Evil
The Herald reported:
A West Auckland woman who repeatedly subjected a boy to horrific torture – including stabbing him with a chef’s knife and a screwdriver, forcing him to eat faeces, pouring boiling water on to him and encouraging him to commit suicide – has been ordered to serve a lengthy term of imprisonment.
All child abuse is terrible, but this is a special kind of evil.
I guess I divide abuse into three categories:
- Abuse by neglect – where the kid is just not cared for and looked after
- Abuse by temper – where an adult physically assaults a kid after they lose their temper
- Abuse by torture – where the adult actually enjoys torturing the child
All are terrible, but this third category suggests a high degree of sociopathy.
Selica Romana Wright, 34, came to the Auckland District Court with a letter of apology this afternoon as she appeared before Judge Kirsten Lummis. Prosecutors, however, were adamant that she remains unrepentant – using her own words in intercepted letters from prison to prove their point.
“Haha. Do it all again in a heartbeat,” she wrote.
Definite sociopath.
Judge Lummis noted that the defence took issue with the term torture, so she read the definition aloud in court.
“In my view, that term is entirely appropriate,” she concluded, describing the “extreme violence and sadistic nature” of the offending as at a level rarely seen in New Zealand courts.
If this wasn’t torture, nothing was.
“It is clear [the victim] would like you to be locked up as long as possible.”
We all would.
She ordered a sentence of 10 and a half years of imprisonment.
This isn’t a short sentence, but to me it still seems too short when you consider what she did. A summary:
- beating the victim with a metal vacuum cleaner pipe, whacking him on the body and the head with such force the pipe was damaged beyond repair
- used a hammer to strike about the head, body, legs, knees, feet, back, arms and his hands
- attacked him with a sword and a spade
- stabbed him in the back of his head with the screwdriver
- beat him with her fists and a length of wood leaving him unable to use his arm for several days
- tipped a jug on to him, severely burning his back and arm and then sprayed his wounds with Janola
- used a chef’s knife to stab him “about the body”, including a wound deep enough to cause air to enter his chest cavity
- told the youth he should kill himself via hanging. When he refused, she threatened to forcibly hang him
- stood over him and threatened to hit him with a hammer until he ate dog faeces. She then refused to let him drink water afterwards.
- made him eat her soiled toilet paper. He complied, but when he started to vomit she began to stomp on his face, stomach and legs.
- thrust the end of the hammer at his mouth forcefully and repeatedly until a front tooth snapped and he began to bleed
This is one of the rare times I regret we do not have the death penalty.