After a woman’s rapist threatened to do the same to her daughter, he immediately came to regret his vile actions when he felt a strange sensation in his chest.
When it comes to their children, most mothers would do anything to protect their offspring. In fact, some women are willing to take extreme measures in order to ensure that their kids aren’t in the line of danger. However, what Roxanne Peters carried out against the man who threatened her daughter was enough to land her behind bars for a long time.
Australian native Peters was at her home in Brisbane when the man who had raped her just days earlier once again arrived at her doorstep. This time, 51-year-old Grant Jason Cassar broke into her house to cook meth and demanded that the 35-year-old drug-addicted mom have sex with him, 9News reports. When she refused, he vowed to attack her daughter instead. It was then that Peters’ rage hit its boiling point.
With Cassar chasing after her, Peters ran to her kitchen and grabbed a knife, plunging it into her rapist’s chest dozens of times while screaming, “You don’t rape me!” She then tied a rope around his neck and dragged him behind her vehicle past a police station in order to dispose of the body in a local ditch. Cassar’s corpse was found the next day.
Police discovered 61 injuries on Cassar’s body, including 4-inch-deep stab wounds to his chest and genitals. Investigators determined that Peters’ rage played a role in the severity and nature of the wounds, especially those to his groin area.
Peters had initially requested the help of some friends to dispose of Cassar’s body as he lay dead on her kitchen floor. When they refused, she decided to tie his body to her vehicle in order to get it across town to a secluded location since she could not carry it herself.
Of course, while the court concurred that she had “significant provocation” for using force against her attacker, it wasn’t in agreement with her method of disposing of the body. Justice David Bodice addressed Peters, saying that he understood that the murder “occurred in circumstances when you were enraged” by what Cassar had done and was threatening to do again. However, he argued that she shouldn’t have taken the law into her own hands, according to CBS News.
Peters was ultimately sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for killing her attacker and dragging his body through the streets. She received 9 years for manslaughter and an extra 18 months for interfering with a corpse.
The case has prompted a heated discussion about whether Roxanne Peters was justified in stabbing to death her rapist and dragging his body down the street. Her supporters are saying that the sentencing was too harsh.
