In 1999 Corien Fulton was killed by her husband Stephen. He shot her in the head after she said she was leaving him (something described by the judge at sentencing as provocation); & he was charged with manslaughter & sentenced to 5 years due to impairment as the result of a classifiable mental disorder.
He’s now been elected Grand Master of his Orange Order Lodge in Cookstown - & is outraged people are unhappy about it.
In news that shocks exactly nobody, the Orange Order are staying silent.
The UUP have been shamed into commenting, though, after it came out that the new District Deputy Master is none other than Mid-Ulster UUP Councillor Mark Glasgow, a member of the same Cookstown LOL as Fulton. (LOL is their own abbreviation, I’m not randomly mocking them or committing a sectarian acronym.)
There is the question of rehabilitation & reengagement in society etc - but he received a shockingly brief sentence for killing his wife. Also, do you ever get the right to take on a role where you’re seen as a role model if your attitude is (apparently) “I killed someone but it was ages ago & I was punished so can’t everyone forget about it now?” Doesn’t sound like the remorse he was exhibiting as trial lasted very long 🤨
Sometimes it seems as if the litany of murdered women is endless; & the list of violent men who escape adequate punishment, whether that’s because of failings in the justice system or because they are cowardly family annihilators, feels as if it goes stretching on past the end of always.
Corien Fulton did not “provoke” her husband into shooting her. It was not acceptable (even in 1999) for the judge to suggest she was responsible for her spouse’s violence; but that’s another pattern we see repeat over & over. The Rules of Misogyny have no place in the courtroom, but they are utterly entrenched in the system.