Matthew Newton gets off on domestic violence

Domestic violence: bad if you're aboriginal, fine if you're a 'troubled' celebrity.

Matthew Newton is a poncy little scumbag. Plenty of men go through emotional troubles or breakdowns without using their girlfriends as a punching bag.

A Sydney judge has quashed an assault conviction against entertainer Matthew Newton.

The 30-year-old was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond in June for the assault of his former lover actress Brooke Satchwell.

Newton today appealed against the conviction, claiming the assault was a one-off and partly due to ongoing mental health issues.

[...]

Acting Judge Joseph Moore has agreed with references tendered to the court that described Newton as a "kind, giving gentleman".

He told the court a conviction would continue to have a life-long effect not only for Newton's reputation in Australia but also his chances overseas.

He said Newton had suffered severe shame personally and felt remorse for the attention he has brought on this family and friends.

What sort of message does this sort of godawful court decision send? Bashing your partner is ok as long as you don't make a habit of it? Fuck that. As for getting the violins out over how much his committing domestic violence has 'cost' him, what about the cost to his former girlfriend, Brooke Satchwell?

How about a new 'Australia Says No' campaign featuring Matthew Newton? It can be called 'Australia Says No*' and have a little disclaimer at the bottom regarding special exceptions made for rich and famous men who beat their female partners.

Disgusting.

Matthew Newton 'too sweet' for domestic violence

Matthew Newton, 29, with new girlfriend Gracie Otto, 19

Let's get this straight: Bert Newton's son Matthew Newton has been charged with "two counts of common assault, one count of stalk/intimidate with the intent of causing physical/mental harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm."

To charge someone with a crime like that the police usually determine if there is evidence to support the charge. Yet the Sydney Morning Herald article is filled with quotes on how precious Matty couldn't possibly have done it because he is such a nice boy. Let's leave that up to the frigging court to decide, shall we? If there's a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm there's a good chance that there is medical and/or photographic evidence to support it. Enough of this 'think of the poor boy's career' and 'why oh why did this have to be made public?'. If he's innocent of the charges there should be nothing to worry about.

No-one is too 'nice' or clean-cut to commit acts of intimidation or domestic violence. When Gam and I were in college one of the senior residents began dating an ex-resident who was a blonde, clean-cut medical student. He was well-liked. We heard the next year that she'd decided to break off the relationship and he'd subsequently broken into her room and scrawled abusive graffiti on the walls and urinated either in her bed or the bed of the other SR she'd taken up with. He was banned from ever entering the college grounds again but I'm not sure if he was charged or if his actions led to any sanctions from the university. I'm sure he would have had a lot of people prepared to say nice things about him who would have been shocked at the news of his actions.

The media shouldn't be getting involved in Matthew Newton's defence. If Brooke Satchwell happens to be a crazy psycho who made it all up then I'm sure the court will be able to determine that. The last thing either of them needs is a little impromptu 'Friends Of Men Charged With Domestic Violence Association' to form and swamp the media with irrelevant information that might well prejudice a trial.

Help wipe the smirk off this man's face

A commenter named beaumont alerted us to the above pic featuring Australia's best known spouse abuser Matthew Newton, saying it's been doing the rounds of email inboxes lately. Thanks beaumont!

That gives me the idea of holding a competition for an anti-domestic violence poster featuring Matthew Newton. I invite everyone to do their worst and we'll run a poll at the end and then get as many people as possible to feature the winner(s) on their blogs. Hopefully the real prize will be having the posters of this fuckwit come up tops in his Google search results for the rest of his (hopefully incredibly short) career.

You can either email your efforts to me at [livesarah at hotmail dot com] or post it on your own blog and alert me in the comments so I can add it here. Photoshop, GIMP, Word Art or crude stick figures- it doesn't matter, have a go! Help remove the smug from Matthew Newton's mug!

There's a domestic violence problem... in Australia's courts.

Update: Well, no-one's interested but at least we're now getting loads of hits for 'Matthew Newton' from people doing Google searches of his name, so some good has come of it!

Matthew Newton: celebrity, spouse abuser

I loved this post on Matthew Newton, the actor and 'entertainer' who got off scott free for punching his (now ex) girlfriend Brooke Satchwell in the face.

What I would like to see is posts like this become the top Google search result that appears whenever someone types in 'Matthew Newton', from now until the day he dies. The courts might have let him get away with bashing his girlfriend, but the public shouldn't.

The battle against domestic violence... sort of.

The Australian has a piece on the 'battle against domestic violence'. How timely. Funny that Matthew Newton doesn't bear mentioning.

The ABS found over 2.5 million, or 33 per cent of all women, had experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and 1.5 million (19 per cent) sexual violence.

There had been some falls in the rates between 1996 and 2005, but these were modest: 443,000 women or 5.8 per cent experienced violence in 2005, compared to 490,400 in 1996.

A previous partner was the most common perpetrator, accounting for about 50 per cent of cases.

They forgot to ask how many of these were 'one-offs'. Part of Matthew Newton's defence was that punching your girlfriend doesn't count if it's a one-off. I wonder if Brooke Satchwell felt any better knowing it was a one-off?

Say No to Matthew Newton

Matthew Newton got off scott free for bashing his former partner Brooke Satchwell. Design your own poster!

Domestic violence horror

I couldn't help thinking when I read this piece in the SMH that the guy who beat Angela Barker almost to death deserved a hell of a lot longer than 10 years in jail. He'll only be 30 when he gets out. Someone like that shouldn't be out of jail until they're too old and weak to ever raise a hand to a partner, or even find a partner at all.

Then again, I suppose we should be grateful he didn't receive a Matthew Newton Special.