Monday, 13 February 2017

Chapter 7

Chapter 7


     The year started off well apart from one obscene incident in Monaco.  Prior to the Monaco trip I took Shivon to the Tangled Premiere at the Mayfair Hotel as well as going to Mahiki to party with the cast of ‘Jersey Shore’.  I’d won the break to Monaco courtesy of Men’s Health Magazine; the prize included a stay on a yacht for the beginning of the Grand Prix.
     I took a friend and we stayed on a yacht in Monaco.  There were other guests who were staying on the yacht also.  Monaco was all that you’d expect it to be, full of the glitz and glam and the whole town was set out to accommodate the Grand Prix.  The marina was full of billionaires’ yachts.  The yacht we were on was a few boats down from Philip Green’s.  The yacht next to us apparently belonged to an African King - it had an illuminated tiger on the side and tribal decor.  The water was clear and you could see the fish dart about the anchor ropes.  It was a billionaire's play ground.  
     A group of us from the yacht went out to a local bar and I started talking to a couple of guests that were there (who I think might’ve been Kris Humphries and friend).  I didn’t know who they were but another guest on the yacht later said “You only like famous people.”  Turned out the snide remark was from an ‘actor’.  Shortly after getting back to the yacht from the local bar the ‘actor’ sat on the bed in our room of the yacht very expectantly with only a towel wrapped around his lower half.  The other men on the yacht had to get him out of the room.
     The other guests on the yacht were an assortment of famous sports people and escorts.  Apparently they have competitions going on between the yachts to see which yacht could get the most attractive females on board - most of them were prostitutes.  I don’t think they were aware that I’d won the competition via Men's Health magazine and it was a buzz that got tainted by the company on board.  I wrote to a lady who ran the competition in conjunction with the magazine to tell them about the predicament and her response was “we don’t mind that, they do it all the time” – you mean pressure and prey on unsuspecting victims because they are who they are and think they can get their leg over and can do whatever they like to whoever they like. 
     His watch was very expensive.  I said to my friend that we should’ve stolen it.  I never got an apology from Men’s Health magazine or the people on the yacht.  I’d won the trip in a competition but was made to feel like the lesser human on board because I was an extra.
     I also won a trip to Madrid and we (Shivon and I) were in Madrid when the earthquake in Christchurch (in New Zealand) happened.  We had a complimentary stay at the Intercontinental Hotel where a bunch of high ranking army guys and Sheiks were discussing tourism opportunities for both countries (Spain and Saudi Arabia).  We ventured out to Alcazar Castle, the source of inspiration for Disney.  I’d not long been on a Disney film (‘John Carter of Mars’) dressed like a Martian that lived on Mars.  So to visit the castle where Disney’s inspiration came from was quite surreal.
     We caught the fast train to Segovia and then the bus to Alcazar.  It is a small town with a Romulus and Remus statue and a Fort.  There were ‘ugly sister’ lookalikes selling their wares near the castle.  The castle itself was originally built as a fortress but has served as a Royal Palace (Wikipedia, 2016), a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then.  The restoration of the castle began in 1882 and in 1896 King Alfonso XIII ordered the Alcazar be handed over to the Ministry of War as a military college.
     Alcazar Castle remains one of the most popular historical sites in Spain.   Inside the castle there are many rooms.  The King and Queen’s thrones were in a smallish room and as we walked in it seemed like any other room.  Hanging above the thrones is a frieze representing all of the Spanish Kings and Queens.
     The motto ‘Tanto Monta’ (meaning ‘They amount to the same’, or ‘Equal opposites in balance’) is an alleged motto of a prenuptial agreement made by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs.  The tapestry behind the King and Queen’s thrones is the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarch which includes a bird and what appears to be the Sun behind the bird.
     We’d not long left the Castle when I heard the news about Christchurch earthquake.  I first saw the destruction on the news at Madrid airport as we were leaving Spain to get back to Hemel Hempstead, UK.  It seemed like an earthquake like no other – like nothing I have ever experienced.  The standard strength of earthquakes was generally around five on the richtorscale.  This one snuck up on everyone and as far as astronomical catastrophes go - no one was expecting a devastating earthquake in Christchurch.  When they say there’s been an earthquake in New Zealand you just tend to shrug your shoulders as they are quite common.  This time the damage was tremendous and the whole place looked like a complete mess, like a giant came to visit with intentions of smashing the place up and did just that.
     For years they’d been saying that ‘the big one’ would happen in Nelson like the other earthquake that flattened Napier back in the day.  Christchurch was the last place anyone expected to get a so-called ‘big one’.  Apparently they’d been fracking on a fault line.  It’s common sense that the fault lines that were already there would expand due to fracking.
     New Zealand is on the ‘ring of fire’.  They have earthquake drills at schools as earthquakes are quite common.  However, since the fracking began there have been regular, stronger earthquakes that occur on a more frequent basis.
     New Zealand prides itself on being ‘The Lord of the Rings’ territory and ‘100% Pure’.  When catastrophes happen more often than not it tends to bring out the worst in people and/or the undergrowth of the country provides insight into the ‘100% Pure’ myth while others will just gloss over reality by smiling and waving.
     Buildings were destroyed, the Christchurch Cathedral had been badly damaged, the whole town was literally rubble and it was likened to a war zone.  They had such things called ‘Red Zones’ - just another name for ‘Danger Zones’.  The devastating effects are long lasting for such an earthquake of that magnitude especially amongst people that like to sleep a lot and have island type lifestyles.  The earthquake killed 185 people making it the nation’s third deadliest natural disaster.
     I had been away from New Zealand long enough to almost forget the amount of nasty shit that happens in New Zealand and recall the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude towards anything and everything.  I’d not long been in touch with family members that I hadn’t been in touch with for over a decade.  I will never get an explanation or apology for being bullied to fuck and made to feel like I’ve committed a big crime because I was abused.
