XPost: alt.women, can.general, can.politics   
   XPost: soc.culture.canada, talk.politics, talk.religion.bahai   
   From: max@hotmail.com   
      
   This is a multi-part message in MIME format.   
      
   'Dark secret' led to Holly's murder   
   10-year-old sexually assaulted, killed within an hour of abduction   
      
      
      
   MARLENE HABIB   
   CANADIAN PRESS   
      
   Michael Briere, 36,   
   has admitted to   
   abducting, killing   
   and dismembering   
   10-year-old   
   Holly Jones in 2003.   
      
   Michael Briere was a software programmer with no previous criminal   
   record when he watched child pornography one chilly evening in May   
   2003 - and that very night, snatched a 10-year-old girl from the   
   street, sexually assaulted, strangled and dismembered her.   
   Briere, who pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder in the death   
   of Holly Jones, wept as he apologized for acting out on what was   
   described in court as his “dark secret” — his fantasy to have sex with   
   a young girl.   
      
   “A man who commits this type of crime — you put him away, you put him   
   away for good,” a tearful Briere told Ontario Superior Court as Holly’s   
   mother, Maria Jones, sat nearby, sobbing at times.   
      
   “I have failed as a human being.”   
      
   In shocking detail, the sequence of events were read out to the   
   court - a crime that was spurred by Briere's viewing of child   
   pornography on the Internet on the night of May 12, 2003.   
      
   Aroused after seeing the images and unable to control himself, he went   
   onto the street in the west-end neighbourhood known as the Junction,   
   saw Holly on a street corner as she walked home from a friend's house,   
   grabbed her by the neck and took her through a laneway to his   
   apartment.   
      
   Inside, the 36-year-old Montreal native sexually assaulted her,   
   strangled and dismembered her - all in about an hour.   
      
   The horrifying revelations prompted a plaintive plea from senior Crown   
   attorney Paul Culver outside the courtroom.   
      
   "Mr. Briere, whatever else motivated him, was spurred on by images of   
   child pornography downloaded from the Internet," Culver said.   
      
   "If this isn't a case that brings home to society, to government, to   
   legislatures and to those involved in the prosecution and resolution   
   of child pornography cases that this cancer on our society must be   
   stopped and stamped out, then I can't think of one."   
      
   Holly's mother, Maria Jones, was so distraught she could only speak   
   briefly after Briere's appearance - but she held out hope that her   
   youngest child might not have died in vain if Canada's   
   child-pornography laws are strengthened as a result of her murder.   
      
   "I know Holly will make a difference," Jones said.   
      
   The family's lawyer, Tim Danson, called on Ottawa to toughen its   
   kiddie porn laws as he read from a statement written by Jones.   
      
   "While some argue that child pornography is constitutionally protected   
   free speech, Parliament must tighten up its child pornography   
   legislation by giving full constitutional weight to children's   
   equality and privacy rights by adopting zero-tolerance for child   
   pornography," he said.   
      
   "Canada must take the lead with the international community to wipe   
   out child pornography on the Internet and in Canada."   
      
   Briere's dramatic admissions stunned the courtroom, where family   
   members, police officers, spectators and reporters alike were in tears   
   at times.   
      
   His statement of facts told how he disposed of Holly's body parts over   
   three days, including dumping two bags with her torso, head and arms   
   into Lake Ontario, and put her legs into his garbage for curbside   
   pickup. The bags were found a day after her abduction; her legs have   
   never been recovered.   
      
   "I fully recognize and acknowledge that the crime which I am guilty of   
   is simply the worst kind of crime a person can commit," Briere said.   
      
   "I fully recognize the pain which I have caused. I realize that I must   
   be punished for this terrible wrong I have done, I also realize that   
   society wants to be protected from me and my behaviour."   
      
   Justice David Watt had harsh words in response to Briere's apology.   
      
   "Your crime profoundly shocked this community and city and it is a   
   community that is no longer easily shocked by crimes of violence," he   
   said. "A random abduction on a quiet city street, a sexual assault, a   
   murder, dismemberment, a young active life, like others full of   
   promise, snuffed out."   
      
   He added: "There seems no bottom in the depravity pool nor any limits   
   to the vulnerability of our children."   
      
   Briere will receive an automatic life sentence with no chance of   
   parole for 25 years.   
      
   He waived his right to a preliminary hearing last month to spare the   
   girl's family the pain of hearing weeks of evidence in the case, his   
   lawyer said.   
      
   Briere was escorted in handcuffs under heightened security to the   
   downtown courthouse, clean-shaven with his black hair tied in a   
   ponytail and wearing an olive-green suit.   
      
   His presence in court came after a year of only appearing via   
   video-teleconference. His image was flashed on TV screens from the   
   Toronto jail where he's been in protective custody since his arrest   
   June 20, 2003.   
      
   Briere's arrest followed an intense yet tragically short search by   
   police and neighbours for Holly, the youngest of four children of   
   Jones and George Stonehouse.   
      
   The girl was abducted on a rainy evening on May 12, 2003, and her   
   dismembered remains found early the next day. Police later speculated   
   the girl was dead before her parents even realized she was missing.   
      
   Holly's disappearance triggered an emotional plea from her parents for   
   her safe return. An Amber Alert was also issued.   
      
   A month after her remains were found, Briere was charged with   
   first-degree murder in the death of the girl, remembered by friends as   
   someone who "touched people's hearts" and had a laugh that was "funny   
   and crazy, just like her mom's."   
      
      
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   ---------------   
      
      
         "The collapse of society's moral foundations has left the   
   greater part of humankind floundering without reference points in a   
   world that grows daily more threatening and unpredictable. To suggest   
   that the process has nearly reached its end would be merely to raise   
   false hopes. One may appreciate that intense political efforts are   
   being made, that impressive scientific advances continue or that   
   economic conditions improve for a portion of humankind - all without   
   seeing in such developments anything resembling hope of a secure life   
   for oneself, or more importantly, for one's children. The sense of   
   disillusionment which, as Shoghi Effendi warned, the spread of   
   political corruption would create in the minds of the mass of   
   humankind is now widespread. Outbreaks of lawlessness have become   
   pandemic in both urban and rural life in many lands. The failure of   
   social controls, the effort to justify the most extreme forms of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)