SORRY was one of the few words spoken outside court yesterday when two men walked free after bashing an innocent gay man to death.

John Whiteside and Kristian Dieber were freed by a Supreme Court judge
after spending six months behind bars. 

"I just feel sorry for everyone involved," Dieber said as he left court.
The two men fatally bashed Keith Hibbins, 45 – "a decent, honorable,
law-abiding homosexual" – after coming to the rescue of a sobbing woman
who lied about being raped.

In an emotional courtroom scene, family and friends hugged each other and
wept after Justice Philip Cummins ordered the pair be released on
suspended sentences.

Justice Cummins said Whiteside, 28, and Dieber, 24, had spent enough time
behind bars. He said: "I have concluded it would be wrong to require you to now return to custody. "You have already served six months in pre-sentence detention. "That is enough." But he condemned the aggressive actions of the men, which led to the death of Mr Hibbins.

In what was described as a rare and perverse chain of events, the tragedy
unfolded when the two men came across a 23-year-old woman in the Fitzroy
Gardens, sobbing and saying she had been raped by two men. 

How unfortunate it was your paths crossed hers," said Justice Cummins.
"You, as decent and trusting young men, believed her." A series of errors followed when Dieber and Whiteside set out to track down the phantom rapists on Anzac Day last year. In the mistaken belief they had found the rapists, Dieber and Whiteside confronted Mr Hibbins and his life-long gay lover David Campbell.

Ironically, Mr Hibbins and Mr Campbell began to run from the men in the
belief they were drunken gay-bashers. What followed was a brief but vicious attack. Unconscious, Mr Hibbins was taken by ambulance to St Vincent's Hospital. "At the same time, on the opposite side of the park, the young woman was being removed by ambulance to the Royal Women's Hospital to be given care for a rape that never happened," Justice Cummins said.
Mr Hibbins died in hospital 10 days later. His death has left his partner so severely traumatised he has become a social recluse.

A psychologist who examined Mr Campbell said he had never witnessed such
excruciating suffering in a bereaved person. "I have nothing but sympathy for Mr Campbell, a decent honorable man who lost his life partner," Justice Cummins said. "One would have a heart of stone not to be moved by the statements of the victims."z

Justice Cummins also said that he did not blame the woman for the tragic
outcome. "She did not know what would follow and it would be quite wrong to blame her for what followed," he said. The judge said he found both Dieber and Whiteside to be men of excellent character who were afflicted with the same rush of emotion. 

He said had the death been the result of action by vigilantes, gay-bashers or aggressive drunken sports followers he would have imposed severe jail terms.
"But your conduct was none of the above," he said. "Yours was the conduct of two young men of good character not looking for trouble, not looking for a fight, not bent on violence. "Two men who truly and reasonably believed a woman had been raped and who without reflection or premeditation sought to ensure the perpetrators did not escape before the summoned police arrived.
"Who then, in a rush of emotion, believing you had found the perpetrators,
severely but briefly assaulted the victim."

Justice Cummins said the case would deter others from taking the law into
their own hands. Both Whiteside and Dieber earlier pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Hibbins. The judge served a jail term of three years on each of the men. Justice Cummins then suspended the balance of their sentences to be served "as citizens in the community".