SA Parole Board must publish decisions online to regain public trust, says sister of murder victim Anne-Marie Culleton

In two days, this killer will be released for the fifth time – his victim’s sister says the reasons for that should be easily available to the public.

Full reasons for all Parole Board decisions must be made public, and published online, if the community is to have any confidence in the system for freeing convicted criminals, a murder victim’s sister says.

Eileen Culleton has called for the board’s decisions to be posted online – as all court sentencing remarks are – in the name of transparency.

On Saturday, she said the board had tarnished its reputation with, and risked losing the faith of, the South Australian public over its handling of murderous rapist Jonathan Bakewell.

Despite having breached parole four times, Bakewell is scheduled to be released again on Tuesday after another stint in custody that was triggered by a tainted drug test.

“How does the public hold the Parole Board accountable for its decisions if those decisions aren’t published?” she said. “How can the public have any confidence in a Parole Board that operates in secrecy?

Jonathan Bakewell following his arrest.

Anne-Marie Culleton.

“This board has released Bakewell four times and is about to do so a fifth time.

“The only chance for public confidence is for its decisions to be made publicly available.”

Bakewell, 59, raped and murdered Ms Culleton’s sister, Anne-Marie, in her flat in 1988, was sentenced to life imprisonment and paroled in 2016.

He subsequently breach­ed parole four times and was arrested again in March and accused of a fifth breach.

Bakewell was cleared of offending, however, after it emerged an SA Pathology error resulted in a false positive on his drug test.

Eileen Culleton. Picture: Danielle Smith.

Ms Culleton said the board should go even further than in the UK, where full decisions are made public upon request from victims. “Its current approach enables offenders to push the limits with, I believe, a sense of assurance they will get only a slap on the wrist,” she said of parole breaches.

Parole Board chairwoman Frances Nelson QC said Tasmania’s and Western Australia’s decisions were published online, and Queensland did so in the case of murder offences.

“Other states of Australia do not publish,” she said.

“The (SA board), by legislation, produces reasons for approving release of life sentence prisoners and reasons for refusing parole.”

Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Bronwyn Killmier said there was little consensus, among those affected by crime, about parole publication.

“Given that victims’ views vary so much … this is likely to cause additional trauma to the victims,” she said.

“Any public release of decisions would need to be carefully considered in light of this factor.”