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#1
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12-26-2010, 06:03 AM
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 My Rank: LANCE CORPORAL Poster Rank:2404 Ummmm! Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 187 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 1 Post(s)
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Man Caught on Fire.
PLEASE don't make fun of Richard the victim BUT go ahead and attack the guy's who did this. If you don't want to read all the info below I will give you a short cut. On the 1st of October 2008, a mentally disabled man Richard Plonktin, known locally as Smokey, heard a knock at his front door. 5 boys between the ages of 18 and 20, knocked on Richard's door planning to have some fun at his expence. They knocked and yelled out Policemen's names he knew to get him to open the door. Terrified Richard opened the door to have a watering can of petrol splashed over most of his body, doorway, verandah and up the path. Then one of the boy's lite a match and threw it at Richard, who immediantly caught fire. As Richard screamed in terror and pain, alerting his neighbours, the chicken shit kid's ran off. Richard is still in hospital to this day. His house has been demolished BUT due to his popularity, the cruelity shown to him and that he wouldn't hurt a fly, local's have started to rebuild his uninsured home. The boy's sentences were; Tyson Jessen 18. James Dingle 19 Richard Findley 20 ONLY one to plead quility. Allan Walters 20 Adam Taylor 20 They all got 5 years jail, except Dingle I believe who got 3.5 years because he wouldn't be able to cope! Whilst on bail he went around graffeting how great he was. What a hero? Jessen told police: "Smokey never hurt me or anyone else I'm aware of. He was harmless and an easy target." In one excruciating courtroom scene, Kathleen Jessen wept for the victim and berated her son, himself sobbing in the dock. If he were bailed, she said, he "is never to forget what he's done to Richard". Ms Jessen, a long-time single parent, suggested a home curfew for her son. The distraught woman said she had been ringing police almost daily about Mr Plotkin. Sobbing, she offered to help the injured man. "I could help him in hospital if I could feed him. If I could put his eye drops in his eyes and help him through this for the rest of his life … It's what I want to do … I feel sorry for this man." Then, with only the sounds of mother and son weeping, she regained some composure to look balefully at him and snap: "Richard is his name … Richard!" Rosebud arson horror started as 'a laugh and bit of mischief' Steve Butcher January 14, 2009 .NINTH Avenue in Rosebud is mostly old cottages, fenceless weekenders and tidy retirement homes, walking distance from the bay. It is quiet, but there are skid-marks on the road and letterboxes bent by vandals. Unlike its neighbours, the small, prefabricated bungalow at No. 133 was hidden from the street. Advertisement: Story continues below Covered by ivy, trees and long grass, the house was a mystery to the outside world, but its owner and only resident had been around for years. In fact, Irving Richard Plotkin — Richard to most but nicknamed "Smokey" — was a local identity, known for his sheepskin jacket, smoker's cough and daily appearance at the local cafe. A few people talked to the bearded 60-year-old. He would respond, but increasingly, much of Mr Plotkin's constant chatter was with himself — or directed at invisible "friends". This was part of his mental disorder, paranoid schizophrenia. Its onset about 20 years ago wrecked what had been a promising life. A bright boy, young Richard had won poetry prizes, excelled at writing and played musical instruments at Wesley College. It was, says his sister, a "middle-class, educated background". Their father, Irving Samuel Plotkin, was a solicitor, Melbourne city councillor and ALP member until his death in 1976. Labor leader Arthur Calwell had been a family friend. Desmond Matthews, who mowed Mr Plotkin's lawns for many years, describes him as an "astute businessman" who received $12,000 a quarter for agistment at his property near Echuca. Although Mr Plotkin started to "lose the plot" about a decade ago, he was intelligent, generous and polite. "He was a part of Rosebud," Mr Matthews says. Most days, Mr Plotkin went to Vinnie's Kitchen, where volunteers provide meals for the needy. He would wash his hands and ask to set the tables, then sit alone in a corner. "Everyone knew him," says one of the volunteers. A problem was his otherwise indifference to hygiene. That and his increasingly florid behaviour might explain a suggestion he had shunned treatment at a local psychiatric unit and stopped taking medication. Such eccentric, solitary people make easy targets for ridicule — and physical attacks. Some Rosebud youths called Mr Plotkin a "dirty bum" and a "creepy" old man. Grant (not his real name), who also has had mental health problems and was as close as anyone could get to Mr Plotkin, recalls seeing him with blood streaming from an ear. "A kid threw a can at him," Grant says. There were other assaults. Young people threw drinks at him; one tipped a tub of cream over him outside the Rosebud Hotel last year. These random cruelties were preludes to a horrifying crime last September, when Mr Plotkin and his house were set alight. The flames left him fighting for life and grossly disfigured, destroyed his home and independence, and angered and distressed police, prosecutors and a seasoned magistrate. And they shattered five families whose sons were charged over an act described later by a defence barrister as a "cruel and nasty prank that's gone horribly wrong". Who would do such a thing? "We were talking about having a laugh and getting up to a bit of mischief," James "Dingles" Dingle would later tell police. This was the afternoon of September 30 last year, and Dingle, 19, and his mate James "Bangers" Findlay, 20, had hooked up. It was