Man who set himself on fire, dies... another Family Law victim

stemgang · 2010-06-12T12:52:07+00:00

Strangely, this story has had some pretty conflicting reports. Earlier reports said he was in his 30s and was outside the court after a family law case; later ones often said he was confirmed to be not in his 30s, but 60, and had mental health issues and that the suicide was unrelated to any ongoing case. Some reports hedged their bets and just said that police are looking in to the reasons for his death. A lot of it seems like spot reporting, rather than proven truth. I doubt we'll ever know why (and that's for the best; people deserve privacy), but I do think that the writer of the article was quite selective with which news reports he chose to reference.

This is tragic, but I'm inclined to believe that Norman Hefferson was misinformed when he talked about Australia's "young men". Neither a late-30-something year old or a 60 year old, in my mind, fall into the category of young men. Not that suicide amongst the middle-aged and elderly isn't an issue or important, but I don't really understand what Mr. Hefferson was talking about.

Edit: For context, I'm from Brisbane. Seems like noone knows exactly what happened.

morrisday · 2010-06-12T11:38:54+00:00

Does anyone know the spending difference in Australia on health-aligned services between men and women. This guy in this article makes an important point on this.

stemgang · 2010-06-12T12:48:51+00:00

What was his name? What was the Family Court decision that pushed him over the edge?

The man died to get our attention...and we still can't get the details of his story!

sonjahastings · 2010-06-12T13:45:55+00:00

This is the first I have read of it. You would think it would be a bigger story if true.

But Heffernon makes an important point none the less. I remember reading, I think, that spending on women's support services was 80 times more than men's in Australia.

In fact recently all funding to battered men's services in Australia was ceased by the current Rudd government, while there was a large increase for battered womens services.

ashpatil · 2010-06-13T04:13:56+00:00

This is an interesting story. I am in Sydney and only read about this on Reddit.

No mention of it on the TV News at all, as far as I know.

I like most of you would like to know more about what set him off, but I am certain that if it were a family court matter, the privacy provisions would mean that no details can be released.

PortConflict · 2010-07-30T04:30:06+00:00

I was there that day, and arrived just after he was extinguished. It was pretty amazing I can tell you.

In regards to another thread, it was reported on the news, but could not be reported in detail due to the suicide nature.

carchamp1 · 2010-06-12T19:06:14+00:00

In case you guys hadn't noticed, victims of "family" law who commit suicide are completely unreported. So are domestic violence cases set off by "family" court abuses. You will either never hear about this stuff in the media or the truth will be completely hidden by the oft repeated rantings that men "snap" because they're jealous or have some quirky personality flaw. See the OJ Simpson case for a high profile example of this phenomenon.

The BIG question is WHY the media refuses to report these tragedies truthfully as sparked by "family" law abuses against men.

Title	Man who set himself on fire, dies... another Family Law victim
Author	morrisday
Upvotes	17
Comments	12
Date	June 12, 2010 11:38 AM UTC (16 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/ce8r2/man_who_set_himself_on_fire_dies_another_family/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/man-who-set-himself-on-fire-dies-another-family.1049139 https://theredarchive.com/post/1049139

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