Judge goes easy on son in tragic killing
(CNS): Waylon Rivers (20) from North Side, who killed his father, Timothy Rivers (66), in June last year after a lifetime of abuse, was given a three-year sentence by a judge on Tuesday. Justice Tim Owen described it as an unusual and tragic case, in which there were “uniquely powerful mitigating factors”, including a high degree of provocation. After originally charging Rivers with murder, the crown accepted his plea to manslaughter once the facts surrounding the killing came to light.
Rivers was walking with his father on the family farm when he lost control after enduring an ongoing torrent of abuse that had begun first thing that morning. He grabbed the work knife his father was carrying and stabbed at his chest before fleeing the scene.
Rivers, who suffers from severe epilepsy and learning difficulties, had in the first instance denied killing his father but eventually he told the truth and has since expressed genuine remorse.
Despite a lifetime of what the judge said was “cruel and appalling” abuse, Rivers said he still loved his father and had not meant to kill him, but he just wanted the tirade to stop. He had also refrained from criticising his father, even in his own defence, and had pointed to the abuse of his mother as something harder for him to bear than his father’s behaviour towards him.
The judge described the relentless abuse handed out by Rivers’ father to his son since he was a baby and his wife as “dreadful and cruel”. As he assessed the appropriate sentence for the crime, Justice Owen said it fell into the lowest category of culpability as result of the lifelong provocation.
Examples of the abuse that had been meted out by Rivers’ father were supplied to the court by Rivers’ mother, who had recorded some of her husband’s tirades against her and her son, both of whom he constantly referred to as “worthless dogs” who he wished were dead.
The judge said Rivers had been subjected to an appalling level of humiliating abuse and had also watched his father abuse his mother, which had been even harder for the teenager to stand, according to his social inquiry report.
Given the extreme behaviour of Rivers’ father and a number of other mitigating factors, the judge said after a 20% reduction for his guilty plea, Rivers should serve just three years in prison, with the time he has already spent on remand taken into account.
Children have unconditional love for their parents so when you abuse a child, they don’t stop loving you, they stop loving themselves.
They begin to believe that they are worthless and incapable of being loved.
I don’t know the young man or the family but I guess he “snapped”.
His father was probably suffering from mental illness himself. I find it difficult to accept that anyone in their right mind can abuse others and have so little regard for life.
don’t be blinded with this “abuse excuse”…
Oh piss off. Must be nice to have never gone through anything in your life. When you fall off that high horse I hope you hit the ground…hard.
I implore anyone who likes to torment and be overly critical towards your loved ones, to stop it and seek professional help. Tormenting, nitpicking, arguing, degrading and cursing is emotional abuse which alienates everyone who cares about you. It’s only so much a person can take. I lived with someone just like this for a long time and it was so hard to keep my sanity in check, as they were always on an emotional roller coaster and they take you on the ride with them. When they are high, they expect you to be and when they are low, they try to take you there too. I managed to finally break free and removed myself from this toxic situation, but my healing only began when I started opening up to close friends, instead and painting a good picture of my relationship when that was so far from the truth. A lot of these troubled individuals are enabled by family members (especially mothers) who refuse to see them for who they are and they also make you out to be public enemy #1 when you tell them the truth or they just opt to sweep things under the rug. Your sanity, your happiness and your internal peace are INVALUABLE. Those with children, please ensure you do your endeavor best to provide healthy environments for your children and love yourself and your kids enough to let go of things that hurt you. I feel for this young boy and I definitely do not think he should go to prison but he does need therapy to overcome all he has been through.
Good post!
Let’s face it… the only victim in the whole situation was the son.
Abusive and belligerent father – constantly degrading and attacking his own son? I personally don’t care that the bastard is gone. I do care that his poor son has to live with the pain and still serve time for putting and end to his abuser.
I don’t care for parents who:
– don’t support their children financially and emotionally;
– continue to pick and have children with partners that don’t support their children financially or emotionally
– are just worthless shit parents.
