The mother of a methamphetamine addict jailed for attempted murder says P turned him from a helpful, respectful person into a deranged monster.

The parents of Kasha William Gosset, 28, said they had begged for help for their son in the weeks before he shot a man three times in the chest, but were told that he was not mentally ill.

Gosset was sentenced to 6 1/2 years jail at the High Court in Christchurch yesterday for the attempted murder of Harley James Biddick-Kemp, 24, at a Woolston property in November. Gosset, who pleaded guilty, has no previous convictions for violence, but some for drug offending.

He has been in Hillmorton Hospital twice for mental disorders.

Gosset told the court his actions were a result of a “brain explosion”. He had a good childhood but went off the rails and fell into bad company.

After his sentencing, Gosset’s parents, Kerry and Gordon Gosset, said their son looked “ghastly” in court.

Naturally tall and lean, his methamphetamine addiction had given him a skeletal appearance. He had a shaven head and tattoos scrawled over his arm.

The family had tried to get help for Gosset in September after he started showing signs of “delusional” and “dangerous” behaviour, his mother said.

“When he’s in his right mind, he’s pro-family. He goes from being someone who is very respectful, co-operative, helpful, optimistic, very energised in a positive way. It totally reverts when he is using methamphetamine.

“Methamphetamine turns people into monsters.

“He loses touch of reality and gets very grandiose ideas about who he is.”

Gosset went from believing he was the head of a white supremacist gang, to the next minute thinking he was going to be Christchurch’s mayor, she said.

The family had repeatedly called Christchurch Hospital’s psychiatric service, police and their local MP.

Eventually, when he was assessed by mental health providers they told the family Gosset had “assimilated a sub-culture out there that’s called Nazism and that’s his way of thinking, and that he’s not unwell”, she said.

“Everything proved to be useless. We just knew something terrible was going to happen if he wasn’t stopped.”

Gosset severed contact with his family after he found out they were trying to get him arrested.

“He went from mad to madder, from chaos to more chaos until finally the shooting.”

During sentencing Justice Fogarty described Gosset’s behaviour as “crazed”.

He imposed the 6 1/2-year jail term but refused a non-parole term, saying he believed it was important that Gosset could begin treatment straight away rather than having it on hold for a time.

// <![CDATA[// Kerry Gosset said the family had been discouraged that their son’s drug addictions were not seen as a factor legally,

when they believed them to be the primary reason for his offending.

The incident began with an argument on November 11. Gosset went to a rival’s house and smashed four windows with an iron bar, which he dropped as he fled. The victim and his friend then turned up at Gosset’s house in Gould St, Woolston, with the bar. There was a confrontation at the door. Gosset fired four shots from a cut-down .22 rifle.

Gosset admitted several other charges including unlawfully taking a car and arson for burning out a vehicle.

- with NZPA

Related posts:

1. I wonder if they turned down their claim?