Dillon, Hugh --- "R v Alwyn Peter (Criminal law - manslaughter - remarks on sentence - Nth Queensland Aboriginal accused - high incidence of violence and special problems in Aboriginal communities - psychiatric evidence)" [1983] AboriginalLawB 21; (1983) 1(8) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 9

• R V Alwyn Peter
• Criminal Law-Manslaughter-Remarks On Sentence-Nth Queensland Aboriginal Accused-High Incidence Of Violence And Special Problems In Aboriginal Communities-Psychiatric Evidence.

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R v Alwyn Peter

Criminal law - manslaughter - remarks on sentence - Nth Queensland Aboriginal accused - high incidence of violence and special problems in Aboriginal communities - psychiatric evidence.

R v Alwyn Peter

Supreme Court of Queensland, Brisbane (Dunn J.)

18th Sept 1981

Casenote by Hugh Dillon

The accused, Alwyn Peter, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Deirdre Gilbert, his de facto wife, with whom he lived at the Weipa South Aboriginal community. He was originally charged with murder, but a plea to mansaughter was accepted by the Crown.

Alwyn Peter is an Aboriginal from Mapoon, a settlement from which he and the rest of his community were expelled in 1963 by the Queensland Government who took over the land for the use of aluminium companies. The Mapoon people were split up and sent to Bamaga or Weipa South.

There were three Aboriginal communities in Weipa South - the Arukun, the Mapoon and the Weipa groups - as well as a large number of Islanders. Evidence was led that tensions and actual violence were rife, especially when alcohol was available to trigger fights and self-injury.

From the age of 16, Alwyn Peter began to engage in bouts of heavy drinking, which led to fights, unlawful use of motor vehicles and a number of convictions. He inflicted severe injuries on himself with razors and shot himself in the hand on one occasion. In 1979, at the age of 22, he began living with Deirdre Gilbert. On December 7th, 1979 in a drunken rage, he stabbed Deirdre Gilbert and killed her.

The defence argued that there existed a "sub-culture of violence" and that, while alcohol was a significant factor in the release of this violence, the anthropological, psychiatric, psychological and sociological evidence was that the causes were deep-rooted and to be found in the dispossession and uprooting of the Aboriginal people and the fundamental flaws in the relationship between black and white societies in the north of Queensland.

Three transcultural psychiatrists were called for the defence - John Cawte from the University of N.S.W., Ivor Jones from Melbourne University and Harry Eastwell from Queensland University.

Dr Cawte provided the following diagnosis of Alwyn Peter –

Firstly, there is alcoholism ...; secondly, the discontrol syndrome of violence mainly when drinking; thirdly, the self-mutilation syndrome, again when drinking ... But fourthly and additionally now, I detect a depressive personality characterised by persistent ill-feeling which I call dysphoria, aloneness, a history of ill-use and abuse in childhood, intra-punitive attitudes and self-mutilations and ... self-denial of common comforts like sugar, tobacco and salt which I inferred may be a kind of sacrifice on his part directed at self-improvement or self-renewal.

Dr Cawte arrived at his diagnosis after examining reports on Alwyn Peter and interviewing him. They discussed several topics: drinking, fighting, childhood memories, self-harm, and self-treatment. Peter stated that when sober he always felt lonely and "bad inside". Drinking helped alleviate these feelings. Dr Eastwell gave similar evidence; he found that Alwyn Peter was a person with very few sources of self-esteem or self-respect, and that his alcoholism had resulted from attempts to blunt the bad feelings and to raise a better set of feelings.

Dr Cawte's evidence on the "discontrol syndrome" or "ego-rupture" is illuminating. Carl Menninger, who coined the term, used it to describe a pattern of behaviour in which there is a history of physical assault, impulsive behaviour (including sexual assault), traffic accidents and violent pathological intoxication. The causes are mainly psychological, but are sometimes related to nervous system disease in the limbic brain. In the latter cases medication will bring great relief. In childhood there is often a history of disturbances such as fits, cruelty to animals and lighting fires.

The discontrol syndrome manifests itself in outbursts of gross, unreasonable violence and a lack of ego control. Sometimes sadism will be a component of the violent expression. With a lack of ego control there is an inability to sublimate, or turn the aggression to more useful ends, an inability to concentrate, and an absence of marketable skills.

Dr Cawte was careful in his analysis not to ascribe everything Alwyn had done to the discontrol syndrome. He gave roughly equal weighting to alcoholism, mental factors, social factors (e.g. peer group pressure in respect of drinking), cultural factors (e.g. the loss of religion, goals, law and order, lack of leaders, poor employment), and general social disintegration.

Dr Jones' evidence dealt mainly with aggression and the function of socialisation. He accepted Freidman and Caplan's definition of aggression as "forceful, goal-directed action ... It is constructive when it is problem-solving and appropriate as a defence against unrealistic attacks. It is pathological when it is unrealistic, self-destructive, non-problem-solving and the outcome of unresolved emotional conflict".

Evidence was given that Alwyn Peter received a mixed and confused socialisation. He was, in Dr Jones' view, different from traditional people in that he had no systematic knowledge of traditional culture, just parts of it such as the concept of territory and the sense that a man must look after his own interests. But he had also imbibed the broad outline of the white criminal law, the police system and various European customs and mores. Neither system was integrated with the other. Dr Jones emphasised the inappropriateness of the socialisation Alwyn Peter had received from the community in which he lived; a settlement very overcrowded by Aboriginal standards and a highly stressful environment for all its Aboriginal members.

