Combined Arsonist Quotes set

Combined set of Arsonist quotes

“As Goode put it, ‘We

all tend to react in a negative way to people who don’t behave as we expect… the autistic person, habitually treated as weird, or retarded, has great difficult determining whether hurt is deliberate or accidental.

“Brendan Sokaluk likely

inhabited an alternate reality.

“That was how it was

talking to Brendan: little scraps of fantasy, of make-believe; ideas from whatever cartoon he’d just watched.

“Selena was not

encountering the same person the police were. The Arson Squad detectives had decided his vagueness was an act, a claim the barrister found ridiculous.

“To them, his

apparent lack of remorse verged on sociopathy. But Brendan’s aloofness, his almost mechanical egocentrism, was what made her suspect there was more going on for him than an intellectual disability.

“As Jane

Dixon tried to explain the [guilty] verdict to him, Brendan just went on asking when he could go home.

" ... The valley

became a human sink, a place people ended up

"Money was

tight, but it was the same for everyone

"It was normal

for them to not go to school or work, as normal as the drug and alcohol problems, as dad bashing mum

"It wasn't surprising

that many locals were distrusting of authority - slashed jobs - safety standards - politicians

"Brendan's former colleagues

at the university believed he had played up his disability when it suited him

"Sokaluk looked

like an overgrown kid in his school uniform

"Radio shock jocks

were soon telling an audience eager to believe in their own righteousness and sound mental health that the impairment was fake

"In his presence,

people were casually cruel: 'vegie' or 'retard' or 'spastic' slid easily off their tongues