Vic:Margach case among last to use provocation defence

AAP General News (Australia)
02-17-2006
Vic:Margach case among last to use provocation defence

By Shelley Markham

MELBOURNE, Feb 17 AAP - Melbourne man Paul Margach could be one of the last Victorian
killers to use provocation as a defence.

Margach, who stabbed his wife Tina to death in front of their eight-year-old daughter
Erin, was this week found guilty of her murder despite the defence arguing it should have
been manslaughter.

The 39-year-old engineer murdered his 36-year-old wife by stabbing her 20 times in
the couple's suburban Ascot Vale home on October 15, 2004, with a steak knife.

During the 10-day trial, the defence argued Margach was guilty of manslaughter and
not murder because he did not intend to kill his wife and was provoked by the mistaken
belief she had been unfaithful.

Margach told police he stabbed his wife after she told him the marriage was over and
she falsely claimed that she had sex with another man and had enjoyed it.

His case was one of the last to use provocation as a defence because he was charged
before the laws in Victoria changed.

Victoria became the second Australian state, after Tasmania in 2003, to abolish provocation
as a defence for murder.

The change was made in October 2005, after recommendations from the Law Reform Commission
of Victoria.

It came almost 12 months after the controversial case of Julie Ramage, who was strangled
by her estranged husband James.

His trial heard Mrs Ramage told her estranged husband that sex with him was repulsive
and bragged of her exploits with a new lover.

He lured his wife of 22 years to the marital home in Melbourne's east, bashed her unconscious,
strangled her then buried her in a shallow grave.

The jury convicted him of manslaughter.

Justice Robert Osborn sentenced him to 11 years' jail with a minimum non parole period
of eight years.

In a letter published in Melbourne's The Age newspaper on November 1, 2004, Laurence
Webb, Ms Ramage's lover, said, "When someone close to you is killed, but the killer gets
off for lack of proof, the icy cold that reaches your heart is very personal".

"Provocation was the justification and the defence, claiming words such as 'I'm over
you, I should have left 10 years ago,' and 'making love to you repulses me'," he said.

"If such words can justify a murder, perhaps we are better off without a defence of
provocation."

When the law was changed Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls described the reform
as the most significant since the death penalty was abolished 30 years ago.

"Victoria's homicide laws have not kept pace with changing social values," Mr Hulls said.

"The law regarding provocation was developed from times past when it was acceptable,
especially for men, to have a violent response to an alleged breach of a person's honour.

"The defence of provocation promotes a culture of blaming the victim and has no place
in a modern society."

Margaret Scott, a friend of Tina Margach, said she knew Paul Margach and that he had
shown a tendency towards violence.

"Yes he had been violent to Tina before but no-one was aware of it," Mrs Scott told
Southern Cross radio.

"I just want all these women out there if they're going through this problem please
go for help and don't suffer in silence like Tina did and this was the end result," she
said.

The Margachs' now 10-year-old daughter Erin was eight years old when her mother was
killed and she was left to call triple-0 and try in vain to save her mother's life.

In her police interview she calmly described how her father punched her mother in the
nose and then, the following night, stabbed her to death after a family dinner at a Chinese
restaurant.

"Daddy was waving a knife around and he wanted to stab her but he was missing," Erin told police.

"He must have stabbed her once or twice because there was blood everywhere, like on
her arms and legs and body.

"I thought I could rush over and pull him away from her but I was too scared because
he had this really scary face on."

Paul Margach's mother Ivy described the devastation her son's actions had caused.

She said he was gentle, a man who adored his children and his wife.

And since her daughter-in-law's death she has not seen her granddaughters.

"He's devastated," she said.

"We all are .... We beg you to take into consideration he's not a murderous man."

Margach broke down in tears after the verdict was read out on Wednesday, while the
public gallery erupted in applause, one person calling out: `thank you' to the jury.

Outside the court Tina's father, Joseph Cultrera, said the family was relieved that
the defence of provocation was not accepted by the jury.

"We have done something .... (for) these women in Victoria that are murdered, slaughtered
or shot by any person and get away with it," Mr Cultrera said.

AAP sam/dk/drp/de

KEYWORD: MARGACH (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.