ACT: Mother killer set free after 22 months in jail

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2008
ACT: Mother killer set free after 22 months in jail

CANBERRA, Aug 7 AAP - A Canberra man who stabbed his mother to death has been set free
after 22 months in jail.

Glen Malcolm Porritt, 23, was found guilty in April of the manslaughter of his mother,
Nanette Porritt, at the family's Canberra home in December 2005.

ACT Supreme Court Chief Justice Terrence Higgins today sentenced Porritt to five years
jail, with a 22-month minimum term.

The sentence started on the day Porritt was taken into custody on October 7, 2006,
and therefore he was due to be released today, Justice Higgins said.

The sentence was "more severe than any other sentence for unlawful homicide" in the
cases he had cited.

The explanation for Porritt "tragically misreading the cues his mother gave him on
December 21, 2005" was that he was later found to be suffering from Aspergers disorder.

Porritt was found not guilty of murder because Justice Higgins was not satisfied Porritt
had intended to kill his mother or had been recklessly indifferent to the probability
of her dying.

Ms Porritt died after she picked up a knife and told her estranged son to leave the
family home following a heated argument.

Porritt then disarmed his mother and inflicted 57 stab wounds on her face, neck and chest.

He has since admitted what he did was wrong.

During sentencing submissions in June, it was revealed he told his probation and parole
officer: "I should have left the house when she (his mother) asked me to. I didn't. I'm
responsible".

Justice Higgins said he accepted that Ms Porritt was angry with her son for threatening
to sue his parents for perceived injustices during his youth.

These included "extreme punishments that were persisted in to an unreasonable degree"

such as withholding acne medication.

On the day of her death, Ms Porritt "tragically reinforced her demand (that Porritt
leave the house) by picking up and brandishing a sharp knife".

Porritt was criminally negligent because he followed her upstairs when she went to
call the police and "became trapped in the bedroom".

"His mother, not unnaturally, was seriously alarmed ... and flashed at him with the knife."

In a panicked attempt to leave the room Porritt then fatally stabbed his mother "negligently
unmindful" of his then possession of the knife.

The stress of being charged with his mother's murder and being remanded in custody
had led to Porritt developing a schizophrenic-type disorder, Justice Higgins said.

Porritt has been placed under an involuntary mental health treatment order and prescribed
anti-psychotic medication.

He was also placed on a good behaviour order for four years.

AAP jcd/rl/cjh/cdh

KEYWORD: PORRITT

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