科学家企图谋杀上司被判刑10年

samchen

今天西澳报纸的新闻：从名字来看， Jianjun Zhang应该是从中国过来的。企图用设定了时速110公里的汽车来谋杀其老板。。。。怎么会有这样的人?

Scientist gets 10 years for driving into bossAmanda Banks and Ian Cutler, The West Australian
Updated April 4, 2012, 2:40 am tweet2EmailPrint
A vengeful scientist who set a car's cruise control at 110km/h and deliberately ran down the chief physicist at a remote North West solar observatory was sentenced to 10½ years jail yesterday.

District Court Judge Richard Keen said Jianjun Zhang, 43, had used his car as a weapon when he callously drove into his boss, Alan Brockman, as he cycled home from work at the Learmonth Solar Observatory near Exmouth on November 24, 2009.

Dr Brockman's bicycle was snapped in half and he was fortunate not to have been killed after suffering injuries including a fractured skull, multiple fractures of his vertebrae and ribs, nerve injuries and a closed head injury.

Judge Keen said a jury, which convicted Zhang of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a trial last year, had clearly rejected the defence that he was suffering from a state known as automatism - that his crime was not a voluntary or willed act.

Judge Keen said he accepted that Zhang had wanted to find a way "to get rid of Dr Brockman" and secure his job at the observatory.

The day before he was run down, Dr Brockman had given Zhang a report recommending the termination of his employment after various professional issues arose during his three-month probation as a space weather scientist.

"Your feelings towards Dr Brockman were of such intensity as to cause a foundation for some form of revenge against him," Judge Keen said.

"You left the observatory with the intention of doing (Dr Brockman) some serious harm."

From his home in Exmouth yesterday, Dr Brockman, 50, said he and his wife were relieved that justice had been seen to be done. "(But) for us, it isn't justice, it's not a fair swing of a see-saw," he said.

"I am permanently incapacitated, I have to live with this for the rest of my life. He is being punished for eight years, he might be out by then. There is no fairness in this."

Previously a competitive cyclist, Dr Brockman said he had limited mobility, chronic and severe pain, fatigue, loss of balance, double vision, poor memory and depression. "Nothing can ever take the place of health," he said.

But the father of two said he was determined to adapt to his life.

"I am not going to let it defeat us," he said.

Judge Keen described Zhang's offence as at "a very high level" on the scale of criminality and noted there were few factors in mitigation, including a complete lack of remorse.

But he accepted Zhang was suffering from mental impairment at the time.

Zhang's sentence was backdated to November 10, 2010, and he will be eligible for parole after 8½ years.