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'Mentally ill' rabbit mutilator wins appeal
November 03, 2006 03:32pm
Article from: AAP
A SYDNEY financier jailed for 16 months for mutilating and killing 17 rabbits and a guinea pig today won an appeal against his conviction on the grounds he was mentally ill.
Brendan Francis McMahon, 37, was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of 16 months' jail in July on 18 counts of aggravated animal cruelty.
The New Zealand-born financier used his company credit card to buy the animals which he then tortured and killed before dumping their corpses in and around his inner Sydney office building.
McMahon had argued he should be found not guilty on mental health grounds, saying he was smoking $250 worth of the drug ice every three days in the month leading up to and during the crimes.
In appealing the conviction, McMahon's barrister Douglas Marr said his client had a "disease of the mind" for which the drugs were only a trigger.
District Court Judge Peter Berman today quashed McMahon's conviction, saying sentencing magistrate Ian Barnett had erred in rejecting the mental health defence.
"I am satisfied that the accused suffered a disease of the mind and the psychosis was not due to drugs alone," Judge Berman said in his judgment.
Judge Berman was to deliver further orders in the case later today.