Grieving families call for tougher sentences for child killers
QUEENSLAND judges have imposed the maximum sentence for manslaughter only once in the past 43 years — and it was reduced by the Court of Appeal. Now grieving families are calling for change.
Crime & Justice
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PALTRY sentences for child killers have prompted calls for tough new laws in a similar mould to those used to combat one-punch attacks and domestic violence.
Victims’ families, advocacy groups and legal experts say it is time to rethink legislation after a spate of cases in which child killers were given short sentences. This week Matthew Scown was sentenced to four years’ jail over the manslaughter of Tyrell Cobb, 4.
Suggestions include lowering the threshold to prove intent in the case of murder and introducing a mandatory jail term for perpetrators against victims under a certain age.
Kerri-Ann Goodwin, the mother of 18-month-old Hemi Goodwin-Burke, who died from injuries inflicted by his babysitter, backed the call for legislative change after a murder charge against the toddler’s killer was dropped and he received an eight-year jail term for manslaughter.
“We have talked with some of our local politicians about a law that protects society’s most valuable,” she told The Courier-Mail.
“We can also legislate a definition for the murder of a child.
“This could include a guide of what is and what isn’t murder of a child and also give direction to (the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions) when prosecuting and seeking sentences for these killers.”
The State Government has referred the issue, which is likely to feature in the upcoming election, to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council for review in a move widely backed by advocates and legal experts.
Criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said there was a disconnect between public expectation and sentences. He said a specific law should be introduced, similar to those drafted to stop the scourge of domestic violence and senseless one-punch deaths.
“They could look at, in the case of children under a certain age, that the requirements to prove murder are different,” he said.
“We need to have a revisit and, if there’s problems in these matters, perhaps we need a higher threshold or we need to lower the threshold (of evidence) to recognise these victims as extremely vulnerable.”
He said cases involving children ran into the same issue faced before the unlawful striking causing death charge was introduced, with offenders successfully arguing lack of intent.
Queensland Homicide Victims Support Group general manager Brett Thompson said fresh legislation made sense if there was a realisation that, when people used physical force against a child, there was more potential for damage.
“I think that has probably got some merit in it, in terms of changing the legislation of what defines assault in relation to a child,” he said.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said laws did not reflect community sentiment.
“Perhaps we do need a new law just to make it very clear, and to separate it from a manslaughter charge, which is not worth an awful lot obviously at the moment,” she said.
COURTS MISS CHANCE TO APPLY FULL PENALTY
QUEENSLAND judges have imposed the maximum sentence for manslaughter only once in the past 43 years and it was reduced by the Court of Appeal.
Manslaughter carries a penalty of up to life imprisonment but it is almost never used, despite some cases involving horrific violence, attempts to hide victims’ bodies and the abuse and neglect of children.
A Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (QSAC) report said that, from 2006 to 2016, the median sentence for manslaughter was eight years.
But the report provided no detail on time served behind bars.
The state’s last known instance of a life sentence being imposed for manslaughter was in 2001 over the 1999 killing of Russell Williams, 20, after an argument over a scratched car.
A court was told Peter James Bates, 22, repeatedly kicked Williams in the head and body while a girl, 16, yelled: “Go my Rambo, go.”
The girl struck the fatal blow, stomping on Williams’s head.
Supreme Court judge Richard Chesterman said words could not describe the savagery of the attack and jailed Bates for life and the girl for 12 years.
It was reported at the time as being the first case in 27 years of a life sentence being imposed for manslaughter.
The following year, the Court of Appeal reduced Bates’s life sentence to 18 years in a majority judgment.
Then-chief Justice Paul de Jersey dissented, saying he would have dismissed the appeal due to the “horrifying brutality”.
But Justice Glen Williams and Justice Roslyn Atkinson said they would allow Bates’s appeal because of his guilty plea. He was released on parole earlier this year.
Williams’s stepfather Robert Hislop yesterday said the original life sentence had been significant to the family.
“A life sentence, even though it’s not a true life sentence, was the maximum for what had happened,” he said.
“It should be used more often in manslaughter cases.”
There was a public outcry this week after Matthew Scown was sentenced to just four years’ jail for watching his girlfriend’s son, Tyrell Cobb, 4, die without seeking help.
Scown’s sentence was immediately suspended and he was pictured laughing after leaving court.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath responded by asking QSAC to look into sentences for offences arising from the death of a child.
QSAC’s report shows 224 offenders were sentenced for manslaughter between 2005/06 and 2015/16.
Sentences ranged from 1.5 years’ jail to 15 years and the most common was eight years (57 offenders).
The report was compiled using data available “which did not include time served in custody or parole release or eligibility dates”, a QSAC spokeswoman said.
“The council will be undertaking more detailed research in responding to the new terms of reference being issued by the Attorney-General.”
In other controversial cases, Richard Coburn served just five years for the manslaughter of ex-girlfriend Justine Jones on the Sunshine Coast in 2010. Coburn had stuffed Ms Jones’s body in a wheelie bin to hide the crime.
Damian Sebo bashed his girlfriend to death with a steering wheel lock in a fit of rage on the Gold Coast and served eight years for manslaughter.
The Court of Appeal refused to increase Sebo’s sentence after his defence argued it was consistent with previous cases.
PLEA CHANGE DEVASTATES SAD PARENTS
HEMI Goodwin-Burke’s parents will never forget the day they were told their infant son’s killer would no longer be charged with murder.
After months of coming to terms with the sickening violence their baby had endured, hours of being bashed by his babysitter Matthew James Ireland on March 26, 2015, Kerri-Ann Goodwin and Shane Burke received a call from a prosecutor.
“We spent nearly two years in Magistrates Court heading for a murder trial. Once the case entered the Supreme Court we received a new prosecutor,” Ms Goodwin said.
“He called and told us the defence is offering to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. He asked our opinion and we said ‘no way, he’s admitted to beating Hemi, it’s murder’.
“The prosecutor called again a few days later and informed us they would be taking the deal.
The reasons given were it would be hard to prove intent and he has a duty to save the court’s time and money.”
Ireland, 31, was jailed for 8½ years for manslaughter, but he could walk from prison in less than two years.
He drunkenly bashed 18-month-old Hemi, who later died in hospital.
His body was covered in 78 separate bruises from being repeatedly kicked and punched.
Ireland told police Hemi hit his head on the side of the bathtub after he violently jerked the child’s leg out from under him.
He originally lied to investigators that Hemi had had a seizure and tried to blame the injuries on the boy’s three-year-old sister.
“The downgrading of the charge to manslaughter broke us,” Ms Goodwin said.
“We were told the killer had admitted to beating Hemi all day before his death. We were also told the extent of those beatings. So we struggled to understand how the DPP could find it hard to prove intent.”
Ms Goodwin has long petitioned for changes to ensure other families did not endure the pain they suffered.
She and Hemi’s father Mr Burke have gathered more than 12,000 signatures in support of changes to legislation to ensure harsher penalties for child killers.
“They should not have the ability to offer a plea deal they should be taken to court and tried to the fullest extent of the law,” Ms Goodwin said.
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