Tim Walker’s Absent

Everyone, at one time or other, will surely have undergone a moment of absence: a time when mental acuity proves evasive; an aberration or apparent lapse in brain function.

Hardly seems just then, when the same thing happens to a Wanganui woman with the weight of the world upon her shoulders – appointments, meetings, timeslots, responsibilities, engagements, saving the world – that it should elicit a charge of manslaughter.

Admittedly her aberration resulted in the death of an infant but really, does New Zealand’s legal system think that handing out further punishment to a lifetime’s worth of guilt and regret, is entirely necessary?

Regarding the aforementioned scenario the charge of manslaughter is unprecedented; in today’s world absentmindedness is quite common.

Yes, even regarding matters of grave importance.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Oan Lee

Photography by Hugh Mann

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