Garry David

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Garry David

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date_of_birth = November 20, 1954
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date_of_death = June 11, 1993
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alias = Garry Webb
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conviction = Attempted murder
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Garry David, also known as Garry Webb, was an Australian criminal. Born on 20 November 1954, to Rupert and Betty David, the former of which is said to served more time in prison than any other person in the history of the State of Victoria. His mother was an alcoholic and David and his siblings were placed in an orphanage when he was four. From that time until 1972, when he escaped from legal custody, he spent his life in a number of orphanages, boys' homes and youth training centres.

At the age of 11 he began committing various offences including larceny, making threats and offences of dishonesty. When he was 13, he was first diagnosed as having a personality disorder with psychopathic traits. David was subsequently admitted to psychiatric facilities on eight separate occasions between 1976 and 1984, and was variously diagnosed with antisocial, borderline, histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders. It was during this time that he began self-mutilating to an extreme degree - swallowing razor blades, cutting off parts of his ears and his left nipple, injuring his genitals, hammering nails into his feet and swallowing corrosive liquids, among other things.

In 1982 he was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of three people, during a robbery-gone-wrong at a pizza restaurant in Rye, Victoria in 1982. The robbery appeared to be an attempt to draw police into a shootout. The pizza shop owner and one of the responding police officers were severely wounded in the incident, while Webb was wounded in the legs by the partner of the injured policeman. He was arrested while fleeing the scene after being spotted by a news crew.

Whilst imprisoned, David wrote many manuscripts, one titled "Blueprint for Urban Warfare", which spoke of committing upon his release from prison. The "Blueprint" listed 49 "combat situations", ranging from horror movie clichés (cigarette machines dispensing severed fingers, drink machines dispensing blood) to far more disturbing scenarios, such as the bombing of bridges and public buildings, the assassination of prominent politicians, the poisoning of water supplies and indiscriminate shooting in public places. David later claimed that he had been instructed to write his more graphic fantasies down as a form of therapy. He also manifested a great deal of hostility to the police force and prison system, resorting to violence and self-mutilation whenever his requests or demands were not met. In January 1990, David was declared mentally ill by government health department officials. The Mental Health Act 1986 entitled David the right to appeal, which he did in February and March 1990. In May 1990 the board found David was not mentally ill and recommended he be discharged as an involuntary patient. This was a consequence of the Board's assertion that a personality disorder is not a mental illness as per the Mental Health Act.

Community Protection Act

The Victorian Government faced the dilemma of respecting David's right to freedom and the protection of the community upon his release from prison. The government sought to keep David imprisoned indefinitely by introducing the [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AJHR/1997/3.html Community Protection Act 1990] . That legislation gave Victorian Supreme Court judges the power to hold David in "preventative detention" for twelve months if the judge was convinced by evidence before them that David was still a risk to the community and likely to commit further offences if released from prison.

David was an intelligent man, with significant literary, analytical and computer skills. But as he had a long history of responding to the most minor frustrations with violence, damage to property and self-harm, and refused on principle to co-operate with attempts to reduce such behaviours prior to his re-entry to society, the Supreme Court repeatedly applied the legislation to continue his confinement. However, the Community Protection Act was later found to be unconstitutional by the High Court of Australia.

David committed suicide by inflicting wounds upon himself. They led to peritonitis and he died on June 11, 1993. At the time of his death aged 38, David was still a prisoner and had spent a total of 33 years in various institutions.

The song, "He's On The Run" by Gene Bradley Fisk was written about David.

Quotes

* "If Governments are going to lock us in cages and allow us to be treated like animals, society should not expect us to act like men!" [http://www.australianbushrangers.com/jika.htm] .

See also

* List of Australian criminals
* [http://www.thomson.com.au/Catalogue/getFile.asp?downloadId=15 Attorney General v David, Supreme Court of Victoria] (PDF)