So simple, so useful, so deadly

I cribbed this title from part two of a book I read recently: Molecules Of Murder. It is written by John Emsley, a British science writer who specialises in chemistry and pharmacology. They’re the words that came to mind when I learnt about the case of the man who poisoned his wife various times. The book is an account of cases of poisoning and the science behind them, illustrating that poison is commonly seen by amoral people as a way of getting rid of inconvenient people and with higher chances of not getting caught.

You must have the destruction of a person on your mind if you consistently poison someone. But the penalty this man got for his potentially fatal enterprise was a suspended sentence. We were told that the poison giver’s clean police record was taken into consideration (Hello? This guy poisoned his wife and more than once: “the court was told of several instances when the poisoning took place”). Had this serial poison giver’s actions reached their possible conclusion, that is, had the woman died after imbibing the poison prepared for her in different instances, he would still have hitherto had a clean police record and his wife would by now be six feet under at the Addolorata.

The exercise failed but it is failed premeditated murder nonetheless. Needless to say, the wife’s life would continue to be about as cosy as a nest of vipers.

We were told that the accused walked out of court holding his brother’s hand, while both of them cried. Tears of joy and relief I suppose. This is comprehensible after being let off so lightly for what looked like a nefarious scheme to dispose of the spouse.

We are not to be surprised then, that – according to research carried out by our Domestic Violence Commission - only half of the women living in situations where their lives are threatened actually ask for help and even less file reports to the police.

This kind of stories continue to discourage victims from speaking up. When leniency is shown towards the perpetrators who are left in circulation, the victim knows that she will be harassed even more for having had the “courage” to report her aggressor.

It is quite incredible that law enforcement returns these individuals to society straight away and then we are all shocked when they offend again. In certain cases, aggressors are left free to roam around even when they have caused grievous bodily harm and attempted to murder their partners.

Some news stories show us that certain people need not even be returned to society because they are not arrested and are left to threaten death or bodily harm to their sick minds’ content.

There were reports  last week of  men threatening (via Facebook, the novel, simple and useful playground for bullies) to kill an MP or two, not by poisoning in this case, but by strangling. These cyberbullies must be aware of the words they are using and their meaning is very clear. The context in which the bullying is taking place shows that the purpose is for the threat to be taken seriously and is meant to intimidate the recipient.  When, eventually, after days of pressure from the press, action was taken against the perpetrators, they too got suspended sentences.

Unlike the poison-man, who, we were told, had a clear police record, one of the cyberbullies mentioned is reported to have been in prison for murder some years ago.

Even though this is a relatively new thing, there are reams of case-law on cyberbullying whereby people were imprisoned for this crime. Here, even though Facebook has caught on like wildfire, it seems that such threats are not taken seriously.

Like poison, Facebook can be so simple, so useful, so deadly. We’ve read reports of people who committed suicide as a result of cyberbullying. It won’t be the case with the two MPs being threatened here but it has been and will continue to be so for vulnerable people.

Both instances – the response to the case of the poisoned woman and to the cyber death threats – raise questions on how much we really value human life, in spite of all the palaver on that subject.

helenadalli@gmail.com

Dr Dalli is shadow minister for the public service, government investments and gender equality.