Wayne Ruks
Murder alibi was a ‘lie’
Fraser Coast Chronicle – October 12, 2009
THE mother of the man beaten to death in a Maryborough churchyard last year has labeled his attacker’s recent successful defence as a “pack of lies”.
A Maryborough Supreme Court jury found Jason Andrew Pearce and Richard John Meerdink not guilty of the murder of her 45-year-old son Wayne Ruks.
The defence had claimed in the trial that Ruks had made homosexual advances to one of the men thereby inciting the vicious attack.They claimed the attacker had been the victim of sexual abuse as a child and therefore the advance had caused an enraged response.
But Joyce Kujala (pictured) dismissed the suggestion that her son was gay as totally untrue.
“My son was no homosexual,” Joyce Kujala said.
“He was no way inclined that way at all. He had a girlfriend. He was not a homosexual.
“He had a drinking problem. He drank a lot because he was a loner.”
Speaking from her Caboolture home just hours after hearing the jury’s verdict Ms Kujala said she was disappointed with the verdict even though the jury found both men guilty of manslaughter.
She was informed by telephone after she had left the Maryborough courthouse early on Friday; in the belief a verdict was unlikely until today.
Ms Kujala had sat through two weeks of evidence including an allegation that Wayne Ruks had made a sexual advance toward Pearce.
“He’s not here to defend himself. To have that stigma on his character would have been very upsetting for him.
“I can only think he wanted to have a chat with them out of curiosity.
“He sensed danger but wasn’t quick enough to get away. It was very upsetting.”
Ms Kujala said that on her way home she had stopped in Bauple at the block of land where her son planned to build a house.
“It’s the way he died and the way his dream crumbled. All he wanted was to put a home on his land.”
In a letter to her son, Ms Kujala revealed, she told Wayne to expect a visit from her about July 20 last year to throw her eye across the site of his prospective new home.
He died on July 3.
“He was a very soft kind of guy. I used to say to him ‘Wayne, you’re too soft for this world’.
“He was very kind, thoughtful and considerate. He was very good to his mother.
“He has left a big void in my life. He was my only son. I’m devastated he’s not around anymore.”
Meerdink and Pearce will remain in the Maryborough Correctional Centre until they are dealt with for manslaughter.
A pre-sentence report, including psychological and psychiatric tests, is expected to take six weeks.
The matter will then be mentioned in a Brisbane court before Justice Peter Applegarth and set down for a sentence date.
Read more about the trial…
Guilty of manslaughter
Jury to retire in church murder trial
Judgment day
Jury back to churchyard tape
Jury sees tape of churchyard fight again
Alleged killers’ fate known soon
DNA puts accused at murder scene
Trial starts for churchyard murder
Read more about the murder at St Mary’s Catholic Church.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Homosexual murder defence ‘a pack of lies’
Brisbane Times – October 12, 2009
The mother of the man beaten to death in a Maryborough churchyard last year has labelled his attacker’s recent successful defence as a “pack of lies”.
A Maryborough Supreme Court jury found Jason Andrew Pearce and Richard John Meerdink not guilty of the murder of her 45-year-old son Wayne Ruks.
The defence had claimed in the trial that Ruks had made homosexual advances to one of the men thereby inciting the vicious attack. They claimed the attacker had been the victim of sexual abuse as a child and therefore the advance had caused an enraged response.
But Joyce Kujala dismissed the suggestion that her son was gay as totally untrue.
“My son was no homosexual,” Ms Kujala said. “He was no way inclined that way at all. He had a girlfriend.”
Read the full story at The Fraser Coast Chronicle.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Guilty of manslaughter
Fraser Coast Chronicle – October 10, 2009
Two Maryborough men are expected to plead guilty later this year to the manslaughter of 45-year-old Wayne Ruks, after they were yesterday evening found not guilty of murder.
Jason Andrew Pearce, 38, and Richard John Meerdink, 40, were accused of bashing Mr Ruks to death in St Mary’s Catholic Church grounds on July 3 last year.
Yesterday it took a jury seven hours to reach a not guilty verdict on murder and a guilty verdict on manslaughter. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Mum’s grief at death of bashed son
Courier Mail – October 9, 2009
“My son didn’t deserve to die,” says Joyce Ruks, who still can’t fathom the bizarre series of event which left her middle-aged schizophrenic son dead in a Maryborough churchyard.
Wayne Robert Ruks, 45, had been hit, kicked and possibly spat at before the former building industry worker died, wedged between a garden bed and a bench in the grounds of St Mary’s Catholic church.
Blows, including at least one to the testicles, had been delivered by a man wearing steelcap boots. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Judgement day
Fraser Coast Chronicle – October 8, 2009
WAYNE Ruks’s death in the St Mary’s Catholic Church grounds last year was the result of nothing more than an “unfortunate drunken escapade”.
That’s the opinion of defence counsel Greg McGuire, who Wednesday presented his closing address to a murder trial jury in the Maryborough Supreme Court.
Jason Andrew Pearce, 38, and Richard John Meerdink, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murdering 45-year-old Mr Ruks on the night of July 3, 2008.
