A man from Sydney, Australia, who a few years ago ordered the gang rape of a teenage girl who was staying at his apartment, has blamed his use of methamphetamine (”ice”) for his criminal behaviour; he had started using the drug six months previously. Apparently he didn’t like the girl and, upon seeing her in the house, got violent, causing damage to the apartment before turning on the unnamed victim and getting her to perform oral sex on some of his mates.
Canan Eken, 28, claims that he was suffering from a psychotic episode at the time and didn’t remember what happened; Eken also bashed the 17-year-old girl. This, combined with a family history of mental illness, contributed to the attack, according to his defence lawyer, Geoffrey Nicholson, QC; a psychiatrist testified that psychotic behaviour is a common side effect of using the drug.
The prosecutor in the case, Sally Dowling, argued that Eken had never liked the girl anyway and that even before he had started using ice six months earlier he had been convicted of assault eight years ago. Eken has pleaded guilty to six charges. The judge in the case, Justice Anthony Puckeridge, has reserved his decision on what sentence to pass on Eken.
So should Eken get lenience because his use of the drug may have contributed to what occurred? The Daily Telegraph editorialised that Eken should have known the possibilities of using the drug, particularly with his family history, and therefore he should take responsibility for his actions. I’d tend to agree. Even if ice truly did make him do it - and that is open to question, just as it was for those stories past of infamously violent crack addicts - it’s not as if he had some kind of avoidable cancer-type disease that conceivably made him do it and this was entirely out of his control.
Similarly, if someone gets drunk and causes violence, why should alcohol absolve the offender, repeat or otherwise? What kind of message or warning does this send out to those who cause harm? But what really closes the case is that Eken had a history of violence a long time before he used ice. This shows he had a predisposition to violence, ice-fuelled or not.
