PARANOIA, VIOLENCE AND DEATH: A MOUNTING TOLL

THIRTY-SIX years ago an American psychiatrist named Everett Ellinwood
published a study examining 13 people who had committed homicide while
under the influence of amphetamines. He discovered a three-stage pattern:

1. Chronic amphetamine abuse led to paranoid thinking and carrying a
weapon;

2. During a binge of drug use and sleep deprivation, the person
started to have delusions about what was going on around them;

3. An event triggered the person, who thought he or she was
endangered, to respond with extreme violence.

No such study has been undertaken in Australia. The Herald has
investigated court documents and other records to unveil a pattern
that reinforces Ellinwood's thesis: that the purest amphetamine-type
stimulants, such as the 80 per cent pure ice, are more specifically
related to aggression than any other illicit drugs.

Australian statistics are "blunt instruments", says one of the
country's leading methamphetamine researchers, Rebecca McKetin, of the
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

The Drug Use Monitoring in Australia project collects drug test data
from some police detainees, and Dr McKetin's recent study with the
Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research compared methamphetamine-related
arrests and assault rates.

The bureau's director, Don Weatherburn, said the project's figures
were "pretty reliable" in sketching a broad relationship between
methamphetamine use and crime, "but the evidence is not conclusive
enough to settle the issue".

There are many uncollated stories, isolated yet horrifying, of the
devastating impact of methamphetamine psychoses.

The drug's role in many of these crimes, and some of the crimes
themselves, have never been revealed in the media.

The Herald has seen evidence of many more that do not reach court or
are resolved in lower courts. Legal and police sources have told the
Herald that the cases below represent a bare fraction of the
nationwide trauma stemming from methamphetamine psychoses. Novica Jakimov

A talented but hot-headed sportsman, Jakimov became a bricklayer after
leaving school. After splitting from his wife in 2001, Jakimov
increased his intake of illegal drugs, including speed and ice.

On the night of August 18, 2003, Jakimov went to Melbourne's Crown
Casino, where he met a 26-year-old prostitute, Kelly Hodge. Promising
he had heroin, he drove her to the house he was renting in the
Melbourne suburb of Westmeadows.

When they got there, about 3.30am, they smoked ice and had sex.
Agitated, Hodge wanted heroin, but Jakimov said he had only ice, speed
and cocaine. They smoked more ice and had sex again, after which Hodge
criticised him for promising her heroin. Jakimov lost his temper and
beat Hodge lethally with various implements, including a spirit level
and an umbrella. Still under the influence of ice, he wrapped her body
in a black sheet and dumped it in a gully off Old Sydney Road in Beveridge.

Jakimov testified in court that he, a 78-kilogram man, had killed the
50-kilogram Hodge in self-defence. A jury convicted him of murder and
he was sentenced to 19 years' jail. CB and IM

In August 2004 a 22-year-old man, whom the courts codenamed CB, was
living with his ice dealer, Gavin Atkin, above a restaurant in
Mayfield, Newcastle. CB's friend, IM, 23, was living nearby with his
mother. The two became heavy ice users in 2004.

On August 9, 2004, Atkin went fishing and returned to his flat after
midnight. CB and IM arrived about 4am, intending to steal drugs from
him. CB's relationship with Atkin had been souring for some time,
involving mutual accusations and paranoia.

CB and IM, who had injected one to three grams of ice that day, set
upon Atkin with a metal bar and pool cue. At that point Garry Samson
arrived, hoping to buy some cannabis from Atkin. CB and IM pulled
Samson inside and attacked him with a wrench and a pool cue. Atkin
survived but Sansom died from his wounds.

A psychiatrist, Bruce Westmore, concluded that CB had been suffering
schizophrenia or a drug-induced psychosis. IM told another
psychiatrist "we were both lost and scattered to the max" and were
"not sure what was real and what was not". The NSW Supreme Court
agreed that the drug had blinded them to the consequences of their
actions, but they were still convicted of murder and assault and are
serving more than 20 years' jail. Andrew Kastrappis

Kastrappis, 43, lived alone in a flat in Pooraka, Adelaide. He had
used cannabis and amphetamines since his early 20s, but it was not
until early 2005 that he started using ice. On the night of July
16-17, 2005, he suffered an ice-induced psychotic episode or an onset
of paranoid schizophrenia and forced open the back door of a
neighbouring unit.

The neighbour woke to find Kastrappis brushing his penis across her
face. He said she had to have sex with him or 200 men would come to
her house and "there will be trouble".

The District Court of South Australia found Kastrappis not guilty of
trespass and indecent assault on the grounds of mental incompetence.
Mostafa Abdulkader and John Hohaia

Abdulkader and Hohaia used methamphetamines together as well as
drinking heavily and using other drugs. On the night of December 2,
2003, they were at Hohaia's mother's house in Belmore for a drinking
and smoking session and called an acquaintance, Alexander Szirt.

About midnight Hohaia flared up at the visitor and tried to choke him.
Szirt agreed to go out and buy alcohol, but when he came back
Abdulkader and Hohaia assaulted him again and took him to an automatic
teller machine to withdraw money. Then they took him to a park and
beat him brutally. He died from his injuries.

