Today, as I expected, Clayton Weatherston was found guilty of murdering his then girlfriend, Sophie Elliot.

He took a knife to her place, locked the door after him, stabbed her 216 times (in full view of her horrified mother), then mutilated parts of her body. The defence argued that he was provoked into doing all of this. Predictably, the jury were not persuaded (thank God).

Prior to the verdict, I’ve heard a few people say things like “he must be sick in the head” or “he must be insane. No sane person could do that.” I’m relieved that the court did not think this way. This line of reasoning presupposes that human beings who are not unwell simply aren’t capable of being gratuitously evil. Guess what? We are.

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