Beers And Bear Hug Leads To Murder
When 35 year old autistic man Gerard Fleming was fatally stabbed at a toilet block in Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in June last year, police and those who knew him were stumped as to how it had happened. While he managed to stagger to a nearby bus stop for help, he died in an ambulance shortly after.
Because it was late at night, and because the toilet block was a notorious gay beat, many figured it had been a hate crime. A local gay newspaper had claimed that a man who resembled Fleming was a regular at gay beats, but Fleming’s friends denied that this would have been the case, saying that he was a Christian, and had even travelled to take part in World Youth Day in Rome in 2000.
The mystery continues to unravel. Today the NSW Supreme Court heard from a young man who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Fleming. He cannot be named, given that he was a 16 year old at the time.
The teenager told Police that on the night of Fleming’s death he’d given Fleming a beer, which they both drank inside the toilet block because it was raining. At one point Fleming emerged from a toilet cubicle, with his pants around his knees, but his underpants still on, and joked to the teenager, saying “I’m giving you a wedgie.”
Fleming allegedly then tried to grab him “in a kind of bear hug” which is when the teenager stabbed him twice with a pocket knife.
It’s alleged that the teenager spoke to friends about it afterwards, telling them that he’d stabbed him because Fleming dropped his pants and tried to “roll” him.
The trial continues.
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Christian Taylor
said on the 14th Aug, 2008