     We arrived back in Hemel Hempstead.  Shivon would go to her dad’s on a regular basis and there would still be grief from the ex-family.  Meanwhile over the other side of the world in New Zealand, at the time of the Christchurch earthquake, I was beginning to learn about the ‘frank’ attitude that George Charles Trounson had gained over the years since murdering my brother Russell.
     I was given a short time to complete and submit a victim impact statement, a statement from the victim’s next of kin sister – on how my brother’s murder has impacted my life and why George Charles Trounson should stay in prison.  Trounson seemed to love exploiting the criminal justice system and he just seemed to be making a mockery of any government agency that apparently upholds any law.  Somehow, they thought getting ‘rid’ of the victim (me) seemed a more viable option rather than apologising for the obscene way that I got treated by the government and its agencies.  Trounson has broken parole and been recalled to prison and God knows what else – so it was a mixture of emotions; the devastating earthquake and being pissed off with the whole family situation.  While the ‘family’ are all over in New Zealand with a few in Australia - the family in New Zealand - the same country where my brother’s murderer is – same towns even – you would think that at least one family member would at least attempt or make some kind of effort to keep Trounson in prison.  You only have a specific amount of time to prepare a ‘victim impact statement’ as the parole hearing has a set date and I stopped writing it around the time I went on ‘celebrity date’ with Calum Best.
     I remember looking at Calum Best’s ring and tattoo, his tattoo said ‘Karma’.  It was one of those weird freaky feelings.  I zoned out for a split second - it was then that he caught me out staring.
     I got my tattoo done not long after Russell was murdered.  I was off my face, everything was just a bit of a blur. I drew a picture of a heart with wings and it looks very similar to the Valkyrie Couture jewellery.
     I was completely intoxicated when I had the tattoo done.  I drew a picture and took it to the tattooist.  It’s a heart with wings and has a star above the heart in the centre, an arrow and date of birth to date of death with ‘Lost Love’ underneath it.  However due to being intoxicated and in fairness not really having a clue what day it was as the days just all morphed into a really big long one - I got the dates back to front, it’s the 24 of the 6th not 26 of the 4th.  It is faded now and not many people know my intoxicated grieving sister error. 
     The design itself reminds me of Valkyrie Couture.  It’s a piece of jewellery with an expensive red stone in a heart with wings whilst embodying the unspoken laws of the Nazi hunter.  I’m not a Nazi hunter myself; however I’ve lived through savage times and been victim of gang rape at the hands of skinheads which is how I also came to be branded with half a swastika on my ankle.
     Valkyrie (Wikipedia, 2016) in Norse Mythology is one of a host of female figures who apparently choose those who may die in battle and those who may live.  Selecting half those who die in battle, the Valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain.  Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughter of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans and horses. 
     ‘Valkyrie’ is also a movie starring Tom Cruise where the film depicts a plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, using ‘Operation Valkyrie’ as a national emergency plan to take control of the country. 
     Fiona (old ‘friend’) developed selective amnesia in relation to my own trauma.  She was in the same house when I was attacked by six skinheads.  A lady walked in, screamed “RAPISTS” and she was then beaten to an inch of her life.  Fiona was in the next room. 
     When I left Dunedin (for a few days afterwards) and got back Fiona had said that she went back and she was gang raped and they used carrots, bottles all kinds.  I wasn’t there but only two days after her alleged gang rape she could walk and very jovially said that they were “just big boys.” 
     I was there when the skinheads threw Fiona to the ground and shaved her hair off as she’d been saying that she wanted to be a skinhead - but didn’t expect to get the full treatment of her hair shaven off.  I’d seen her reaction and she was completely mortified, to the point of scavenging her shaven off head hair and placing it under a cap so it gave the impression she had hair.  Not at all like a cancer charity where they will shave off your hair in the name of cancer, and unlike Antonio who was wondering what to do with his hair when he was diagnosed with leukaemia and it was just falling out because of treatment.  The skinheads threw Fiona to the ground and shaved it all off.  
     If Fiona had said that she was gang raped - I didn’t have any reason not to believe her although she handled it very jubilantly and was a little too upbeat about it.  If she went to the doctor and not the hospital well then I presumed she had pressed charges and made hat allegation of gang rape to the police.  What happened to me didn’t seem that big of a deal to her and I’ve not spoken about it since – apart from speaking to Fiona via Facebook inbox.  I had mentioned it to the ex family however it just made the aggravation worse and the ex family tend to use bad events that have happened in my life as an excuse to be more nasty – like the whole kidnapping thing.
     My other tattoo on my shoulder I got many years later.  It’s taken from a Tarot deck and is of the High Priestess.  It has a wishing well with a woman dressed in white on the outskirts of Stonehenge.  She stands with a ball and swan. 
     The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian ‘tatu’ which means to ‘mark something’.  In many different cultures tattoos mean different things such as in Borneo women tattooed their symbols on their forearm indicating their particular skill (Wikipedia, 2017) and it is arguably claimed that tattooing has existed since 12,000 years B.C.  In Nazi Germany the Jews were all marked with a number; branded.  I have been marked or ‘branded’ on my ankle.
     So from 1990 to 2011, the appalling way they treat the victim (me), is still pretty much the same if not worse than when I was 16 when I gave information to my nephew’s adoptive parents via Social Welfare in New Zealand.  I wasn’t allowed to know the family or anything because it is adoption law.  I do know it was a boy - so out there somewhere my brother has a son and I have a nephew.  The girl Russell was with was pregnant at the time Russell was murdered.
     Sometimes when they say ‘you can’t be in two places at once’ it feels like (sometimes) you can in your mind.  In the UK there is: A) grief from the ex-family, never ending bullshit, B) racists that tell to me fuck off back to my own country, C) people that go out of their way to sabotage my life and D) Jimmy Saville government where they are a law unto their own. 
