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THREE CLEARED OVER 'JOKE' EMAIL TO KNIFE HORROR FATHER

"Three workers have been cleared of forgery after sending joke emails about a fake business trip to a rival. The man later had a mental breakdown and stabbed his 12-year-old daughter to death. Andy Hall, from Monmouthshire, plunged a 14-inch carving knife into his daughter Emma's heart the day he returned from the made-up business trip to India in June 2000. Jeremy Aston, Raymond Ball and Ivan Lucas, from a rival firm, admitted sending emails to Mr Hall about meeting a non-existent client in India, but insisted it was a practical joke. Hall took the emails seriously and travelled to India to attend the meeting, only to find it was not real. At Cardiff Crown Court, the jury, which was not told of the death of Hall's daughter, found the trio not guilty after about two hours of deliberation. Mr Aston, 44, of Rhiwbina, Cardiff; Mr Ball, 40, of Thornhill, Cardiff, and Mr Lucas, 31, of Monmouth; had denied one count of forgery between May 17, 2000, and July 20, 2000. Hall, previously of Mountview, Whitelye, Catbrook in Monmouthshire was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity at his trial in December 2000 and remains in hospital. Following his trial in December 2000, his family issued a statement blaming the emails as the "catalyst for this tragedy", but Judge Christopher Llewellyn Jones QC said the incidents were not linked. The three men sent the emails to their former employer, for which Andy Hall worked, the medical testing equipment company Molecular Light Technology, based in Cardiff, as part of an office joke. They pretended to be a non-existent Indian businessman called Dr Sunil Hankawanka who was interesting in the supply of benzene testing kits. Messages, to which Hall began to reply, were sent by the trio in bad, broken English, once requesting a translation from Mr Hall into Urdu. After leaving MLT, Ball and Aston had set up their own company, AB Biomonitoring, and computer worker Lucas joined them at a later date. Ball told the court that he was concerned for the security of his emails being sent to an old MLT mail box and sent the messages to the company as a test of its integrity. More than 30 emails were eventually sent between Andy Hall and "Dr Hankawanka" and Hall eventually arranged to travel to India, but discovered the doctor did not exist after arriving in the country. Returning to the UK, paranoid schizophrenic Hall, who thought he was Jesus Christ, killed his daughter less than 12 hours after arriving home. The teenager was asleep in her bed when Hall attacked her in the belief she would come back to life after her death. He had planned to kill his entire family including his wife Karen and his son James, then 10, and commit suicide believing this would save 15 other Christian families from death. But Hall's wife and his son fled the house in a fit of panic believing her husband was trying to also kill James.

Surprised

[Speechless]

Posted: 25-04-2002 21:42 Post subject:

They won't do that again then.

Posted: 25-04-2002 22:21 Post subject:

Posted: 25-04-2002 22:30 Post subject:

Posted: 25-04-2002 23:32 Post subject:

This tragedy sounds like it had to happen, all it needed was a final trigger. In a normal state of mind would you answer mail from a "Dr.Hankawanka" (except on this board perhaps? roll eyes (sarcastic)

) Sad as often in these cases, the warnings signs are there but not picked up or acted upon in time.

Posted: 25-04-2002 23:45 Post subject:

Posted: 25-04-2002 23:54 Post subject:

Some people hide it very well.

Posted: 25-04-2002 23:56 Post subject:

No offence, mate, but with this magnitude of joke, I can't believe it makes much difference ...

Posted: 26-04-2002 00:01 Post subject:

Sorry? I'm not meaning to be awkward, it's just that you lost me there.

Posted: 26-04-2002 00:05 Post subject:

Riiiight ...

I was assuming that your 'some people hide it very well' remark referred to the victim's schizophrenia. I didn't take massive offence at it -- just didn't think it was an appropriate response.

If it didn't (refer to the victim's state), then my apologies -- I misunderstood you.

But, as I say, I didn't mean any offence to you personally for rebuffing it either way.

Posted: 26-04-2002 00:43 Post subject:

Sorry. I wasn't being flippant. I think I may just thought that he'd managed to hide it from his workmates. Not likely, but possible? I don't know, I've never known anyone who suffered from schizophrenia, so I could be talking out of the wrong end.
I'm not being very perceptive right now; I've been writing an essay on Jacobitism for eight hours and I'm on the verge of passing out on my keyboard.

Posted: 26-04-2002 07:00 Post subject:

That's the problem with schizophrenia - it can go undiagnosed for years. My mate's dad succumbed to it, and it was only spotted a few years later when he went utterly loopy one evening - up until then the family had all assumed he was just getting a little eccentric with advancing age, when later it transpired (after months of psychiatric counselling) that he'd been becoming gradually more and more convinced that his family were "out to get him"; cos he thought he'd be banged up by his family if this manifested itself he kept it to himself until one day the pressure just got too great. Thankfully no-one was hurt when he did go, but that was more luck than anything else.

Now he's doped up to the toupee 24/7, but he's not dangerous to himself or others, and back at home.

Posted: 26-04-2002 16:36 Post subject:

Posted: 26-04-2002 16:54 Post subject:

Posted: 26-04-2002 17:16 Post subject:

Yes they "got away with it" in the strict legal sense, but there are other punishments. If I did anything that had consequences like that, I think I might welcome being imprisoned because it would ease my hidious guilt. Being questioned, charged and brought to court in a case like this must be a horrific nightmare in itself.