80 murders, thousands of assaults and 30 unsolved cases

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11720704

In Deep Water, assault survivor David McMahon reveals the impact the attack had on him. And he was one of the lucky ones.

“He was dragged across the cliffs of Bondi and almost thrown off, but escaped. His attack became really significant because it was only a couple months after a murder of a gay man, who was thrown off the cliff.”

Ms Blue said Mr McMahon was a key witness because there had been two murders before him and another one after his attack. “So he was the one who got away.”

He was attacked, dragged down three flights of stairs and managed to escape, but, chillingly, heard an attacker say: “Let’s take him up and throw him off where we threw the other dude”.

Deep Water also meets a man convicted for murder. “There were three boys who murdered a gay man in 1990 and one of them wrote to us. He wanted to speak to us.”

Corrective Services NSW wouldn’t allow her to interview him in jail so the inmate wrote her a series of letters where he talks about the murder, why he did it and how he feels now.

“It’s the most extraordinary series of letters about how he feels complete horror of the murder he committed that night when he was a 17-year-old boy, angry and disenfranchised himself.”

It was those people who were the most dangerous though. “They felt they were the lowest group on the social ladder. And yet there was one group lower than them. And that was gay men.”