The jury was expected to start deliberating on the men’s fate Thursday.
In his closing address yesterday Mr McGuire – Pearce’s defence counsel – said the altercation between three men in the churchgrounds was an “unfortunate drunken escapade” and Mr Ruks’ death was an “extraordinarily unforseen circumstance”. He slammed some of Crown Prosecutor Greg Cummings’ observations about the CCTV footage of the churchyard altercation as “outrageous accusations” and “disingenuous nonsense”.
“ … (Mr Ruks) bled to death because of how intoxicated he was and his general state of health,” he said.
During the trial the court has heard that the altercation occurred after an intoxicated Mr Ruks made a sexual advance on Pearce.
In an interview played to the court Pearce said Mr Ruks grabbed his crotch.
This alleged contact – which cannot be seen in the CCTV footage – was apparently exacerbated by the fact that Pearce said he was “f***ed with as a kid”. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Alleged killer may have been provoked, court told
October 8, 2009
A MAN alleged to have killed a disabled pensioner who made a homosexual pass at him could be acquitted of murder because of anger resulting from childhood sexual abuse, a jury was told yesterday.
The Supreme Court jury was told it could carefully weight the issue of provocation when deciding if Jason Andrew Pearce murdered Wayne Robert Ruks, who was found dead in a Maryborough Church yard. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Jury retires in churchyard murder case
WIN TV News – October 7, 2009
The fate of two men accused of Maryborough’s churchyard murder will be revealed in the next few days, with the jury to decide their fate.
In court today, counsel and prosecution walked jurors through the evidence for the last time.
In a closing statement, the prosecution told jurors both of the accused men proved by their violent actions they’re guilty of murder.
They claim security vision shows forty year old Richard John Meerdink and Jason Andrew Pearce thirty-eight, working together to attack Wayne Ruks.
Security vision of the fifteen minute altercation involving three men inside the churchyard was given to the jury by the prosecution to review when they convene.
The Prosecutor told the jury Mr Pearce admitted to punching the deceased in the head hard because he was really fired up.
But counsel for both men hit back, claiming the vision was unclear, and impossible to see who hit whom and where.
The defence told the jury Mr Ruks was an alcoholic, in bad health and extremely intoxicated…labelling the incident as an unfortunate drunken escapade.
Counsel urged the jury to look closely at the video evidence, and claims it’s obvious Mr Ruks upset the men.
The accused men have pleaded not guilty in the Maryborough Supreme court to the murder of forty-five year old Wayne Ruks last july.
The jury is now considering their verdict. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Jason Andrew Pearce accused of murdering Wayne Robert Ruks
Courier Mail – October 7, 2009
A man accused of murdering a disability pensioner who allegedly made homosexual advances towards him may have spat on his alleged victim during the attack, a court heard.
Jason Andrew Pearce yelled “I’m sick of you c–ts, you’ve f–ked up my life up” before beating Wayne Robert Ruks, who was later found dead in the grounds of Maryborough’s St Mary’s Catholic Church.
Barrister Greg McGuire, for Pearce, who admits manslaughter but not murder following the July 2008 attack, said his client was sexually interfered with as a child. Read more
___________________________________________________________________________________
Gay advance led to murder of Wayne Ruks, court told
Courier Mail – September 29, 200
UNWANTED homosexual advances allegedly prompted two men to attack a drinking mate and leave him to bleed to death in a Maryborough church yard, a court heard.
Richard John Meerdink, 40, and Jason Andrew Pearce, 37, are jointly charged with murdering Wayne Robert Ruks, 45, in the grounds of Maryborough’s St Mary’s Catholic Church in July last year.
Both entered pleas of not guilty to the murder on the opening day of their trial in the Maryborough Supreme Court sittings yesterday.
But Pearce told the court he would plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter.
In his opening address to the jury, Crown Prosecutor Greg Cummings said security camera footage of the entire 15-minute altercation involving the three men would show “compelling and damning evidence” of a sustained assault by Pearce and Meerdink on Ruks, which resulted in him dying from internal bleeding.
Mr Cummings said Ruks had died from one of four things – a kick delivered by Meerdink, a blow or blows delivered by one or both of the accused men or injuries received from falling hard to the ground after a tackle or from having tripped.
He said the video footage showed all the apparently intoxicated men arriving in the church yard about 9pm to drink cask wine, before an argument developed and Ruks was allegedly fatally assaulted.
The footage later showed Pearce and Meerdink leaving the scene “arm in arm”.
Ruks was left lying on the ground where a churchgoer discovered his body early the next morning.
Mr Cummings said Meerdink had told police he was “trying to help my mate (Pearce)”.
Pearce had told police he had reacted to Ruks after the victim had made homosexual advances towards him.
More than 40 witnesses are expected to give evidence in the trial which will run into next week.
Ruks, who had only moved to Maryborough from his Bauple property just two weeks before his death, was on a disability pension. View article
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
SPAIDS Memorial Picnic
Hate-Crime Map
IDAHO Sydney
Spunk Magazine