five months since Dingle had nearly died in a car crash from injuries that still require neurology and rehabilitation sessions. Findlay, a Blairgowrie bricklayer, was a marijuana user and drinker. Their friend, Tyson Jessen, 18, drifted from home to various friends' places, and would be described by his mother as disrespectful. At about 10.30 that night, Jessen was with Adam Taylor and Allan Walters, both 20 and friends since school. After a phone call, Jessen collected Dingle and Findlay in Rye and, according to police, the five drove around Rosebud, bored until Dingle suggested they set fire to Mr Plotkin's front door. About 11.20pm in Dromana, Jessen allegedly half-filled a plastic watering can with petrol at a convenience store. They then drove to Ninth Avenue. The plan was to lure Mr Plotkin to the door by calling the name of a policeman he knew. The only people that know exactly what happened are those involved. Mr Plotkin was splashed with petrol, which later caught fire when the lit can was thrown through a front window. He was terribly burned as fire engulfed the house but escaped by throwing himself through a window and staggering to the nature strip. He told neighbours who rushed to help that he could not understand why "police" would do this to him. Meanwhile, the men had run to their car. Jessen, who had previously given Mr Plotkin "a bit of shit, just for fun", later expressed guilt and anger that "I let myself go that far" and caused such unintended harm. Walters told police he didn't want the others to think he was a "wuss" by backing out. His mother said he had apologised "a thousand times over" for his involvement. Arrested on October 8 and 9, the five were remanded and held in police and prison cells. None had been in custody before and none had criminal histories, although Dingle and Findlay faced unrelated and unresolved charges. Police said the five made full admissions after an investigation by the arson and explosives squad. But with no independent witnesses, apart from Mr Plotkin's understandably uncertain account, officers had to rely on their statements, which investigators regarded as partly self-serving or exculpatory. Their bail applications in Melbourne Magistrates Court in November and December have offered the only public insights into the crime. At these hearings, it was revealed that their parents had divorced or separated, and four were unemployed. Alcohol or drugs were not factors on the night. Findlay was the only one who had not had previous contact with Mr Plotkin, while Taylor reckoned him "a pretty nice guy". Jessen told police: "Smokey never hurt me or anyone else I'm aware of. He was harmless and an easy target." Police opposed bail on the grounds the five could reoffend, interfere with witnesses or endanger the public. Each, however, would ultimately be granted bail with strict conditions that included curfews, while three were banned from the Mornington Peninsula. At Taylor's hearing on November 3, youth worker Steve Riordan reported few "underlying issues", except "inappropriate peers" and "obviously a tendency for bullying in a group". "As to why a young 20-year-old in a group of other younger men (would) go and victimise a poor man in his house, I've got no idea — and in some respects, I don't think Mr Taylor does either," he said. Magistrate Peter Couzens demanded to hear from the parents. Taylor's mother, Sue Kellett, could not believe her "good boy" had been involved. He now prayed for Mr Plotkin, she said. Mr Couzens said "one's heart bleeds" for Mr Plotkin, the victim of "stupid, idle, irresponsible" young people. He lamented the dramatic increase in the deaths of young people from one-punch assaults at parties, hotels and in the street. In one excruciating courtroom scene, Kathleen Jessen wept for the victim and berated her son, himself sobbing in the dock. If he were bailed, she said, he "is never to forget what he's done to Richard". Ms Jessen, a long-time single parent, suggested a home curfew for her son. The distraught woman said she had been ringing police almost daily about Mr Plotkin. Sobbing, she offered to help the injured man. "I could help him in hospital if I could feed him. If I could put his eye drops in his eyes and help him through this for the rest of his life … It's what I want to do … I feel sorry for this man." Then, with only the sounds of mother and son weeping, she regained some composure to look balefully at him and snap: "Richard is his name … Richard!" Mr Plotkin, who has now moved to another hospital, speaks of returning to Rosebud. Asked by police to describe how the crime has affected his life, he said: "It's all in the past." But he had one question. "It leaves a query in my mind why the boys did it," he said. "… I really can't see why they did it."  ·  ·  ·  · |
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#4
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12-26-2010, 09:51 AM
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 My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:464 male Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 2,341 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 46 Post(s)
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Re: Man Caught on Fire.
this poor man These kids should have to suffer the same pain that they caused this man
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#5
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12-26-2010, 09:59 AM
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| My Rank: LANCE CORPORAL Poster Rank:2404 Ummmm! Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 187 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 1 Post(s)
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Re: Man Caught on Fire.
I so totally agree. An eye for an eye. The will be out some. One is out already. See's himself as a hero. Smokey NEVER hurt anyone. It wasn't in his nature. Be assurred someone in two will throw people over these bastrads. Bet they cry like a baby.  |
