Wed 14 Oct 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Hungarian tourist Ferdinand Ambach, who beat elderly gay Onehunga man Ronald Brown to death and left him with a broken banjo neck stuffed in his mouth is appealing his manslaughter sentence of at least eight years' jail, reports the New Zealand Herald. Ferdinand Ambach (Pic: NZ Herald) Ambach's lawyer Peter Kaye confirmed to NZPA today that an appeal had been filed, on the grounds that his sentence was excessive. The conviction itself was not appealed, he said. Last month in the Auckland High Court, Justice Helen Winkelmann sentenced Ambach, 31, to twelve years with a minimum non-parole period of eight years for what she termed a truly cruel and brutal crime which was as close to murder as one could get. Brown, 69, was found dying in the stairwell of his blood-splattered and trashed Onehunga home after neighbours called police to a disturbance shortly after midnight on December 8th, 2007. Ambach, still upstairs, had ripped bathroom fittings from the wall, thrown furniture through windows and barricaded the stairs with household items. Ambach avoided a murder conviction in his July jury trial when he claimed memory loss and exploited 'gay panic' defence, more formally known as the partial defence of provocation, by claiming that Brown's alleged sexual advance to him was enough to understandably trigger what his own lawyer termed a "monstrous" rage. AN END TO 'PROVOCATION DEFENCE'? Anger from the gay community over several successful uses of 'gay panic' defence to gain lesser convictions or acquittals for the attackers and killers of gay men was a strong factor behind the introduction of a Bill currently before Parliament to strike the partial defence of provocation provision from the statutes. The call for change only recently gained momentum and general public support due to national revulsion over its unsuccessful use in the Clayton Weatherston trial. It was revealed this week that Weatherston, who was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years' jail, will also appeal his sentence.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 14th October 2009 - 12:45pm