     And in New Zealand, there is: A) earthquakes, B) murderer and many many failures of the criminal justice system, government and its agencies, C) ‘family’ that I haven’t spoken to in years and really don’t want anything to do with them and D) so many extremely violent events that most think are just ‘normal’ and ‘run of the mill’ and that gets laughed off as ‘just banter’.  The victim is the one with a problem if he/she wishes to complain about any wrong-doing or violent criminal acts.  The ongoing laid back lifestyle and attitude of ‘she’ll be right’, and, ‘oh it’s a fucked up world we live in but what canya do?’ remains.
     Being a victim of skinhead gang crime is not quite the same as ‘Mongrel Mob’ gang crime.  The ‘Mongrel Mob’ adopted Nazi symbols such as the ‘ZZ’ and Hitler signs in an effort to exploit and display their apparent bad ass reputations and ‘Black Power’ has just adopted thuggery.  Both the ‘Mongrel Mob’ and ‘Black Power’ and are predominantly Maori or Pacific Islanders.  Due to the nature of the ‘gangs’ in New Zealand the vast majority of the public find it difficult to believe that the same level of violence such as in movies like ‘Once were Warriors’ happens to white people.  Also thanks to statistics, violent crime levels are always indicative that the coloured population is far worse than ‘pakeha’ (white) therefore ‘research’ is bias.  Skinheads/Nazi’s are a different breed in comparison to a gang like ‘Mongrel Mob’ or ‘Black Power’ who really have no intention of getting into politics.  I doubt very much whether Hitler would hang around and think he’s really powerful by wearing a patch and beating up strangers.  Hitler wanted his enemies to be gone and thus the holocaust happened.
     Trounson might’ve been a student at the time he bashed my brother to death however the fact that he is/was associated with and involved with skinheads and gang crime has been overlooked.  It was premeditated murder as Trounson wrote a letter to another skinhead (Nazi) stating that he was going to and had intentions of murdering Russell. 
     In New Zealand there’s an extremely dogmatic view that white people are incapable of such evil.  The (doctored) statistics have always suggested that the Maori’s are responsible for the vast majority of violent crime.  White crime tends to get laughed off and swept under the carpet.  Maori’s aren’t the only ones capable of extreme violence.  The government has a ‘softly softly’ approach towards convicted criminals and at the time (in 1990) 10 years was the maximum sentence for a convicted murderer.  Ten years was considered to be a ‘life sentence’.
     The correspondence from government and government agencies that I received was appalling.  It seemed as if it was very easy to fob me off and put my victim impact statement in the bin since I now live on the other side of the world, ‘out of sight – out of mind’ philosophy.  I have had no support from any kind of Victim Support Group – it was very harsh.  Writing a victim impact statement put me in a situation where I was seemingly forced to relive those events again.
     Moreover, the communication with the journalist that wrote about my brother and the convict was totally unethical.  The journalist name is Hamish McNeilly, he wrote an article in the Otago Daily Times entitled ‘Embarrassing lack of response to Nazi’s in NZ’ (2008):
“It is believed up to 40 wanted war criminals escaped to New Zealand following World War 2 and the Government's lack of action was an "embarrassment", says a leading Nazi hunter.
"New Zealand's response on this issue should be a source of embarrassment," Simon Wiesenthal Centre director Dr Efraim Zuroff, of Israel, said yesterday.
A Holocaust historian, Dr Zuroff founded the centre in 1986 which has tracked and identified more than 2800 suspected Nazi war criminals. Many of those war criminals were discovered to have fled to Western democracies, and the centre has worked with countries to bring suspects to trial.
In 1987, Canada passed legislation to enable prosecution of suspected Nazi war criminals and was followed by Australia in 1989, and Great Britain in 1991.
New Zealand set up a two-person unit in 1991 to investigate allegations that perpetrators of war crimes settled in this country.
The unit spent $190,000 investigating the claims in New Zealand and overseas, narrowing the suspected list from 46 to 17 known to be alive and living in the country.
The Wiesenthal centre had supplied 42 of the 46 names.
Fifteen were cleared and two were further investigated, with the unit finding it was "possible" one of the suspects was involved in war crimes.
The finding of the unit was presented by the then attorney-general, Mr Paul East.
"We feel we've discharged our obligations to the international community in the steps we've taken and that we will now only respond if we are given something far more substantial than individual names," Mr East said in 1992.
Dr Zuroff said the centre tried to convince successive New Zealand governments to take legal action against suspected Nazis, but to no avail.
"New Zealand was the only Anglo-Saxon democracy which faced this problem and chose to ignore it," he said.
"There was absolutely no political will to take legal action against the Nazi war criminals who emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1940s and early 1950s, posing as refugees fleeing communism."
During the 1980s and 1990s, Dr Zuroff researched the whereabouts of 40 suspected war criminals who are believed to have emigrated to New Zealand after World War 2.
Dr Zuroff visited New Zealand in February 2006 to promote Operation Last Chance, which was a last attempt to find surviving Nazi war criminals.
"By the time that I found these people, many were no longer alive.
"But one who was alive and living in Auckland was Jonas Pukas, a Lithuanian who served in the 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion, which murdered tens of thousands of Jews in Lithuania and Belarus," Dr Zuroff said.
When informed that the New Zealand SIS had released information on suspected sightings of Martin Bormann, Mr Zuroff said it was not possible Adolf Hitler's private secretary had come to New Zealand.
"He died in Germany in 1945," he said.
In 1967, Simon Wiesenthal said there was strong evidence Bormann was alive and living in South America.
However, a 1998 DNA test on a skull unearthed at a Berlin construction site in 1972, was matched with the DNA of an unnamed relative of Bormann.
Martin Bormann
- Born June 17, 1900
- Private secretary to Adolf Hitler
- Family: 10 children, including Adolf (named after Hitler), Rudolf (named after Rudolf Hess) and Heinrich (named after Heinrich Himmler)
- Was a witness to the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler and was appointed executor of his estate
- With Dr Joseph Goebbels, Bormann was the one of the first people to discover the body of Hitler, and carried the body of Eva Braun, Hitler's wife, out of the room
- Hitler had ordered Bormann to flee the bunker and reports of his last moments have varied. One witness claimed to have seen Bormann committing suicide on May 2, 1945
- Bormann was sentenced to death (in absentia) at the Nuremberg trials in 1946
- Was formally pronounced dead by a West German court in April, 1973

