One complex question avoided by the media thus far, and it is 36 years hence, frankly:
What happens when a dedicated 19-year-old male serving soldier; who has throughout his formative years, childhood and adolescent impressionability, with his life career goal purely to serve in the Army, is selected by the Army’s lead training institution that recognised his potential and promised to elevate him to ‘officer material?’, instead is revealed to condone institutional bastardisation (hateful negative leadership, cultural alcoholism, bullying, sadistic targeted torment, physical abuse, mugging, ridicule – an extreme cocktail of ‘inflicted trauma’) to the point that that young is driven to vengeful rage against his head tormentor. That this vengeful outburst results in that institution expelling him and severing all hope of his Army career forever, so driving him to despair, depression, his car destroyed by senior cadets, forced into poverty, ostracised by his friends and society, lonely, driven to drink and intoxication, that suddenly morphs to psychotic unreality of an imaged enemy out there (alcoholic paranoia?) and realising he has ready access to three loaded rifles at home?
Such was the precursor to the horrific shooting spree event in nearby Hoddle Street on the night of Sunday 9th August 1987, just weeks after this young soldier’s discharge from Duntroon.
When it has become accepted by most that to ‘drink-and-drive’ has shown to have dangerous and deadly consequences, well compare that to the reality of the above deadly cocktail that momentarily took over the usually normal mind of a very intelligent young soldier. This author knew Julian (left) as such at Duntroon at close quarters and witnessed the inflicted trauma.
Yet despite Julian Knight’s immediate acceptance of the mass crime he had just committed and plead guilty, then resigned to his incarceration punishment to serve out his life sentence, his apology to the many victims families and sought to legally take Duntroon and its tormentors to task for contributory culpability; Australia’s Army brass have so far got away with any culpability for his psychotic crimes, scott-free.
This website seeks to reverse that. It also is about truth-telling, critiquing the fabricated sensationalising and myths publicised by an opinionated media and by shock jocks for sale to an ignorant public. It is also about educating the public that a similar cocktail precursor prevails at Duntroon such that armed vengeful psychosis could well happen again.
“There is mixed evidence regarding the impact of trauma on psychosocial functioning. While some studies, such as studies of war refugees, find no relationship between the number of traumatic events and social functioning scores, many studies support a relationship between psychosocial functioning and traumatic life event exposure. In individuals with severe mental illness or personality disorders, negative life events are associated with poorer psychosocial functioning in general and over time. The impact of trauma on psychosocial functioning is dependent on prior psychosocial functioning and the mental health of the individual, which may explain some of the discrepancies in the literature. Additionally, higher levels of PTSD symptoms are associated with less perceived support from friends in a veteran population, which could provide a possible explanation for reports of declining social functioning.”
SOURCE: ‘A History of Trauma is Associated with Aggression, Depression, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behavior, and Suicide Ideation in First-Episode Psychosis’, 23 July 2019, by Rebecca E. Grattan, Natalia Lara, Renata M. Botello, Valerie L. Tryon, Adrienne M. Maguire, Cameron S. Carter, and Tara A. Niendam, Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2019 Jul; 8(7): 1082, PMCID: PMC6678563, PMID: 31340527.
(content pending)