Oct 26, 2011

Addendum to Stuart Walker Case

I'm continuing to follow the Stuart Walker case, posted previously. Unfortunately, the unfolding revelations have only gotten worse, but I decided in the interests of decency not to report them. The good news is that the local police have 'every available officer on the force' at work on this high profile case. Part of the shock of the case is that the community is so close knit and intimate, in which everyone knows everyone else. By all accounts, Stuart was warmly liked and equally warmly accepted for his sexuality. This is what has particularly shocked this (by all accounts) decent community, that homophobia was not in evidence. Yet the police and community are convinced it was not a random crime. If there is any blessing at all in this horrific event, it is the outpouring of love and support from his community, and their insistence that their love and respect for him were not conditioned or lessened by his sexuality, which they considered to be incidental.



Update:
Strathclyde Police
“We are still working towards identifying a motive for this murder.  I am aware of all the speculation in the media regarding Mr Walker and his death.  At this time we have nothing to indicate that this is a homophobic crime.  Until we know the exact circumstances surrounding this murder, we will not rule anything out and will keep an open mind on any possible motive for his terrible crime.

“There have also been reports that Mr Walker was tied to a post, this is not the case.  He was found lying on the roadside and although we are not going to go into specific details on the cause of death, it was an extremely violent crime and our focus at this time is finding those responsible and bringing them to justice.

5 comments:

William D. Lindsey said...

Horrifying. Thanks for keeping us informed, Jayden. Brings back such difficult memories of Matthew Shepard.

Richard Demma said...

As you say, William, horrifying and sad. Police are trying to restrain the rumors and there has been some comment that the speculation and garish headlines of "gay murder" are themselves the product of a subliminal homophobia. However, the latest discoveries - that things were 'done to him' before his death - strongly suggest this was a hate crime. I feel for his community as well, because they are crying out to the world, "We are not like that." My own heartfelt intuition is that we need to follow up on this case and its ramifications simply out of respect for Stuart Walker himself. We need to find out exactly what happened and why.

William D. Lindsey said...

Really disturbing, Jayden.

When you mention the "gay murder" headlines, do you mean that some authorities are trying to depict this as the act of a scorned lover?

Just today at the Box Turtle Bulletin site, there's a summary of the case of Alan Schindler, the gay Navy member beaten to death by another soldier some years ago. In that story, there were attempts on the part of the military to claim that the murder was due to a relationship between Schindler and the other seaman, which had gone sour. It was eventually found that the sailor killed Schindler out of sheer homophobic hatred.

Richard Demma said...

Yes, partly that I suppose, William, but some gay bloggers suggesting the rush to judgement about the case as one of gay bashing was sensationalizing it??? I don't quite follow the logic. Given the horrific nature of the act, truly barbaric violence, homophobic hate would be a very reasonable suspicion,, if not a presumption until proven otherwise.

khughes1963 said...

This is horrible, and I hope they bring the perpetrator to justice. RIP, Stuart.