     I had an email from Sonja de Friez (Department of Corrections) and Christine Smith (Victim Information Manager).  I’d explained that the last time I returned to New Zealand I had to fight to get there as the ex- husband attempted to have me arrested for kidnapping, the reply in return was “Thanks for sharing that, no problems.  Cheers.”
The human rights advisor, Paul Warhurst, sent an email:
 “Although the Human Rights Commission is not able to provide you with assistance in this matter we do appreciate your bringing your concerns to us, and we retain your correspondence on our files, which we refer to for informing the work of the Commission.
I wish to acknowledge the deep pain you and your family will have undoubtedly suffered as a result of the sudden death of your brother, Russell, and the additional stress, pain, and frustration caused to you by the manner of his death.
I wish you all the best in your endeavours.”

Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross (Dunedin Police) emailed regarding Trounson:
I received your e-mail today.  After reading it, I’m not entirely sure what your gripe is.
What I would like you to appreciate is that police investigated your brother’s murder and successfully prosecuted Trounson.  He’s now in the Justice system.  Any parole he may get, and breaches of that parole are dealth with by the Justice Department.  This is their jurisdiction.  The only involvement police have is when he commits any offence police will arrest him.  As you rightly mentioned he has breached his parole on five occasions and each time police have arrested him.  What happens after police place him before the Court is in the hands of the Justice Department..  The police have nothing to do with decisions to release on parole or the revocation of parole.
I’m not familia with VNR so I’m not in a position to comment.
You asked if police have hacked someone’s e-mail.  I can assure you police do not hack into other people’s e-mails and or phone calls.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask them.  I’ll do my best to answer them.
Bruce Ross, Senior Sergeant, Dunedin

Email from Hamish McNeilly:
“The Parole Board are very keen on letting the public know when those convicted of the worst crimes are released, same goes for paedophiles, rapists
If you want to comment about his release, feel free”
Hamish McNeilly, Reporter, Otago Daily Times
                                      

I received correspondence from the Department of Corrections who sent me an ‘Offender Information for Victims’ sheet:
Offender Information for victims
Offender Name:                 George Charles Trounson
Security Classification          High, since 9 August 2011
Programmes:
Mr Trounson has been identified and waitlisted to attend the Drug Treatment Unit Short Intensive Programme.  The Drug Treatment Unit (DTU) provides a group-based programme in a therapeutic environment for prisoners with alcohol and drug-related issues.  It is a 3-month based programme (delivered the same treatment houses as the 6-month DUT but over a shorter timeframe).  The DTU teaches prisoners about addiction, change, relapse and the effects of their actions upon others.  The aim of the programme is to reduce re-offending by assisting programme participants to address their dependence on alcohol and other drugs.  Mr Trounson is required to reduce his security classification in order to participate in this rehabilitative programme.
Convictions Received During Sentence:
Mr Trounson has not received any further convictions since commencing his sentence.
Conviction Date and Description

