Petitions call to keep Barrie Watts in prison for murder of Sian Kingi

A woman who caught the same school bus as Sian Kingi is pleading for thousands to help oppose a parole application lodged by the 12-year-old’s killer.

A woman who used to catch the same bus as murdered 12-year-old Sian Kingi is hoping thousands of Australians will sign a petition to keep the schoolgirl’s murderer behind bars.

Hundreds of people have already joined Michelle Jenkin’s change.org protest, titled Barrie Watts cannot be released from prison, adding to growing public opposition – including two other petitions – also calling for the murderer to be denied parole.

“Barrie Watts was sentenced to life in prison. This is where he should remain,” Mrs Jenkins wrote on the petition.

“He is an unacceptable risk to children. Do not grant this monster parole.”

The Queensland Parole Board confirmed last week that Watts, who was 34 when he killed Sian on the Sunshine Coast in 1987, had recently made a bid for freedom.

Sian Kingi was in Year 7 when she was abducted, raped and murdered by Barrie John Watts and his then-wife, Valmae Beck, in 1987. Picture: Supplied

Mrs Jenkins, 43, from Cooroy, who said the signatures would go to the parole board and the Australian government, said Sian sometimes took the same bus to Sunshine Beach state school before she was abducted.

“As a 10-year-old girl I lost faith in society and became cynical after learning of the murder of Sian (the pretty girl that got on the bus at my stop)(sic),” she wrote.

“This man tortured and murdered a beautiful innocent young girl. I knew it could (have) been me and often think about the life Sian never got to have.”

Sian, who was last seen riding her yellow 10-speed bike home from school in Noosa Heads, was abducted, raped and murdered by Watts, with the help of his then-wife Valmae Beck, on November 27, 1987.

Barrie John Watts (centre) remains in prison for the rape and murder of Sian Kingi in 1987 but has made an application for parole. Picture: Australian Police Journal

Watts and Beck, then 44, were both sentenced to life in prison in 1988.
Beck, a mother of six at the time she and Watts snatched Sian, died in prison in 2008, aged 64.

Mrs Jenkins told The Courier-Mail she was in Year 4 when the Year 7 student was kidnapped.
“I knew who she was, she was one of the older girls at school and sometimes she would go to the same bus stop I waited at … on the corner of Noosa and Viewland Drives in Noosa,” she said.

“She was such a beautiful young girl. I remember being quite in awe of her as she was tall with beautiful long hair, and looked so confident.”
A separate change.org petition titled Justice for Sian – Keep Barrie Watts behind barsposted by Protecting Queenslanders, has attracted 850 signatures.

A third one, started by Sandy Cohen and titled Barrie Watts never to be released for the murder of Sian Kingi has 230 signatures.

Mrs Jenkins said when Watts and Beck were sentenced, the community was assured he would serve a life sentence.

“It’s really not worth the risk of the children to Australia to let this monster back out into society,” she said.

Sian Kingi, 12, was abducted, raped, stabbed and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 1987. Picture: Australian Police Journal

The petitions add to opposition already publicly expressed by Sian’s parents Barry and Linda, politicians, retired detectives who investigated Sian’s murder – including former QPS commissioner Bob Atkinson – and the parents of Daniel Morcombe.

Beck pleaded guilty to the abduction and rape of Sian at Tewantin and not guilty to murder at the trial in 1988.

Watts, who pleaded not guilty, is being held at Wolston Correctional Centre, Wacol, about 18km south of Brisbane.

A Parole Board Queensland spokesman said the Board was aware the application by Watts was of considerable public interest.

“As prisoner Barrie Watts’ parole matter is current it would be inappropriate for the Board to make comments in relation to the particulars of the application before it, with the exception that the Board is yet to consider his application for a parole order,” he said in a written statement.