Convicted killer Paul Anthony Benecke attempts to appeal parole

A convicted killer sentenced over the manslaughter of Kieren Pye has made a bid for early release on parole.

Queensland Court of Appeal. File photo

A convicted killer has made a bid for early release, claiming his parole date was excessively pushed back when he was sentenced for arson last year.

Paul Anthony Benecke was sentenced to nine years jail in November 2017 for the manslaughter of Kieren Pye.

Mr Pye was just 23 when he was killed in a botched drug robbery.

He was pulled out of a vehicle and repeatedly struck with a machete at Carole Park on April 2, 2015.

Benecke’s co-offender Cassandra Renee Lavelle then drove over his body and left him to die.

Lavelle and Benecke each received nine-year sentences while another co-offender, Tupu Sauaga, received 13 years.

Carole Park stabbing victim Kieren Mitchell Pye.

In July, 2023, Benecke was sentenced to an additional three years in jail for arson, using a carriage service to make a threat to kill and improper use of an emergency call service.

Court documents revealed Benecke was homeless in September, 2021 when he struck a match, used it to light a piece of paper and then used the paper to light a cigarette.

Benecke discarded the paper but it caught fire and spread, destroying a nearby building causing $670,000 worth of damage.

He had been released on parole for the manslaughter in January 2021.

But it was revoked in February – making him at large at the time of the arson, court documents revealed.

Benecke was sentenced on the basis that he had been reckless and his parole eligibility was pushed back to May 28, 2025.

Court documents published on Tuesday, June 11, revealed Benecke had since sought to challenge his parole eligibility date – but not the head sentence.

He claimed the 2025 eligibility date would make his overall time in custody “manifestly excessive”.

Benecke further claimed that the sentencing judge for the arson had been wrongly told that he was already serving a total period of 12 years 10 months and 12 days, when total was actually 14 years.

According to court documents, this calculation included the manslaughter sentence on top of a five-year sentence Benecke received in 2011 for three counts of arson, assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage and robbery with actual violence in company with personal violence.

Benecke argued that combined with the new arson charge, he was now serving a period of 17 years – which he would have served 13 years and one month of in actual custody before becoming eligible for parole.

But Justice Lincoln Crowley said Benecke’s argument was “misconceived”.

He said the presentence custody certificate that Benecke had taken issue with had not made reference to a period of 415 days in presentence custody that had already been declared time-served for the 2011 sentence.

“At most, the information was incomplete. But it was not wrong,” Justice Crowley said.

Justice Crowley also found that the parole release date did not make the sentence manifestly excessive. He dismissed the appeal.

Benecke remains in custody at Capricornia Correctional Centre.