New Zealand has just witnessed yet another horrific murder and the subsequent court case (does any one else sort of wish you can’t view video from these trials all over the internet?)

This guy stabbed his girlfriend over 200 times, in her bedroom, while her mum was locked outside the door. He severely mutilated her and his defense was ‘provocation’.

I remember studying criminology at university, and the thing that freaked me out, is how victims are regularly the ones on trial. In this case, the guy (who was just found guilty of murder) was on the stand for 5 whole days, ripping apart his victim’s reputation. In front of her entire family and all her friends, he calmly sat their painting a picture of a girl who deserved what was coming to her.

We look at these cases as if they involve people who aren’t like us. But this was just an ordinary girl. It could have been any one of us (and in New Zealand, it actually could be, we all know someone who knows someone…). I wonder how many people looked at the family of this victim and thought they were a bit odd, or that she was a bit unhinged. Any of us could be portrayed in that way, we can all be made to look a little unhinged.

I am torn between wondering if this guy realised he was a gonner so decided to wreck as much damage on her family as possible, or if he honestly believed that he was above the law. Either way, surely, there must be some protection for victims of these crimes to not have to sit and listen to some loony try to make their loved one sound like they were such a bad person, they deserved the 200 stab wounds.

This has long been a reason why we have far fewer rapes and violent domestic crimes reported. Watching the videos of this guy, you start to imagine what it must be like to be a victim of one of those crimes, then have your whole life and personality ripped apart publicly. While I can imagine many crime survivors have the strength to get their lives back on track, I’m not sure how anyone would recover from a trial.

I know this is about justice and we need to ensure we reach it. But in this case, the guy was caught with the knife in his hand and I can’t understand how a 6 month relationship can possibly push someone to that extreme in the first place. Did her family really need to sit through those five days to ensure we got the right verdict?