Labor Opposition moves to rewrite sentencing discount laws – that it created while in government – to stop child sex predators receiving years off their prison terms
Sentencing discount laws mean this child sex ‘monster’ could be free in just two years. Now the party that created those laws is moving to scrap them – saying the government has failed to act.
Police & Courts
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- September 2010: Labor introduces sentencing discounts
- September 2018: Libs pledge to review discount laws
- July 2020: Sex offender’s term slashed by three years
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Sentencing-discount laws must be immediately rewritten so the next child sex “monster” is not shown the same leniency as the Blair Athol toilet predator, the State Opposition says.
Labor says it will move to undo laws that wipe up to 40 per cent off the jail time of confessed pedophiles such as Hamzeh Bahrami – legislation created by its own MPs.
Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Kyam Maher said the maximum discount available should be just 25 per cent.
He said the State Government had failed act on recommendations that plea-bargain discounts be reduced, despite having had a year to do so.
“Hamzeh Bahrami is a vile monster who preyed upon an innocent young girl,” he said.
“If the government had acted on the recommendations, he would be in prison longer and the community would be safer.”
But while victims’ rights advocates say the discounts are “unjust”, and prosecutors are considering an appeal against Bahrami’s sentence, the government remains unmoved.
It says sentencing is a “complicated and complex area of law”, requiring “careful consideration” before any changes are made.
Last week Bahrami, 33, received a four-year prison term for sexually assaulting a girl, 10, in a Blair Athol toilet block in April 2019.
The District Court gave Bahrami a 40 per cent reduction on his sentence because he pleaded guilty, leaving him eligible to seek release on parole in April 2022.
Judge Paul Slattery imposed the discount despite calling Bahrami – who has never explained his offending – “abhorrent in the extreme” and expressing fears he may reoffend.
His Honour was bound by legislation introduced by the then-Labor government in 2010 to reduce the court’s backlog and encourage plea bargains.
Under the laws, drafted by former Attorney-General John Rau SC, offenders receive up to 40 per cent off for early guilty pleas, down to 10 per cent for pre-trial confessions.
Criminals who benefited from the discounts included Hillier triple murderer Steven Graham Peet and ice-fuelled double-murderer Bo Olssen.
In 2018, the state government – which had opposed the laws while in Opposition – said it would undertake a review of the discount scheme.
On Sunday, Mr Maher said that review was completed in July 2019, and recommended discounts be reduced, but the government had not acted upon it.
“The most fundamental responsibility of a government is to protect South Australians,” he said.
“Time and again, Steven Marshall and his government have failed in their responsibilities.
“Labor has no choice but to act to protect our community and ensure predators like Nahrami spend more time behind bars.”
Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Bronwyn Killmier said the current discounting scheme was unbalanced.
“Victims on the whole do not call for harsher penalties but they do want justice … for most, the discounts scheme as it stands does not represent a just outcome,” she said.
“There has to be a balance between incentives for guilty offenders to plead guilty earlier, the impact on public safety and the effect of how delaying justice impacts on the victim.”
She said victims suffered uncertainty and “unnecessary additional stress” about whether cases would end quickly or go to trial, where they would have to re-live their trauma.
“Sometimes the offender does not plead guilty until the day of the trial,” she said.
“Of course they get less discount for this, but the victim has often been traumatised by the crime, and the delay has further exacerbated this trauma.
“By putting victims through this, offenders demonstrate their lack of remorse for the crime and show little understanding of the impact of their actions on victims.”
A spokeswoman for Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton SC said the Bahrami sentence was under review.
“No decision has been made at this time but the question of whether an appeal should be instituted will be considered by the Director over the next 7-10 days,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Vickie Chapman said a draft bill was “being worked on”, pending the outcome of “targeted stakeholder consultation”.
“Sentencing and sentencing discounts is a complicated area of law, as such any changes requires careful consideration,” she said.
“It’s a complex body of work that needs to be 100 per cent right … poorly drafted legislation and amendments can cause chaos, so we’re being thorough to ensure we get it right,” she said.
Liberals too slow on sentencing-discount changes
Opinion – Sean Fewster
One of the more infamous quotes in state legal history comes from 2009 when a prosecutor remarked – correctly – that legislation drafted by the Rann and Weatherill governments was “rushed through, not thought through”.
The prosecutor was, in short order, directed to publicly apologise for his comments, with then-spin doctor, now MP Jayne Stinson calling the media to ensure his contrition was given due coverage.
However, truth is, as they say in law, a defence – and the truth of the prosecutor’s words haunted the rest of Labor’s term in office and overshadowed every rule John Rau SC tried to bring into effect.
The quote’s power has lingered on, past the 2018 election and into the time of Steven Marshall, who has adopted a deliberate, methodical pace when it comes to lawmaking.
The approach has, for the most part, served the government well – save and except for the contentious issue of criminal sentencing discounts.
That section of law, thanks to John Rau, gives offenders 40 per cent off their jail time if they plead guilty early, down to 10 per cent if they confess just prior to trial.
The goal was to help ease the courts’ trial backlog – one could be forgiven for saying by “rushing cases through” – but the effect upon justice was sudden and shocking.
Last week’s sentencing of Hamzeh Bahrami, who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in a public toilet block, is the most recent and lamentable example.
Bahrami can’t explain why he offended and was deemed despicable and “abhorrent in the extreme” by the judge, who openly fears he will strike again in future.
Yet the law required Bahrami receive up to 40 per cent off for his early guilty plea, so three years were wiped off his jail time – meaning he will be free in less than two years.
The Marshall Government has been considering, consulting and drafting a solution for more than 12 months, and is correct in dubbing this a “complex” area of law.
But is it any more complex than the uncontrollable sex predator legislation that became law in three months, or the decades-overdue rewrite of suppression order statutes?
Both of those changes passed with bipartisan support from the current Labor Opposition, which seems to have no qualms with slaughtering its predecessor’s sacred cows.
On Sunday, Labor announced it would immediately move a draft bill of its own to ensure the next Hamzeh Bahrami won’t receive leniency through legal mandate.
It would be truly embarrassing should the government be beaten to righting an imbalance by the very party that created it in the first place.