash.

Who's in the news? Oscar Pistorius (Follow Up)

After a seven month trial the verdict is in, Oscar Pistorius will do time for killing Reeva Steenkamp.

Trial

After killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day 2013 the Oscar trial began on 3 March 2014 with Reeva's and Oscar's family in attendance. The trial boiled down to Oscars team claiming he thought there was a intruder in the bathroom while the state prosecution claimed Oscar and Reeva had been fighting moments before and that Oscar had murdered Reeva.

There was a short break in the trial for Oscar to under go a psychiatric evaluation only to resume with the reports claiming he could be held criminally responsible. The trial ended on the 8 August 2014 with closing arguments.

Verdict

The verdict was read out on the 12 September 2014, more than 18 months after Oscar had shot and killed Reeva, with Judge Thokozile Masipa finding Oscar guilty of culpable homicide but not of murder. Oscar was also found guilty of reckless endangerment due to an incident with a firearm.

Sentence

On 21 October 2014 Oscar was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for the Valentines Day killing of Reeva. During sentencing Judge Masipa said "A non-custodial sentence would send the wrong message to the community, but a long sentence would also not be appropriate." A separate firearms charge received a 3 year sentence suspended for 5 years. The Pistorius family confirmed that Oscar would not appeal the judgement. While Oscar has been sentenced to 5 years he may be out in less than 1 year when he becomes eligible for a converted sentence after 10 months.

Along with his jail term the international paralympic committee have said the 5 year sentence would also mean a 5 year suspension.