As Hohaia and Abdulkader denied the charges in court, nothing was
known about why an argument between friends escalated into a murderous
assault. But Justice David Kirby in the NSW Supreme Court noted that
Hohaia had "said that Mr Szirt was not 'like them'.

"He was right. Mr Szirt was not like them. He had a job. He had
prospects. He was paying off his car. He came from a loving family. It
appears, at least on the part of Mr Hohaia, that there was envy in
respect of the advantages Alexander Szirt enjoyed."

Hohaia and Abdulkader were sentenced respectively to 24 and 21 years
in jail. Darren Jason Blackburn

Blackburn, a New Zealander, became a substance abuser in his early
teens. After moving to Australia at 24, he increased his dependence on
alcohol and cannabis and met a man about 30 years older, Graham
"Banjo" Band. They became drinking buddies and Blackburn moved into
Band's flat in Seddon, Victoria, sleeping on the floor.

Blackburn met a young woman and continued to sleep on Band's floor.
Twice Band raped the woman, who had a daughter to Blackburn, without
Blackburn knowing.

Blackburn started taking ice and suffered auditory hallucinations.
Hearing voices, he assaulted strangers in the street.

In 2004 his relationship with the young woman broke down and he moved
into Band's new flat, in Footscray. Another man, Tasman O'Connor, was
also living there.

On January 31, 2004, Blackburn confronted Band, 62, over the rape
allegations. Band said, "F--- the bitch," and O'Connor and Blackburn
assaulted Band with a coffee table and a samurai sword, killing him.
Blackburn pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

A Victorian court, accepting his drug-induced mental impairment,
sentenced him to nine years in prison. Justin John de Gruchy

In 2003, de Gruchy was an unemployed truck driver who befriended
heroin-addicted prostitutes in the St Kilda area of Melbourne and
offered them ice as a way to "wean" them off heroin. He would then
bully them for money and sex.

In June 2003 he was living with a 38-year-old prostitute, Christine
Hammond, who was providing sexual favours in return for ice. On the
night of June 23, de Gruchy, Hammond and a 15-year-old girl picked up
another prostitute.

Under de Gruchy's ice-fuelled direction, Hammond and the girl raped
the victim with a rolling pin and degraded her in various ways. De
Gruchy, the principal offender, was convicted on six counts and
sentenced to five years in prison. Todd James Bookham

Bookham, a 21-year-old welder, had suffered from depression since his
teens. When he moved into a house in Swan Hill, Victoria, with friends
in 2004 he began taking increasing amounts of alcohol, cannabis and
amphetamines.

Bookham started a relationship with Karen Lee Anne-Marie Fairbairn,
but his paranoia took hold and he accused her of having an affair with
her stepsister, Annette Mary-Jayne Elliott. Fairbairn ended the
relationship with Bookham.

On December 30, 2004, he took what a judge called "extraordinary
amounts of amphetamines", including ice, visited Fairbairn and begged
her to take him back. She said she did not love him any more.

He put his arm around her neck and said, "If you move, I'll slit your
throat," pulled out a hunting knife and cut her throat - not fatally.

Fairbairn screamed, and Elliott appeared. Bookham stabbed Elliott in
the chest, not fatally, in front of a child, then ran away and called
an ambulance.

Bookham pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 11
years in jail. Trent Jennings

Late in 2003, Jennings was an 18-year-old living in Narwee. On
December 30 he met Giuseppe Vitale in an online chat room. They agreed
to meet that night and to engage in sexual play.

Vitale, 32, picked up Jennings in his car. After making contact with
Vitale, Jennings swallowed a number of ecstasy pills and injected
methamphetamine.

He had a backpack containing condoms, lubricant, a bottle of amyl
nitrite, a rope and a knife.

They drove to a reserve and walked to a bridge, where Vitale tied
Jennings to a rail and performed oral sex on him. They then swapped
roles.

At that point, Jennings later told psychiatrists, he started "freaking
out" and hearing male voices saying they were going to rape him.

Auditory hallucinations, a common result of heavy ice use, had haunted
him previously. He grabbed his knife, lashed out at Vitale and ran
away. Vitale died while trying to get back to his car.

Three forensic psychiatrists testified that Jennings was suffering a
drug-induced psychosis or had an acute schizophrenic illness triggered
by the drugs. Justice David Kirby in the Supreme Court found Jennings
not guilty by reason of mental illness. David Andrew Wright

On a methamphetamine and alcohol binge in December 1999, Wright, a
Gold Coast chef, went to the house of his former employer, Peggy
Serone, with the intention of robbing her. When Mrs Serone saw him, he
picked up a kitchen knife and murdered her.

Justice Michael Adams in the NSW Supreme Court said Wright could be
inferred to have been under the influence of methamphetamine, "largely
because of the savagery of the attack, suggestive of incomplete
control". Wright did not have a record of criminal conduct until he
started taking ice. Dudley Mark Aslett

Aslett was a career criminal and drug user who had no history of
extreme violence until he began smoking ice in early 2003.