I also HATE everyone who says, defends and believes “spare the rod, spoil the child”. Ef U all who say that. The Bible has the greatest examples of bad parenting. There are no parents in the Bible who love their children enough to not try to kill them.
Spare the rod and spoil your child with your love, your time and your nurturing.
Is it possible that the father was suffering with severe untreated mental illness? Also, wile the article states that the son had learning difficulties it did not indicate if those learning difficulties are a diagnosable mental illness and if the epilepsy and/or learning difficulties were deemed to be a contributing factor in the case.
Does anyone know if people from the public can put money towards him getting extra snacks and drinks “canteen” I think it’s called while he is in prison?
that is a very helpful suggestion. I believe there is a limit to how much money he can have on his account for canteen, but I suspect in his circumstances, they would perhaps make an exception. Anyone here from HMP Northward can shed any light on this
There is also a list of items that can be delivered and given to prisoners. Anyone who wants to support can get that list, buy items from it and deliver them to the prison during specific hours. But you’ll probably need his prisoner ID. Can’t remember now, it’s been a while since I had to do this a couple of times.
Only the grace of God why our father wasn’t killed by one of us! Only God’s grace … People don’t realize the damage done by abusive parents be it the father or mother!
We endured much; saw our mother injured and kept plodding along praying for us to grow quickly so we could defend her because no uncle or male cuzn seemed capable of taking him on! I fully believe it brought to fore mental illness in our sister and made one brother an introvert & damaged all of us siblings … making some boisterious and loud and some introverts!
In the end we give God thanks for giving us strength that we can seek counseling & forgiveness for we now know that our father not being loved and told he’d amount to nothing then sadly projected that negativity onto his children!
It is said that abused children becomes abusers (as our father did) and so my siblings and I decided to seek counseling & therapy to break the generational curse and not pass onto our children!
It has not been perfect but we see our children and smile as we say Thank You Lord for guiding us and protecting us!
And now knowing exactly what they’ve endured our prayers arise for Waylon and his Mom …..
May this 3 yrs bring them to the counseling & therapy they so desperately needs! May life be good to them from today forward is our prayer …
And it is for this type of “crime” we should have our mental health facility. This man needs emotional and mental health support – not imprisonment. His mother needs the same help and support. Hopefully he well be well taken care of whilst in prison.
If he is already not mad at the world for being dealt a really sh*tty hand sending him to prison may finally do it. This is a very sad case.
This is a sad case of a father “provoking a child to wrath”. Very sad and unfortunate outcome. Something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
In general, children need to respect their parents. If there is abuse and other issues, Social Services should be able to support. Also relevant laws should be in place and enforced. This would avoid this kind of situation where a child has to end up killing a parent.
SHOULD being the operative word in your sentences!
This should be an example to all abusive parents. People can only take so much.
So sad!. I hope he gets lots of counseling and good care for his health issues while he is in there. I said it before and I will say it again. Didn’t any of the neighbors know how this mad man was treating his son and his wife. Northside is such a small community I find it hard to believe that no one knew. Why didn’t they call the police or make a report to social services. Is there a social worker responsible for the northside district? Sometimes we have to get involved in others business when this kind of abuse is going on. Those who knew and did nothing iare also complicit. I hope they will now step up and support him while he is incarcerated.
Bless you little lamb.
Good judge. Justice done
Good sentencing Judge, let’s get Waylon some help.
Those who feel it know it.
Wow. Cayman kind behind closed doors
Oh piss off! Abuse happens everywhere; not just in Cayman.
This is such a sad story I hope he’ll get the help that he needs and move on with his life…
What a world it must’ve been to live in never ending abuse from someone who was supposed to be a source of love, compassion, and gentleness. But not anymore, not ever again.
May this man be guided to empowerment and peace, instead of more turmoil and chaos. May his mother be freed in light of the daunting silence that prevails in her house. May the community surround him with the love he never got, for there is much healing to be done.
May this not be a story that we forget, but a deafening cry for the one’s being left behind.