     That’s where the page goes blank and as far any person would think – is that he hasn’t/hadn’t committed any offences at all since being released from prison after murdering my brother but no, asking about other charges I got told there was an admin error and a separate list of offences arrived by email from the Corrections Department of the 8th September 2011, it reads:
Hi Michelle
Here is the list of Criminal and Traffic Conviction History for TROUNSON, George Charles since the start of his sentence in 26/02/1991
YEAR            OFFENCE
27/01/2003    Wilful damage
29/01/2003    Male assaults female
28/05/2003    Assault Police
18/03/2003    Shoplifts
13/11/2003    Shoplifts
17/06/2005    False statement that offence committed
23/09/2005    Owner/hirer fail give info
02/12/2005    Breath alcohol level over 400 mcgs per litre of breath
24/02/2006    Wilful damage
02/03/2007    Breach board release condition
17/06/2008    Shoplifts
                   Breach standard rel/special conditions
23/12/2011    Breach standard rel/special conditions
28/07/2011    Breach standard rel/special conditions

In July 2011 Trounson was found getting visibly drunk by undercover officers, Hamish McNeilly (2011) writes:
“A convicted killer has been recalled to prison after he was caught drinking at a wedding by an off-duty corrections officer.
George Charles Trounson was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1991 for murdering his 17-year-old flatmate, Russell Warren Neil, after beating him about the head with a piece of broken stair baluster on June 24, 1990.
He has been recalled to prison four times.
As part of parole conditions, he was prohibited from possessing or consuming alcohol for life, with substance abuse linked to his reoffending.
On May 28, Trounson was at a wedding, where an off-duty corrections officer, who was working as a barman, observed him "drinking to the point where he was visibly intoxicated", a New Zealand Parole Board decision noted.
Trounson originally denied consuming alcohol at the wedding, but later accepted he had lied to his probation officer about the incident.
That incident triggered his recall application on the grounds he had breached his release conditions and posed "an undue risk to the safety of the community".
In addition, Trounson had stopped taking his Antabuse medication - another special parole condition - and had failed to disclose that to his parole officer.
In his defence, it was argued a recall was not justified as he did not pose an undue risk to the community, and the incident occurred during a time of stress.
Trounson, his lawyer submitted, was employed and housed and had complied with his other conditions of parole for many years and the recent incident should be seen as a lapse, rather than as justification for a recall.
The Parole Board decided a recall was necessary as Trounson had failed to learn from his last recall earlier this year, had stopped taking his medication and attended a wedding where he knew alcohol would be present.
"It reflects a failure to recognise situations that place him at risk."
In its decision, the board said, until Trounson stopped consuming alcohol, he remained an undue risk to the community.
"And, although it was a long time ago, Mr Trounson acknowledged that alcohol had played a significant part in the murder."
Trounson will be seen by the board again in November.”

However in December 2011, Trounson was freed for a fifth time, an announcement on Radio New Zealand (2011) was made:
“A convicted murderer who has been recalled to prison for breaching his parole conditions five times will again be released from jail.
George Trounson was jailed in 1991 for fatally bashing Russell Neil - his teenage flatmate in Dunedin - with a broken balustrade.
The Parole Board says Trounson is an alcoholic and one of his parole conditions is that he cannot drink alcohol for life.
He was sent back to prison in July 2011 after an off-duty prison guard acting as a barman at a wedding saw him becoming visibly drunk.
Trounson also failed to tell the Probation Service in March that he had stopped taking medication to combat his alcohol abuse.
The board says Trounson accepts it is a small price to pay for living a law-abiding life in the community, and the only solution is for him to take the medication religiously.
It says it is satisfied that he can be released in December and that he will be given support by his family.”

And the report by Hamish McNeilly: ‘Teen’s killer released from prison again’ (2011) reads:
“A convicted murderer who has been recalled to prison five times for breaching his parole has been re-released.
At a hearing at an undisclosed prison last month, the New Zealand Parole Board granted George Charles Trounson parole.
In 1991, the then 19-year-old Trounson was jailed for life after he was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Russell Warren Neil in Dunedin.
Trounson beat Mr Neil about the head with a piece of broken stair baluster on June 24, 1990.
The former polytechnic student was first released in 2001. He was the subject of five recall applications - four of which resulted in a final recall order to prison. Alcohol was a factor in his reoffending.
In the November 30 decision, the board considered whether he posed a risk to the community, and "we are satisfied that Mr Trounson can now safely be released".
He has been released with six special conditions, two of which will continue for the rest of his life: namely that he continue to take the drug Antabuse, and not be in the possession of or consume alcohol or illicit drugs.
The board noted Trounson was an alcoholic, and said the best way to ensure he did not drink was for him to take Antabuse.
"Understandably he does not like it but he accepts that this is a small price for living a law-abiding and productive life in the community."
His last two recall applications followed his decision to stop taking Antabuse.
"Some time later, but inevitably, he drank alcohol again. Fortunately he did not reoffend."
The board was satisfied Trounson had support available, and he "can now be safely released".
He is expected to attend a Parole Board hearing to monitor the compliance of his release conditions.

