Port Arthur Massacre

The Port Arthur Massacre is the name given to a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of 35 people, and the serious injury of 37 more in late April of 1996. The tragedy occurred at the ruins of the Port Arthur Prison Colony, a popular historic tourist site in the town of Port Arthur in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia.

Martin Bryant, a 29-year-old from New Town, pleaded guilty to the crime and is currently serving a life sentence without parole in Risdon Prison.

Contents

1 Timeline of events 2 Capture and prosecution 3 Aftermath and analysis 4 External links

Timeline of events

The murder spree began either late on the night of April 27 or early in the morning of April 28, 1996 at the Seascape guesthouse outside Port Arthur, where Bryant murdered the elderly couple who owned the business. It is believed that Bryant had made several offers to purchase this guesthouse in the previous months (using funds from a large inheritance), and was angry at the refusals.

After leaving the guesthouse, Bryant drove to the Port Arthur historic site. At around 1:30 PM Bryant entered the "Broad Arrow Cafe", ordered and ate a light lunch, and then removed an AR15 rifle from his bag and commenced firing. Bryant rapidly fired 29 rounds, killing 22 people. Bryant then moved to the car park and fired at random people, killing several. He shot and killed the driver of one of the several tour buses parked side by side in the car park and three passengers, as well as several others who were taking cover in and around the buses. At some point Bryant swapped his AR15 for a FN FAL military rifle, kept in the boot of his car, where he also stored a magazine-fed shotgun. Bryant eventually drove his Volvo out of the carpark towards the park entrance. Along the way he left the car and, at point blank range, murdered a mother and her two small children who were trying to escape.

Bryant then went to the tollbooth at the entrance to the historic site, held up the driver of a BMW at gunpoint, murdered the three occupants and drove the car towards the Seascape guesthouse. At a petrol station along the way he saw a Toyota with two occupants, a man and a woman. Bryant forced the man at gunpoint into the boot of the BMW, then shot the woman dead. He then drove the BMW on to the guesthouse, arriving a few minutes before 2:00 PM.

Here he shot at several passing vehicles, injuring two more people. Bryant then released the man from the boot of the BMW, handcuffed him to a railing inside the guesthouse, and set the BMW on fire. Two policemen had approached the guesthouse within two hours, six hours later a team from the Tasmanian Police Special Operations Group had arrived, and an 18-hour standoff ensued.

Capture and prosecution

Bryant was captured the following morning when he set fire to the guesthouse, and ran outside, his clothes on fire. It came to light that the man who was thought to be his hostage had been shot dead during or before the standoff.

Bryant initially pleaded not guilty to the 35 murders but after the prosecution began presenting evidence, changed his plea to guilty. He is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Hobart's Risdon Prison without possibility of parole.

Australians reacted to the event with widespread shock and horror, and the political effects were significant and long-lasting. Both federal and state governments, some of which (notably Tasmania itself and Queensland) were opposed to firearm control, quickly took action to restrict the availability of firearms. Under federal government co-ordination all Australian States and Territories heavily restricted use of self-loading rifles and shotguns, together with a considerable tightening of other gun laws. Family members of victims, notably Walter Mikac (who lost his wife and two children) spoke out in favour of the changes.

Much discussion has occurred as to the level of Bryant's mental health. It is generally accepted that he has a sub-normal IQ (estimated at 66, and in the lowest 2 percent of his age group: [1] (http://hunter.apana.org.au/~cas/autism/bryant.html)) and at the time of the offences was in receipt of a Disability Support Pension on the basis of being mentally handicapped. Bryant had never been diagnosed with schizophrenia, nor any major depressive disorder ([2] (http://hunter.apana.org.au/~cas/autism/bryant.html)). Reports that Bryant was schizophrenic were based on his mother's misinterpretation of psychiatric advice. Media reports also detailed his odd behaviour as a child. However, he was also able to obtain a gun (he did not have a gun license) and was able to drive a car (ref: [3] (http://home.overflow.net.au/~nedwood/transcript.html)) (a matter which, in the public debate that followed, was widely regarded as a telling demonstration of the inadequacy of the nation's gun laws). Bryant was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome by one psychiatrist, Dr Sale, but this diagnosis was found to be incorrect by the court-appointed psychiatrist Prof Mullen ([4] (http://hunter.apana.org.au/~cas/autism/bryant.html)). Bryant was assessed as fit to stand trial as a mentally competent adult.

After Bryant's imprisonment, several other prisoners boasted of their intention to murder him in jail. For his own safety, Bryant was held in near-solitary confinement in a specially built cell from his sentencing in November 1996 until July 1997. His motivation for the massacre remains largely unknown ([5] (http://home.overflow.net.au/~nedwood/transcript.html)) except to his lawyer, who is bound not to reveal confidences without his client's consent.

Aftermath and analysis

The Port Arthur tourist site reopened a few weeks later, and since then a new restaurant has been built. The former Broad Arrow Cafe has been converted into a "place for quiet reflection", and the surrounding grounds converted into a memorial garden.

The massacre at Port Arthur created a tragic kinship with the Scottish town of Dunblane, which had suffered a similarly horrific event only weeks previously. The two communities exchanged items to place at their respective memorials.

There have occasionally been claims, mainly originating from author Joe Vialls, that the massacre was not conducted by Bryant and that police faked evidence to secure his conviction. Evidence cited in favour of this view includes extreme speed and accuracy of the shooter, considering the fact that Bryant didn´t have any kind known shooting experience, exept with air rifle, the high numbers of casualties inflicted per round shot, Bryant's low IQ (it being argued that he didn't have the mental capacity to carry out such an operation), that pictures of the gunman at the massacre appeared to show a man wearing a blonde wig, and that police initially reported that there were two gunmen at Seascape (ref: [6] (http://www.shootersnews.addr.com/snportarthur.html)). However, given the large number of witnesses to the shooting, the vast majority of the Australian public regard these claims as groundless. These theories often tend to selectively ignore parts of the evidence presented before the court. For example, Bryant's high accuracy can be explained by the fact that many of his shots were from point-blank range, close enough to inflict powder burns to his victims [7] (http://www.shootersnews.addr.com/cttranscript.htm).

External links

• Crime Library description (http://www.dark-horse.co.uk/serial/bryant/)
• Court-appointed psychiatric analysis, November 1996 (http://hunter.apana.org.au/~cas/autism/bryant.html)
• Port Arthur News Archive (http://www.geniac.net/portarthur/)
• South Australian police report on the case (http://www.shootersnews.addr.com/snpasapolicearticle.htm)
• Port Arthur Conspiracy Claims (http://www.shootersnews.addr.com)ja:ポートアーサー事件