His victims:
Alannah Louise Mikac (6); Andrew Bruce Mills (49); Anthony Nightingale (44); David Martin (72); Elizabeth Jayne Howard (26); Elva Rhonda Gaylard (48); Glen Roy Pears (35); Gwenda Joan Neander (67); Helene Maria Salzmann (50); Janette Kathleen Quin (50); Jason Bernard Winter (29); Kate Elizabeth Scott (21); Kevin Vincent Sharp (68); Leslie Dennis Lever (53); Madeline Grace Mikac (3); Mary Elizabeth Howard (57); Mary Rose Nixon (60); Mervyn John Howard (55); Moh Yee Willing Ng (48); Nanette Patricia Mikac (36); Nicole Louise Burgess (17); Noelene Joyce Martin (69); Pauline Virjeana Masters (49); Peter Brenton Nash (32); Raymond John Sharp (67); Robert Graham Salzmann (58); Ronald Noel Jary (71); Royce William Thompson (59); Russell James Pollard (72); Sarah Kate Loughton (15); Sou Leng Chung (32); Tony Vadivelu Kistan (51); Walter John Bennett (66); Winifred Joyce Aplin (58), and Zoe Anne Hall (28).
His childhood:
Martin Bryant is the elder of two children of Maurice and Carleen Bryant. Bryant was regarded as unusual in his childhood and in the early years of his schooling was diagnosed as having an IQ of 66 (which is considered to indicate mental disability) and put into special education classes. He was described by teachers as unusually detached from reality and as either unemotional or as expressing inappropriate emotions. He was apparently a disruptive and sometimes violent child, and was severely bullied by other children. Bryant was referred for psychiatric treatment several times during his childhood. In 1984, a psychological evaluation by Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax described him as mentally retarded and stated that he had a personality disorder.
The adulthood:
Descriptions of Bryant's behaviour as a young man show that he continued to be disturbed. When his father, who had taken early retirement to care for him, died in an apparent suicide, ambulance officers described Bryant as quite excited by the search and unconcerned about the death. Bryant was eligible for a disability pension due to his low IQ and lived on a pension for some years. He took on odd jobs as a handyman and gardener. One of these odd jobs led to him meeting Helen Harvey, heiress to a share in the Tattersall's Lottery fortune. Harvey befriended Bryant, inviting him to live with her. She was reported to spend large amounts of money on him. Harvey and Bryant moved together to Copping, where they lived until her death in a traffic accident. Bryant was named the sole beneficiary of Harvey's will and came into possession of a mansion in Hobart and other assets totalling more than half a million dollars. In 1993 his mother applied for and was granted a guardianship order placing Bryant's assets under the management of trustees. The order was based on evidence of Bryant's diminished intellectual capacity. Bryant travelled extensively both in Australia and internationally during this period, apparently seeking social contact with other travellers, but was frustrated at people's negative reactions to him.
The massacre and aftermath:
Bryant has provided conflicting and confused accounts of what led him to kill 35 people at the Port Arthur site on 28 April 1996. It appears his desire for attention (and told a next door neighbour "I'll do something that will make everyone remember me"), as well as mounting frustration at his social isolation, had made him unbearably angry. The possible trigger for the massacre, was being prevented from selling home-made trinkets outside the Broad Arrow Cafe, when he was 9 years old. His first victims, David and Sally Martin, who owned a guest house in the area, had apparently angered him by buying a guest house he wanted to buy. He shot them in the house before traveling to the Port Arthur ruins and opening fire on visitors. After he killed most of his victims at the site itself and the remainder during his escape, he returned to the guest house where police, unaware that the Martins were already dead, assumed that he had them as hostages and besieged the guest house. One potential victim was spared because when Bryant pointed the gun at him, their eyes met and Bryant immediately recognised him as someone he'd been acquainted with before and seemingly decided to let him live before moving on to continue the killings. After 18 hours, Bryant set fire to the guest house and attempted to escape in the confusion. He suffered burns to one side of his body, was captured and taken to Royal Hobart Hospital where he was treated for the burns and kept under heavy guard.
As a response to the spree killing, the Howard government banned semi-automatic center-fire rifles, high-capacity repeating shotguns and high-capacity rifle magazines. In addition to this, heavy limitations were also put into place on low-capacity repeating shotguns and rim-fire semi-automatic rifles. The Tasmanian state government attempted to ignore this directive but was threatened with a number of penalties from the federal government. Though this resulted in stirring controversy, most Government opposition to the new laws was silenced by media opinion and mounting public opinion in the wake of the shootings.
His trial and imprisonment:
Despite his mental dysfunction, Bryant was judged as fit to stand trial and a trial was scheduled to begin 7 November 1996, but Bryant, persuaded by his court-appointed lawyer, pleaded guilty to murder. Two weeks later, Hobart Supreme Court Judge William Cox gave Bryant 35 life sentences and recommended that he should remain in prison until he dies. He has attempted suicide 6 times while being imprisoned. For the first eight months of his imprisonment, he was held in a purpose-built special suicide prevention cell, in almost complete solitary confinement. He remained in protective custody for his own safety, until he recently moved detention centres, a decade after his conviction. Recent reports from visitors have described Bryant as an 'overweight, shambolic wreck'. On Monday 13 November 2006, Bryant was moved into Hobart's Wilfred Lopes Centre, a secure mental health unit run by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services. The 35-bed unit for inmates with serious mental illness is staffed inside with doctors, nurses and other support workers. Inmates are not locked down and can come and go from their cells. Exterior security at the facility is provided by a three-wall perimeter patrolled by private contract guards.
The massive media coverage
Newspaper coverage immediately after the massacre raised serious questions about journalistic practices. Photographs of Martin Bryant had been digitally manipulated with the effect of making Bryant appear deranged. There were also questions as to how the photographs had been obtained. The Tasmanian Director of Public Prosecutors warned the media that the reporting compromised a fair trial and writs were issued against the Hobart Mercury (which used Bryant’s picture under the headline “This is the man”), The Australian, The Age and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over their coverage. The Australian Press Council chairman, David Flint, argued that because Australian newspapers regularly ignored contempt-of-court provisions, this showed that the law, not the newspapers, needed change. Flint suggested that such a change in the law would not necessarily lead to trial by media.
This was a monster to over 70 people, by studying those who are depraved we can only just begin to understand the motivation that has driven them to such madness. Understanding is just the first step in prevention, to understand a depraved mind is to know the signs, and what to look for in future generations. - Bird
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