Email from Government House:
Dear Ms Johnstone
Thank you for your email, which has been received by Government House, the Office of the Governor General.  On reading your email, I have formally referred your email to the Parole Board, as an independent authority, to reply.
Thank you again for taking the time to write and for raising your concerns.
Regards
Antony Paltridge, Public Affairs Manager, Government House     


     I’d like to talk about my serious caffeine addiction.  I am very addicted to coffee, so much so that if I woke up in the night I would have a coffee and go back to bed.  However finding out about Trounson, family trouble, earthquakes and not getting a response on social media bordered on psychological torture as most of the responses were either to block, mute or abuse.  So, even if I abused back it meant I wouldn’t get a response.  Social media manipulation means some tweets are viewable and others aren’t – so I ditched the caffeine intake and switched it with vodka and I began drinking heavily.  I prefer Jack Daniels however I have been told that if you drink a lot it’s better to stick to vodka and I needed every drop at that particular point in time.
     It was such a long time ago that I’d past forgot of the excruciating emotional torment and immense suffering that took place at that time and then it hit me like a freight train.  It’s almost like having a double life where an obscene miscarriage of justice is covered up and instead of supporting the deceased’s sister they take advantage instead and resort to bullying and gloating because they are on the other side of the world.  Meanwhile in Hemel Hempstead – if you say, ‘yeah I was an extra and I worked on a few movies’ they generally don’t believe who you meet and think you’re bullshitting anyway.  After a day’s work on ‘John Carter of Mars’ my face had the remnants of Martian makeup, I stopped into Sainsbury’s with blotchy bits of fake tan all over my hands and feet.  I have no idea what they must’ve thought – just having a bad makeup day possibly.  It certainly was an alien feeling having two different lives but on the same token intertwined with utter bullshit on both sides of the globe.
     So there are Nazi’s in New Zealand and indeed there are Skinheads in New Zealand who like to think and adopt neo-Nazi’s way of thinking.  During the murder trial one of the skinheads said of Trounson “I taught him everything he knows.”
     During the trial, Aramoana happened.  Aramoana is where a gunman shot multiple victims and a massacre ensued.  A movie was made about it called ‘Out of the Blue’ which I haven’t seen and that was released in 2006.  The Aramoana masochist allegedly had Nazi memorabilia in his shed.  At the time of Russell’s murder trial Dunedin seemed to be full of skinheads.  After all these years and they still think only one person was involved.  At the trial Trounson’s mother winked at Trounson’s girlfriend as she left the stand and as it turned out only one person was honest and that was a girl called Kathy from Green Island.  Trounson apparently wrote a letter saying to another skinhead stating “Yes, I will kill him”, it was premeditated murder.  Not only that, Ravensbourne is up the road from the massacre (where I was living). 
     Uncle Peter stayed with me for a night while the trial was on as hotel accommodation was expensive.  The following morning I woke up to find I was being molested by Uncle Peter.  I only woke up because my flatmate walked in.  I was in a state of shock and so was my flatmate.  I didn’t know what to say to him and he didn’t know what to say to me.  Uncle Peter just left. 
     Afterwards I found a letter that my flatmate wrote to his mother saying “I’ve never found an uncle in a niece’s bed” or something along those lines and of course I left Dunedin shortly after the trial and I got a job selling a cleaner on a door-to-door basis and travelling – so I didn’t stick around in Dunedin or Invercargill.  In a roundabout way selling the ‘Wizard’ cleaner is how I ended up in England.  I went up to the Johnstone castle, researched a bit of the Johnstone history, it was a research project like that ‘who do you think you are?’ television programme.
     On the Johnstone side of the family tree I discovered that there was a famous rift between the Johnstone’s and the Maxwell’s (Wikipedia, 2017) that resulted in an awful lot of clashing.  There was a rumour that the infamous Knights Templar of Scotland was involved with the Battle of Bannockburn.  In those days there were characters called ‘William the Lion’ who in 1187 granted part of the Cutler lands on the south bank of the River Dee, Aberdeenshire to the Knights Templar.
     There is a rather impressive Robert the Bruce statue with him on a horse.  The Battle of Bannockburn as depicted in the movie where William Wallace is a freedom fighter for Scottish independence and at the end, well – it wasn’t a very good ending as they tortured him.  The Battle of Bannockburn was a significant Scottish victory in the First War of Scottish Independence and a landmark in Scottish History.
     The Clan Johnstone was once the most powerful of the Border River Scottish clans (Honey, Russell C.  2016) who originally settled in Annandale for over six hundred years and they held extensive possessions in the west of the Scottish Marches where they kept watch against the English.
     The first of the clan to be recorded was John Johnstone, whose son, Gilbert, is found in records are 1194.  The Johnstone clan had a long feud with the Clan Moffat as well as Clan Maxwell as unlike others who raided each other’s lands, the Johnstone’s only raided England.  The feud with the Maxwell’s occurred during a meeting in which they were intending on reconciling their differences and Lord Maxwell treacherously killed Johnstone.  Maxwell was later captured and executed by hanging.  The Clan Moffat was almost wiped out.  Seventy years later all of the Moffat’s lands were passed to the Johnstone's due to the Moffat’s having massive debts.
