Anthony Waterlow was arrested in bushland near Sydney on Friday. He was the 42 year old son of art curator Nick Waterlow, and sister of Chloe Waterlow. They were both violently killed at Randwick three weeks ago. Anthony Waterlow allegedly carried out the killing.
Anthony lives with a mental illness, and the killings are thought to be a consequence of this. The tragic circumstances, and how they are reflected to the community, invite reflection.
Father Steve Sinn related the following in his homily at the funeral of Nick Waterlow:
'"I was a child of the Sixties," Nick wrote in his diary, "the first generation not to be conscripted, and the first generation not to go to war."
'Nick spent the last twenty years of his life fighting a different kind of enemy. An elusive enemy that menaced him and his family. It was hidden and it had captured Anthony. It was frightening and violent. Nick tried every avenue for peace. He prayed, he sought advice; he never gave up on Anthony being freed. He hoped that his love and acceptance would deliver his son from the powerful forces that at times controlled him.
'He has been defeated. He underestimated his enemy.'
In an ideal world, we would hope that the media would frame mental illness and its consequences in a similar manner to Father Sinn. But few members of the public get to hear such a matter of fact description of what can only be described as a very sad set of circumstances.
It is the media that are the most influential agents in the construction of our attitudes to mental illness and its victims. Happily some media outlets are becoming more responsible in the way they report events related to mental illness.
The coverage of Anthony Waterlow's arrest in Saturday's Sydney newspapers was comparatively responsible. It provides a contrast with the Herald-Sun's shameful handling of the events that occurred early this month at the Thomas Embling Hospital at Fairfield in Melbourne, where an argument among residents led to two fatal stabbings.
The Herald-Sun reported that 'killers, rapists and other criminally insane patients are walking the streets of Melbourne on outings to the movies, fishing and shopping'. In its web poll, the paper asked: 'Should violent mentally ill offenders be allowed day leave?'
Barbara Hocking of SANE Australia points out that 'research suggests that those receiving effective treatment for mental health problems are no more violent than