Family speaks after A-G appeals sentence for killing of Kate Leadbetter and Matt Field

The heartbroken parents of Matthew Field, who was killed alongside his pregnant partner Kate Leadbetter by a teenage driver, say victims’ families should not have to push for harsher punishment.

Last week the driver was sentenced to six years in prison, meaning he will be free before his 24th birthday.

The sentence sparked widespread criticism.

Leadbetter, 31, and Field, 37, died on Australia Day in 2021 when they were struck by the 17-year-old as the parents-to-be crossed a Brisbane road while walking their dogs.

At the time the teenager killed the couple, at the intersection of Finucane and Vienna roads in Alexandra Hills, he was on bail for other offences and had been before the Children’s Court seven times on 107 charges.

The expecting couple - Kate Leadbetter and Matt Field.

Leadbetter was five months’ pregnant with the couple’s first child, who was to be named Miles.

Field’s father Russell said the system was broken, and six years’ prison for killing three people was “totally inadequate”.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman on Thursday appealed the sentence.

But Russell and his wife Ann said the appeal was not enough.

“We go from day to day. Some days are good, some days are bad,” he told Today on Friday.

“We do not want this to be a political football to be kicked around to the next election – this is a moral issue.”

Russell Field

“The more I speak about this, the stronger I become. We shouldn’t have to be victims.

“The victims and families of victims should not be fighting for justice. There’s more and more cases every day of the week.

“The perpetrators should be fighting for lesser sentences, not the victims and the families of victims fighting for a longer sentence. The system doesn’t work at the moment. It’s broken, and it needs to be rectified.”

Ann and Russell Field. Credit: Nine News

Russell said the only person who phoned the family the morning after the sentencing was their mayor, Karen Williams.

“The number one person who should have rung us the next day or stood up and been counted and say ‘we are not happy with the sentence’, should have been the premier,” he said.

“By sitting on their hands and doing nothing, it’s a clear indication this government does not want to get strong on the juvenile offenders who continue to carry out these offences,” he said.

Ann said her family did not want to be in the public spotlight, but it was important to stand up to push for change.

“It’s just horrific what we’re going through and all Matt and Kate’s friends are going through,” she said.

“It’s just shocking. And the people that were here on the night of the incident, it’s just a harrowing experience that nobody will ever forget, and we don’t ever want this to happen again.

“We need to change, we really do. The public want change and there hasn’t been any change.”

A state parliament petition, started by Williams, calling for breach of bail to be listed as a crime has garnered more than 49,000 signatures.

Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard earlier this week ruled out reinstating breach of bail as a crime, saying youth offenders who broke bail conditions were put in detention anyway.

Linard said the government’s removal of the presumption of bail last year had had a far larger impact on Queensland, and the state had three times more young people behind bars than NSW did.

She said about 300 teens were in detection, which was 100 more than last year, before the laws were changed.