Although heroin had long been his drug of choice, he took to ice with
a vengeance. After smoking it on May 3, 2003, Aslett and two younger
accomplices followed a woman to her car in Newington and raped her at
knifepoint before attempting to use her debit card at automatic teller
machines.

On July 17, 2003, he and his accomplices raped a 16-year-old in front
of her parents.

On July 28 they robbed a convenience store at Canley Heights of about
$6500, cigarettes and mobile phones, holding the two employees at
knifepoint. Later, Aslett tied up Matthew Ryder, an employee of a Bob
Jane T-Mart, and stole money, phones and a utility.

Two nights later Aslett confronted Eduardo Arbis with a baseball bat
at the Auburn Shooting Academy, stealing a revolver and a
semi-automatic pistol.

The following night, Aslett grabbed Jeky Li as he left his Auburn
lighting store and stole about $200 and a mobile phone. The next day,
Aslett tried to rob Emad Youssef of the day's takings at his Canley
Heights pharmacy. Youssef fought back, and Aslett shot him dead with
the revolver.

Aslett's gang stole a car on August 6 and drove it to Toowoon Bay
Cellars on the Central Coast, holding an employee at gunpoint and
stealing about $600. Five days later they robbed $1840 from the
Ourimbah Post Office. On August 13 they robbed a newsagency in
Wyoming, then, the following day, broke into the Bateau Bay Post
Office and stole $4000.

Six days later they stole another car, then held up the National
Australia Bank in the Westfield shopping centre at Tuggerah and stole
more than $28,000 in cash.

Aslett was arrested on August 22. Among his immediate confessions was
that he was unable to sleep as he was "thinking about the dead man".
He had been smoking ice throughout his rampage, as well as smoking
heroin to calm down. He is serving life in prison. Matthew Gagalowicz

Gagalowicz had used drugs since his teens, but meth had become his
drug of choice by February 16, 2003, when he asked Ricky Mark Smith to
visit the Bulli house Gagalowicz was sharing with his girlfriend and
another couple. Within a week of moving in together the four friends
were pooling their Centrelink allowances to buy ice from Smith, 41.

With "the blood pounding in my head", Gagalowicz set upon Smith with a
baseball bat, smashing him in the head 12 times. Gagalowicz and his
housemates immediately injected themselves with the methamphetamine
Smith had brought. Gagalowicz dismembered Smith's body and buried it
in a shallow grave.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Michael Adams took into account
Gagalowicz's history of ice-induced psychoses and the fact that he was
impaired by the drug when he killed Smith. Gagalowicz pleaded guilty
to manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years in jail. The Court of
Criminal Appeal found this inadequate and increased it by two years.
Adrian John Van Boxtel

Twice in 2001, Van Boxtel attacked his former partner, Simone Snowden,
and her family. On April 27, 2002, Van Boxtel consumed some ice, which
a court later agreed had a significant effect on his behaviour.

Carrying a sawn-off shotgun, he was driven to Snowden's house and shot
her car. He then threatened to shoot a man for "causing trouble with"
Snowden, whom this man had never met.

Under the influence of ice, van Boxtel went on what counsel called "an
orgy of offending", including threatening to kill, false imprisonment,
aggravated burglary and intentionally causing injury. He was sentenced
to 8 1/2 years in jail.

THE toll inflicted by ice psychoses continues to mount. The Tamarama
financier Brendan Francis McMahon tortured rabbits while an ice addict
in 2005. Damien Anthony Peters murdered and dismembered two
acquaintances, Andrei Akai and Bevan Frost, in an ice-fuelled eruption
in his apartment in the Northcott flats, Surry Hills, in 2001.
Muhammed Kerbatieh claimed it was his addiction to ice that was
responsible for the sexual assaults of three schoolgirls in Melbourne
in 2001. Azzam Abdul Hamid was jailed for a succession of horrific
assaults on his de facto partners while a heavy methamphetamine user.
"Fired up", on his own admission, by methamphetamines, Gerald Douglas
Morrison stabbed his lover, the 58-year-old brothel owner and drug
dealer Jaynee Sheridan, and tried to kill her friend Gwenda Barty in
Sheridan's Adelaide house in 2004. Two teenage girls killed their
friend Eliza Davis in Western Australia last year after smoking ice.

These crimes lie at the extreme fringe of ice users, who number about
73,000, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.
But as the growth of use appears to flatten out, it is the hardcore
users who are attracting the most attention from front-line workers
and researchers eager to explore options for better treatment.

The Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's Rebecca McKetin says that
although a clear causal relationship between a drug and homicidal
behaviour may never be found, "we certainly have enough evidence to
say that the drug is associated with violent behaviour, and enough to
target treatment".

She is studying the effect of treatment on long-term methamphetamine
users.

"We need better treatment options targeted to heavy users," she says.
"There are some encouraging signs [in the current study] of firm
improvement brought about if we are able to get heavy users into
treatment programs." What is ice?

Ice is a crystalline, purifed form of the stimulant methamphetamine,
which is usually smoked or injected. It is 80 to 90 per cent pure,
whereas "speed" is 10 to 15 per cent pure.