Game sent him over the edge
A 33-year-old man from Melbourne, Australia, violently assaulted his stepmother after the team he supported in the Australian Football League (AFL) lost their game.
The incident took place on September 8, 2018, on a night when Collingwood lost 86-70 to the West Coast.
The man, who had admitted to having gambling issues, threatened to kill the woman and left her for dead after the game sent him over the edge.
Drove to her house
A court in Victoria heard that upon seeing the result of the match, the man drove to his stepmother’s house in St Albans and then grabbed her by the throat. He then proceeded to drag her down the hallway toward her bedroom as she cried, “Why are you doing this?”
According to prosecutor Robyn Harper, he answered:
I’m going to kill you. You’re going to die.”
He then choked the woman until she briefly lost consciousness.
The violence continued as the man in his thirties struck his stepmother in the head more than 20 times, held a knife to her throat, and then repeatedly stabbed her in the back until she played dead.
The man then opened the gas to the kitchen hotplates before he ran away. He turned himself into police the next day and has since pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, intentionally causing injury, and reckless conduct endangering life.
His identity has not been revealed to protect his victim, who also had her phone smashed during the incident.
Problems heard in court
In a case labeled “completely bizarre” by Judge Gavin Meredith, the court heard of the mans business and gambling issues.
The man’s lawyer, Kellie Blair said that the attack was sparked after a combination of gambling anxiety, alcohol problems, and a worry over the family business, where he and his stepmother worked together with his father. Ms Blair told the court:
He had blood on his hands. He knew he had done something very bad.”
Trying to explain what led to the assault, she said: “There was a degree of frustration, I suppose, on his behalf, he doesn’t really remember and he’s not really sure why.”
She added that previous concussions had left her client with memory issues. The man has been told to undergo a psychiatric assessment before returning to court.
