Vic: Man jailed 18 years over gay panic murder

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-2004
Vic: Man jailed 18 years over gay panic murder

By Stuart Walsh

MELBOURNE, April 7 AAP - A man was today jailed for 18 years for the "barbaric" murder
of his housemate over a homosexual advance.

The Victorian Supreme Court was told Barry Anthony Smith, formerly of Tongala in the
state's north, used a skateboard, a knife and probably a chair in a frenzied attack on
Ricky Charles Webb at the home they shared in Tongala on October 12, 2002.

A jury found him guilty of murder.

Smith, 23, was today ordered to serve a minimum non-parole term of 13 years.

The defence claimed at the trial held at Shepparton Supreme Court that Smith had been
a target of unwanted sexual attention from his 39-year-old housemate and was drunk, enraged
and provoked at the time.

Smith denied at his trial that he was a willing participant in a homosexual relationship
with Mr Webb in return for free lodgings, food and alcohol.

He told the trial he had no option but to live with the man despite his homosexual
advances because he had nowhere else to go.

Today, Justice David Harper said the case was not one in which Mr Webb had been a predator
and Smith a helpless victim.

"You were in my opinion entitled to be very upset at one aspect of Mr Webb's behaviour,"

the judge said.

He said Mr Webb knew Smith did not want to be perceived as his sexual partner but that
he had twice told mutual acquaintances that Smith had a sexual relationship with him.

"This was an invasion of your privacy, made the worse, because although on two occasions
you indulged your housemate's desire for sexual intimacy, I am satisfied you never gave
him reason to believe that you were prepared to live with him as a homosexual couple."

The judge said that on the night of the killing, Mr Webb made what Smith thought was
a sexual approach.

He said he was satisfied Mr Webb had done something which triggered "an attack on Mr
Webb which was barbaric in its severity".

Smith had pursued Mr Webb from room to room with a skateboard, a knife and probably a chair.

Finally, Smith inflicted a blow to Mr Webb's neck that caused his death.

Mr Webb had suffered terrible injuries.

"This was not a sudden impulsive fatal strike. It was a prolonged and frenzied assault
by a person who was determined to occasion the maximum harm on another," Justice Harper
said.

AAP sew/dk/pw/br

KEYWORD: SMITH

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