81-year-old Australian children’s television show host Richard Marshall is facing 10 counts of buggery — anal intercourse — that he allegedly committed against a boy in the early 1970s. However, Marshall is currently riddled with Parkinson’s-related dementia, a condition so debilitating that he is mentally and physically unfit to stand trial.
Given the man’s condition, Judge Paul Rice summed it up best by questioning whether it is worth the time and effort to pursue charges. “In other words, what’s the point?” he asked. When told by the prosecution that it was in the public’s interest to continue, he disqualified himself from further hearings. You have to love the directness of the Australian people. “Eff this; I’m out, yo!” cried the judge as he leapt into his Judgemobile, on his way to the Judge Lair where he donned his BatJudge costume to fight crime on the mean streets of Adelaide. At least, that’s what I hope he did.
This raises a curious question: how does one punish a man who is beyond the reach of this world? Dementia sufferers rarely live in the same reality that we inhabit; arguably, he may already be in a hell of his own devising. Can justice be served with such a person in such a state? Let’s not forget that these counts of buggery are still just allegations; the guy’s not automatically guilty. Either way, it seems as though the offended parties may have to content themselves with the thought that Marshall is paying his debt to society right now, stuck in the prison of his own mind.
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