     From the picture that I took of Russell’s plaque before I left Invercargill - I noticed that my brother is buried next to a Maxwell.
     The Johnstone’s nearly exterminated the Maxwell’s at the Battle of Dryfe Sands leading to the proverbial expression ‘Lockerbie Lick’.  Interestingly enough the clan Maxwell has a double headed bird as a coat of arms.
     The de Bruce family and the Johnstone’s became close allies and five hundred years after granting the title of the Lordship of Ananndale to the De Bruce family, King Charles II was to grant it to Lord James Johnstone, the Chief of the Johnstone Clan.  The son Gilbert was to first use the surname Johnstun in the period 1170 – 1194 and Gilbert was the first member of the family of Johnstone who took the surname, derived from the lands called after his father John.  The first people in Scotland to acquire surnames were the Norman Nobles who came from France with William the Conqueror and were of Viking ancestry. The Johnstone family were known for their loyalty and Gilbert was later to be knighted.  However the Johnstone clan fought to the death which was a legacy of the Celtic blood and the clan emblem or crest contains the motto, ‘Nunquam Non Paratus’ (Never Unprepared).  It’s a winged spur and is based upon the ancient and loyal respects and esteem between the Bruce family and the Johnstone family.
     Apparently there once was an illiterate member of the Johnstone clan who warned Robert Bruce of treachery, so the Johnstone tied a message to a spur to which somehow Bruce understood and avoided incident.
     The Johnstone’s and the Bruce’s rallied behind William Wallace (‘Braveheart’) and the Battle of Bannockburn was a decisive event in Scottish history.  Bruce and the Scots defeated the English and established Bruce on the throne of Scotland. 
     Johnstone Castle is in the town of Johnstone in Renfrewshire, Scotland, which we visited.  It’s in the centre of a housing estate.
     My Twitter turned into a venting pad.  I was having the total piss taken out of me.  I was being completely taken advantage of and had become a victim of cyber bullying and had become a complete loner because of it.  It’s incredibly isolating in that you can’t talk about major carnage without people looking at you sideways.
     It doesn’t take an awful lot to know who Hitler is/was, there are/were war criminals in New Zealand and the way that the New Zealand government and its agencies have responded to me is bloody atrocious.
     Hitler was of course the leader of the Nazi party (Wikipedia, 2016) and a central figure of the Holocaust and also the subject of a propaganda campaign.  There was a movie called ‘Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi’ which was produced by Walt Disney Productions.  It was released in 1943 and tells the story of a boy called Hans who was raised in Nazi Germany and bred to become a merciless soldier.
     Walter Elias ‘Walt’ Disney (1901 – 1966) was born in Chicago and developed an early interest in drawing.  He set up the Disney Brother’s Studio in the 1920’s and in the 1950’s expanded into the amusement park industry and in 1955 he opened Disneyland.  Accusations that Disney was racist or anti-Semitic have been contradicted by many who knew him (Wikipedia, 2017). 
     There was also another propaganda campaign regarding Admiral Byrd and Operation Highjump.  Admiral Byrd specialised in feats of exploration.  Admiral Byrd (1888 – 1957) was an American naval officer (Wikipedia, 2017).  He partook in aircraft flights which he served as a navigator and expedition leader, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau.
     In 1946-1947 there was a mission called ‘Operation Highjump’ (Wikipedia, 2017).  Byrd was appointed officer in charge of Antarctic Developments Project.  It was the largest Antarctic expedition to date.  Byrd was an active Freemason and he founded Antarctic Lodge 777 in 1935 under dispensation from the Grand Lodge of New Zealand.
     The documentary about the expedition ‘The Secret Land’ was filmed entirely by military photographers.  It re-enacted scenes of critical events, such as shipboard damage control and Admiral Byrd throwing items out of an airplane to lighten the load to avoid crashing into a mountain.  In the fictional ‘Area 51’ books the operation was cover for retrieving buried alien ships at the North Pole.  Also in a Russian documentary it claims that the units of Operation Highjump were attacked by flying saucers, operated by a secret Nazi base in Antarctica that was constructed before and during WWII through various Nazi expeditions.  It was known that the Nazi’s had/have a fascination with alien spaceships and technology and also intergalactic travel. 
     I had kept a few things with me of Russell’s that I took everywhere with me.  One is a book that Aunt Carole gave me called ‘Adventure Stories for Girls’.  Russell had scribbled in it and I’d kept it since I was about 9/10 years old.  The other was a picture that he drew, he was a budding artist.
     He drew a picture of a Royal Albatross which was really good.  It was of an Albatross on its own.  They are majestic looking birds and the wing span is average of 9.8ft and above.  In full flight they are impressive.  They have an albatross colony near Dunedin and a wingspan sculpture so you can visualise how big the wingspan actually is.
