The High Cost of Hate

Bondi Badlands

After Peter Rolfe's former partner and close friend, Stephen Dempsey, was murdered by the so-called "crossbow killer", Richard Leonard, in 1994, Rolfe not only had to deal with the loss of a loved one in gruesome circumstances, but a harrowing trial in which Leonard smirked at him and smiled insolently at Dempsey's distraught mother in the courtroom. The experience pushed Rolfe to establish Support After Murder, a group offering emotional and practical assistance for the partners, families and friends of murder victims.

It also led Rolfe to become a key advocate for the world-first Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes, which lifted the lid on police inaction over a long string of unsolved murders.

Read the online story here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/what-his-friend-s-killer-did-in-court-set-peter-on-a-new-life-mission-20240214-p5f4tj.html

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