Dear o sung wu,

Whenever the murder and rape of Anita Cobby is mentioned my thoughts automatically go to her father Garry Lynch.

That man was an absolute saint in my eyes and there aren't too many in that category. He helped set up a victims support organisation but it was in working with prisoners that put him so high in my esteem. He helped rapists and murders in jail even apparently coming face to face with one of his daughter's killers.

"After Nick Greiner, then NSW premier, decided to bring a civilian onto the Serious Offenders Review Council, Lynch served there between 1990 and 1995, bearing the burden of his daughter's murder with dignity and composure. He could not forgive the men who killed her, but nor did he hate them. He locked eyes with one of the murderers, John Travers, when visiting another prisoner, but no words were exchanged."

"He even helped change for the better William Munday, jailed for life on more than 40 charges, including murder, rape and armed robbery. Munday was feared and disliked by staff and fellow prisoners but Lynch took an interest in his progress, Munday responded and took his visitor as a guide to a normal, caring life. Graham Egan, the review body's executive officer, said in a letter to the Herald yesterday that Garry Lynch had touched the lives of many prisoners."
http://www.smh.com.au/national/courage-in-the-utmost-grief-20080917-gdsv8t.html

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I am absolutely certain I do not have the capacity for that level of empathy and forgiveness. I heard him interviewed before he died speaking about how so many serious offenders in NSW were graduates of the Tamworth Reform Institution for Boys. The stories of just how consistent that juvenile prison was in turning out deeply brutalised people who then went on to brutalise and murder others is deeply shocking. That is not to say there were not some who would likely have been irredeemable whatever the treatment but the system churned out so many with an understandable hatred for both the system and those who supported it. The way he spoke in that interview just showed how measured and thoughtful he was. It seems he battled the demon drink later in life but there wouldn't be too many who would judge him harshly on that count I wager.

I'm wondering if you ever got a chance to meet Mr Lynch in your job?

Hi there RUNNER...

Your post was quite telling, in so much, as the faith you have. And in the end, justice will be served and metered out, not by man, but something much higher and more significant than man. You look into the mouth of hell long enough; you see yourself staring back. What people take has been hard or immune, or whatever, is purely illusionary; just a coping mechanism; otherwise you'd go crazy.

G'day there TTBN...

I couldn't watch it I'm afraid. To see a copper get bashed senselessly like that is an anathema to me. The trouble is, if the perpetrator does boob, he'll be considered a hero among some of them, that's until he crosses the wrong crowd, then it will be him who yells for protection from those he sought to beat senseless. It's a funny world ol' mate eh? As an aside - you could almost charge this meathead with attempt murder, by what's been described to me?

Hi there IS MISE...

Yeah, they like to empty their locker every so often. Years back me and my squad used the Parramatta Leagues Club as a venue in which to salve our woes. After a decent bit of 'pis.' on board, the guys would open up and drain the dirty water from their respective chests. Say what you will of the evils of alcohol, it helps to get a bloke to loosen his 'mainspring' after being wound tight for hours. I reckon you would've done an excellent job too IS MISE, being a Vet yourself.

You're right on the money to BELLY - Good coppers are like gold, that is until they have the 'good' knocked out of them by crook bosses and the whinging public who do nothing but criticize them, from dawn 'til dusk, making their job much harder to accomplish.

Hi there STEELEREDUX...

You seem to be well across the Anita COBBY murder, and her Dad Garry LYNCH. I didn't have anything to do with the matter myself, other than knowing well the five maggots found guilty of her awful slaughter.

All three MURPHY brothers could only be described, as O2 thieves. Whereas Michael MURDOCH was silly as a cut snake, and the evil ring leader John TRAVIS...well what can I possibly say of TRAVIS, other than he was not born of a woman's womb, but dropped out of the arse of a dog!

I sense you have a great deal of admiration for Garry LYNCH? It's for this reason, I wonder whether he employed the forgiveness mechanism as a way of helping his own rage, and emotional well being, in coping with the whole dreadful ending of his beloved daughter's life? My own thoughts and agony, really extend to her entire family, her husband, and her many friends. To think that this 'thing' TRAVIS, actually physically touched that beautiful human being, pushes every one of my buttons STEELE. This is the same piece of human debris, who delighted in skinning alive felines, and other small animals, in his youth.

All I can tell you now STEELE, the remaining four of these 'larvae' are still very much reviled in gaol, to this very day.

That recent attack on Police officers by the 25 year old female Childcare worker & her three male companions should send a sober message to Magistrates on how to deal with those indisciplined morons that roam the streets. Alas, the 25 year old was actually given bail ??

No one should lose any sleep over the death of Michael Murphy. I've just finished a book 'Black Snake' The Real Story Of Ned Kelly, by Leo Kennedy the great-grandson of police Sergeant Michael Kennedy, who along with Constables Lonigan and Scanlan were brutally murdered by Kelly and his gang at Stringybark Creek October 26th 1878.

Today many Australians venerate Ned Kelly as a hero, a larrikin, a good bloke. The truth is he was nothing more than a coward, a thief and a murderous outlaw, up there with the likes of Murphy. Sometimes we choose to not get it right.