     Both items disappeared and the only people in the house was myself and Shivon who was going through her rebellious years, years where there were no boundaries.  If there were boundaries it would be like WWIII in the house.  If I asked her to do the dishes it would turn into a major argument.  She was very busy being a make-up artist in the making.  
     I donated £50 to the Red Cross Earthquake appeal.  An interesting bit of information about the British Red Cross (Wikipedia, 2016) is that it was formed in 1870, just seven years after the formation of the international movement in Switzerland which also has a symbol of a cross.  The Red Cross is also a symbol of the Knights Templar and St George (when he is slaying the dragon) the Patron Saint of England and the English Flag.  There are varying legacies around however the earliest known surviving narrative text is an 11th century Georgian text.  Allegedly St George appears, faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the cross, slays the dragon and rescues the princess in distress.  The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.
     The last time I went ‘home’ to New Zealand the ‘family’ owned or leased the Civic Centre in Christchurch.  Apart from not saying anything about Trounson and not doing anything about it was not only shocking but being told that I was ‘fucked in the head and full of shit’ via relay on Facebook by Uncle Peter for him molesting me when he stayed with me in Dunedin during my brother’s murder trial – in front of everyone – was not only mortifying and embarrassing but then they wonder why Brendon Takitimu hung himself.  I last seen Brendon at a hotel where he and Margo had come to buy some ‘Wizard’ cleaner – his head didn’t really leave the floor and he came to Russell’s wake with me.  You are not allowed to talk about traumatic events in such a way because you might offend someone and more often than not the victim gets blamed.
     So a part of me made me feel thankful that I was in Hemel Hempstead and not in New Zealand, but also people that share my experience are few and far between.
     In Christchurch, the Citizens War Memorial was left standing.  It’s where the Anzac ceremonys are performed and people gather every year in remembrance.  The monument is derived from a sketch designed by William Trethewey (Stonemason), and George Hart (architect).  It was unveiled in June 1937 in Cathedral Square, Christchurch (Wikipedia, 2016).  The annual Anzac Day Service is held there but when the earthquake happened it was cordoned off and the Anzac Day Service was held at Hagley Park instead. 
     Anzac Day (Wikipedia, 2016) is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders ‘who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations’ and ‘the contribution and suffering of all those who have served’.  It’s on 25th April each year and honours the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
     The significance of the Gallipoli Campaign (Wikipedia, 2016) is felt strongly in both New Zealand and Australia.  Despite being a small minority of the Allied forces; the campaign is regarded in both nations as a ‘baptism of fire’ and had been linked to their emergence as independent states.
     During these times, there was a horse called Phar lap who bought great hope to the nation during the great depression.  His name was Phar Lap, he had nicknames such as ‘Red Terror’, ‘Bobby’, ‘Big Red’ and the ‘Wonder Horse’.  He was the ‘Liam Neeson’ of horses.  Phar Lap’s other names included ‘Phuck it’, or otherwise ‘Fuckit’ due to the way it’s pronounced.  It’s pronounced ‘Far Lap’, like the Maori ‘wh’ at the beginning of words so you have really funny town and place names like ‘Whakapura’ (‘fuckapoorer’).  I don’t think that’s an actual place name however it’s just example to the way ‘Phar Lap’ is pronounced.  He was foaled in New Zealand and later fled the country to Australia where they pretty much adopted him after he was abused in New Zealand.  He then went on to be one of the greatest thoroughbred racehorses to ever live.  Phar Lap is the name of the movie and it captured the bond between horse and man very well.  Phar Lap used to think he was human, a show pony but also loved to race. The name Phar Lap also derives from the common Zhuang and Thai word for lightening or ‘sky flash’.
     He won the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana, Mexico and died shortly after a sudden and mysterious illness.  An autopsy revealed that the horse’s stomach and intestines were inflamed leading many to believe the horse had been deliberately poisoned.  Phar Lap died in 1932 and at the time he was the third highest stakes-winner in the world.
     Phar Lap had an abnormal heart - it was bigger than most.  After he died Phar Lap’s heart ended up in Australia and his skeleton ended up in New Zealand (Wikipedia, 2016).  In New Zealand they unveiled a life size bronze monument (that cost $500,000) near his birthplace of Timaru.  He was the ultimate war horse and the underdog, whenever he raced the horse knew when it was time to go full throttle and he never needed a whip.
     Timaru was where our dad was apparently living at one point; Allan Ernest James Neil.  Other than the apparent abandonment of a father figure all that I knew and know of him is that he worked in the RAAF (The Royal Australian Air Force) and their motto is ‘Per Ardua ad Astra’, which means ‘Through Adversity to the Stars’.
     On the front page of The Sun Newspaper in Melbourne on November 1931 is a picture of Phar Lap with a horse shoe and a flag behind him with the headline of ‘Will Phar Lap Make Turf History?’   There is another great photo in the Sydney Morning Herald when he was pictured being led to the mounting yard at Flemington after winning the 1929 Victoria Derby with the headlines ‘It’s not all black and white’ which is very fitting in relation to the criminal justice system.


No comments:

Post a Comment