An inexplicable crime for which the law has no adequate remedy

Not one but two families will be struggling to come to terms with the tragic event of October 30, 2019, in the Southland town of Otautau.

Media attention and public sympathy is understandably focused on the family of nine-year-old Hunter McIntosh, who was fatally stabbed by his teenage babysitter, Daniel Cameron, while their mothers were enjoying a game of pool at the local pub. It may be a cliché to say, as Justice Rachel Dunningham did, that Hunter’s death was every parent’s worst nightmare, but the reason we use clichés is that they usually express some sort of essential truth.

What makes this case a bit different is that I imagine the killer’s family will be going through their own nightmare. Daniel Cameron, who was 15 at the time of the murder, now faces a minimum of 11 years in prison and no guarantee of release after that.

The judge would have had limited sentencing options, given the magnitude of the crime, but that’s still a grim fate for a presumably troubled teenager. You can only hope that Corrections finds an appropriate place to put him – one where he will get counselling and be shielded from the harshest aspects of the prison environment.

The court heard there was no obvious explanation for the killing. Daniel had looked after Hunter several times before and the younger boy reportedly liked him.

But I wonder if there was a small clue in the judge’s reference to the fact that Daniel had mildly autistic traits and possibly had difficulty coping with stress and provocation. The court heard that on the night of the killing, Hunter had been making loud noises on a device similar to an air horn and persisted when Daniel asked him to stop.

Acute sensitivity to noise can be a symptom of autism. Autistic people may also have difficulty comprehending the consequences of their actions. Is it possible that Daniel, rather than carrying out a coldly deliberate and calculated murder, lost control in a momentary fit of blind rage and is no more capable of explaining his actions than the judge or his lawyer, both of whom appeared mystified by his motive? The messages he sent after the killing as he walked the streets of Otautau – the single word “Help” to a friend on Facebook Messenger, “What would you think if I killed someone?” to three other friends, and finally “I’m sorry come get me” to his mother – suggest a confused boy struggling to comprehend the enormity of what he has done.

Of course no explanation can console Hunter’s family, who have been deprived of a loved son, grandson and nephew. His mother’s statement to the court was heart-wrenching. The family’s rage and sense of injustice is a very human reaction; Daniel still has his life while Hunter has been robbed of his, and no judicial remedy is capable of reversing that hideous fact. But this was a crime that I imagine will have torn apart the killer’s family as well as his victim’s.