Dr Eastwell's evidence on the rearing of Aboriginal children supported Dr Jones' conclusions. He said that child-rearing among Aborigines was more lenient, more permissive than in many other societies and this had resulted in "less influences towards restraint and a lessened tendency by build into the person controlling influences in childhood and adolescence. .." He went on to say:

I believe Alwyn was exposed to child-rearing patterns of behaviour by his parents and other significant relatives which would have been appropriate for a bygone era. I feel that the child-rearing patterns tend not to have changed as much as may be expected with the advent of white colonization, and I think that - perhaps being a little dramatic - that he was exposed to child-rearing that would have made him a good Aboriginal in a world which was not so heavily populated, where the density of population was not as high as it is certainly around the reserves with their high birthrate, for a world in which he would have been a successful hunter, fisher and raider, and I believe that his child-rearing influences tended to point him to adjustment in that sort of world and not the sort of world that I myself was exposed to.

Although diminished responsibility is no defence to a manslaughter charge, the concept was explored with the psychiatrists because it was hoped that their evidence on the point may add to what was already known about Alwyn Peter's environment. In Dr Jones' view, Alwyn Peter's mind was in a state of abnormality when he killed Deirdre Gilbert. Emotional conflict, disinhibition, alcoholism and confusion as to the rules by which his life was operating all led to a lack of control. Alwyn Peter's environment was one in which he could not learn those things which would restrain "the reasonable man", and in this sense Dr Jones regarded him as suffering from arrested or retarded development of mind. He said, "I would see his present state as a consequence of his upbringing rather than his innate capacity". Dr Eastwell agreed with the proposition that Alwyn Peter's development of mind was arrested in the sense that he was "untrained by any process of socialisation to fit within a society into which he was born".

When passing sentence Dunn J. delivered the following remarks –

You have pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of your de facto wife, Deirdre Gilbert, at the Weipa South Aboriginal Community on 7 December 1979. You were originally charged with the murder of the girl, but I am satisfied that the Crown was right in accepting a plea of guilty to manslaughter, because I am satisfied that you did not intend to kill her, nor to do her grievous bodily harm. A central feature in this case, as in so many cases of crime of violence on Aboriginal reserves, is that you were very drunk when you stabbed the girl; because of your drunken condition, and its bearing on your capacity to form an intention, it was right for the Crown to accept the plea of guilty to manslaughter.

The evidence placed before me was in general most illuminating, although the evidence of one witness was irrelevant to my present problem, which is - what sentence should I impose? The evidence showed in detail the correctness of a belief held by myself and other Judges, that belief being that the incidents (sic) of violent crime amongst Aboriginal communities in North Queensland is very high. The evidence also shows that, whilst alcohol is usually the trigger which releases violence, there are other factors to take into account. It is indeed because of those factors that so much uncontrolled drinking takes place.

The range of sentences for like crimes has been placed before me. The range is from 4 to 6 years, in general; in infrequent cases, longer sentences have been imposed. The sentences have frequently been accompanied by recommendations for early consideration for parole, usually after 18 months or 2 years of a sentence has been served.

There has been a long delay in finalisation of this matter. It is appropriate to say again what I have already said, which is that the delay was in no way due to the Crown. The delay occurred because, when you were charged with murder, the Public Defender and his advisers sought out numerous expert witnesses, some from far afield, with a view to presenting to the Court a case that you were not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility. It is not of course necessary for us, in the present circumstances, to express any opinion upon that question, but it is appropriate to say that the evidence of the experts was indeed thought-provoking.

During the period of the delay you have been held in custody. That is to say, you have already been in custody for 21 months. Had there been a conviction of manslaughter shortly after the crime was committed, you would have been sentenced and I think that a recommendation for consideration for parole would have been made and that recommendation might by now be before the Parole Board.

The inclination of my brother Judges and myself to recommend such offenders as you for consideration for parole results I think from the fact that without the assistance of expert evidence we have perceived and made allowance for the fact that special problems exist in Aboriginal communities.

I think that the appropriate course to take is to abridge the sentence which I would have imposed had the matter come before me promptly by 21 months, the period of time during which you have been in custody, and to recommend that you be immediately considered for parole. I shall recommend that the Parole Board consider whether it can and should make it a condition of parole, if you are paroled, that you undergo the training programme administered by the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Dependence Service, "Jodaro", 45 Enoggera Road, Newmarket. The evidence of Mr Fua, an officer of that service, indicates that it has had some success in rehabilitating Aboriginals who are addicted to alcohol. If you are reinforced in your desire to give up drink, you may yet contribute something to your community.

I therefore sentence you to imprisonment with hard labour for 2 years and 3 months. I recommend that the Parole Board consider whether it can and should make it a condition of your parole, if you are paroled, that you submit to the programme administered by the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Dependence Service. I direct that a copy of these sentencing remarks be placed on your file for transmission to the Parole Board, and I further direct that a transcript of the evidence of Mr J. W. Fua who gave evidence before me be made and place with your file for transmission to the Parole Board.