‘We want protection’: Crime victims speak out on KAP’s Castle Law bill

Victims of crime are backing a proposed law to allow homeowners to take potentially lethal force against trespassing criminals as new figures show there have been more than 240 home invasions or robberies a day in Queensland over the past 12 months.

Proposed laws would allow people to use lethal force against home intruders with greater legal protection. Picture:: Supplied

Victims of crime are backing a proposed law to allow homeowners to take potentially lethal force against trespassing criminals as new figures show there have been more than 240 home invasions or robberies a day in Queensland over the past 12 months.

But legal advocates and others say the laws will have “tragic consequences”.

More than 40,000 Queenslanders have supported a call for laws to allow them to kill home intruders without legal consequence, as political responses to crime heat-up in the lead up to the state election.

Newly released Queensland Police data shows there were 446 unlawful entry offences in the month of April in the Far North – one of the highest on record.

Of that total, nine were charged with unlawful entry with violence.

In the same month, the Far North also had 16 robberies, nine of which were armed.

Townsville and Mt Isa combined had 362 unlawful entry offences and 20 robberies in April.

Queensland MP Robbie Katter said “for too long FNQ has been canary in the crime coal mine”.

Katter’s Australian Party introduced the so-called Castle Law on Tuesday, June 11.

Member for Traeger Robbie Katter said it was “developed in North Queensland, by North Queensland people” and added that “for too long FNQ has been canary in the crime coal mine”.

“If an intruder enters a home or dwelling illegally, the occupier should be able to use all reasonable force repercussions to defend themselves without legal repercussions,” he said.

As it stands a person who assaults a home intruder needs to show they had “reasonable belief” the intruder was going to commit a serious criminal offence, or that they responded proportionately to the threat to escape prosecution.

There have been 240 home invasions or robberies a day in Queensland over the last 12 months and more than two million in the last 20 years

The Queensland Law Society has condemned the proposal calling it “terrifying” and saying it is based on a misunderstanding of the current law, which they say already allows people to use guns in self-defence against criminals and “won’t fix the current issues we are seeing with property invasions and must be denounced”.

Townsville mum Asti Savage, 44, has seen enough crime to last a lifetime.

She was rendered a paraplegic after she was hit by a drunk driver in a stolen car on Flinders St in 2001 and several years later was shot at through her window by a man who was convicted but not punished on grounds of insanity.

Last month she was a victim of a home invasion, where her bag was stolen as she sat in her chair, then her car was stolen while the group of youths taunted her.

But she is in two minds about the Castle Law bill.

“People should be able to protect themselves, but if we start to arm ourselves, then they are going to start arming themselves and it will get out of hand,” Ms Savage reasoned.

“If someone comes at me in my wheelchair to steal my bag, I think it should be legal for me to use mace but I don’t think it should be a gun allowed in that instance.”

Home invaders have a device that allows them to completely remove locked security doors from their frame. Image: Cairns Post.

Jade Karo, 39, from Trinity Park, Cairns, whose parents’ home was invaded and car was stolen by four youths as the elderly couple slept, said she wants to make sure people can legally restrain home intruders but doesn’t think people should have a free pass to violently assault them.

The terrifying incident was recorded on security camera footage.

“Three cars rocked up, they completely removed the security door,” she said.

“There were four of them that got into the house, they had their faces covered.

“I saw them go right into the room where my daughter usually sleeps and then into my sister’s room where they turned on the light.”

Ms Karo said that “even if someone is being violent”, you should be able to restrain and tie someone with tie downs until the police arrive.

“But I would not like to see people get shot or badly bashed if they come into a house without weapons … I am from PNG and we all have guns, home invaders get shot all the time, but I don’t condone that either.”

Examples from the United States where many states have what they call “Make My Day Laws” include an African-American teenager shot for ringing the door bell at the wrong house, while in another situation, a person was shot and killed for entering the wrong driveway.

Asti Savage was rendered a paraplegic after she was hit by a drunk driver in a stolen car in 2001.

An analysis has found these laws have been responsible for an eight per cent to 11 per cent increase in homicide rates, or roughly 700 additional deaths each year.

KAP Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto has said the laws do “not automatically permit the use of firearms” but a leading criminal law firm has said that despite misinformation about the current laws, they already allow for a person to kill a person if they have reasonable belief that the person is going to kill them first – including with a gun.

Creevey Horrell principal lawyer Dan Creevey. Photo Bev Lacey

Creevey Horrell Principal, Dan Creevey, said the Castle Law Bill should be met with extreme caution.

“Unfortunately, the Bill will allow for a form of murder without legal recourse in circumstances where there may be no direct threat to a person’s life,” he said.

“Ultimately, the Bill is a dangerous response to crime in Queensland.”

He said that the current law already allows reasonable force to be used home invaders.

While Mr Dametto said their Bill would not change the idea of “reasonable force”, nor would it change existing self defence laws that allow a person to shoot another in limited circumstances.

“Homeowners cannot be expected to make calm, objective judgments during such high-stress and quickly evolving situations,” he said.

“Castle Law simplifies this process by presuming that force used in the defence of one’s home, self or others was justified, thus reducing the legal burden on homeowners, police and the judicial system.”

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the government acknowledged the people who had signed the petition, but the government had no plans to review the state’s self-defence laws.

Originally published as ‘We want protection’: Crime victims speak out on KAP’s Castle Law bill