Queenslanders learned this month about the sickening, heart-rending details of Corby’s last days in March of 2015, when Akehurst appeared in the Brisbane Supreme Court where he pleaded guilty to a downgraded (from murder) charge of manslaughter and one count of torture, occurring between late 2014 and March 25, 2015.

Akehurst, the court was told, crushed his tiny son until his ribs popped, punched him in the face, squeezed his genitalia and repeatedly threw him when he wouldn’t sleep. When Corby was thrown against a timber wall above his bed, he began convulsing.

He died from serious head injuries two days later after being deemed brain dead. His little body had 81 injuries.

Akehurst is just the latest in a string of child killers to go through our courts, and his sentencing will be of interest to every single decent Queenslander, all of whom are sick of the vile perpetrators of violence against children receiving penalties that seemingly don’t match the crime or benefit from plea bargains to receive lesser sentences.

Two years ago The Courier-Mail embarked on a campaign to have the sentences of child killers increased and, late last year, the state’s Sentencing Advisory Council, after a year-long review into the sentencing of child killers, found the community was right – prison terms for child homicides were too low and did not “adequately reflect the undue and significant vulnerabilities of child victims”.

The council’s research showed adult manslaughter offenders received an average sentence of 8.5 years for killing another person, but those sentenced for child manslaughter were only given a 6.8 year jail term, on average. As well, most are eligible for parole much earlier than when the full term of their sentence has been served.

The Government and Opposition have now introduced Bills to Parliament aimed at increasing the penalties for child killers. Public hearings into both Bills were held on Monday.

LITANY OF HORROR

Another of the many recent cases to shock Queensland is that of Caboolture mother Anne Maree Lee, who was last month jailed over the death of her baby son Mason Jet Lee.

The 22-month-old died a slow, painful and preventable death after no one phoned for medical help, not even his mum. Baby Mason’s 29-year-old mum last month admitted to child cruelty and the manslaughter of the toddler, who died in June 2016, days after his stepfather William O’Sullivan punched him so hard it ruptured the little boy’s intestines.

Lee was sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court to nine years’ jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter. She was handed a sentence of 3.5 years behind bars for the child cruelty offence but because she had already spent 937 days in custody, Lee will be eligible for parole as early as July 19 this year.

Baby Mason’s stepfather was given a nine-year sentence for beating the child.

O’Sullivan admitted to the crime and was found guilty of manslaughter, a charge that could see him walk free in four years with time already served. The state has appealed both sentences, with the Queensland Court of Appeal to consider both matters in June.

Two years earlier, killer mother Heidi Strbak was held responsible for the death of her little boy Tyrell Cobb.

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter but contested that she’d hurt her child.

A court ultimately found four-year-old Tyrell died in May 2009 from abdominal injuries caused by blunt force trauma after being struck by Strbak.

She was jailed for nine years and will be eligible for parole in 2021 after unsuccessfully appealing her sentence.

Strbak’s ex-partner Matthew Scown pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis he didn’t get medical help for Tyrell. In October 2017, Scown was sentenced to four years’ jail but released immediately after serving almost three years on remand and co-operating with authorities.

In yet another shocking case, former police officer Colin David Randall, 41, was sentenced to nine years’ jail in 2018 after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his baby son, who died from internal injuries on June 28, 2014.

Randall killed 10-week-old Kye by punching him in the stomach so hard the child’s liver was “pulped”. The former Wynnum Police officer will be eligible for parole after serving five years of the sentence.

Then there’s Matthew James Ireland, 33, who beat and killed 18-month-old Hemi Goodwin-Burke at Moranbah, southwest of Mackay, in March 2015.

The toddler’s drunken babysitter received 8.5 years’ behind bars in 2017 after pleading guilty to a downgraded charge of manslaughter, He will be eligible for parole after four years have been served.

NEW LAWS

Labor and the LNP have now both introduced legislation in Parliament in a bid to impose harsher penalties on child killers. The Bills are expected to be debated in April.

Under the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed changes, killers would face life in jail if it is found their “callous disregard” for their victims led to their death.

They also plan to expand the definition of murder to include the unlawful killing of another if the death is caused by an act or omission with reckless indifference to human life.

The proposed legislation would also add an aggravating factor to the manslaughter of a child under 12, which would force the judiciary to impose higher sentences.

This means if Strbak, Randall and Lee were sentenced under Labor’s proposed regime they would likely be indicted for murder under the extended reckless indifference definition, and spend life behind bars, rather than the short time sentences they are currently serving.

The heartless child killers would also have received a higher penalty for pleading guilty to the manslaughter of a child aged under 12 years old. The maximum penalty for manslaughter, which can be dished out to the most serious offenders, is also life behind bars.

The Opposition has proposed a 25-year minimum mandatory jail sentence for someone found guilty of murdering a child. They also plan to introduce a 15-year minimum mandatory jail sentence for someone found guilty of a new “child homicide” offence which sits between murder and manslaughter.

The LNP say their laws would “guarantee” all convicted child killers spend at least 15 years in prison and would also increase the minimum non-parole period for the murder of a child under 18 from 20 to 25 years.

Under this regime, any child killer who pleaded guilty to manslaughter would automatically faced 15 years’ behind bars before being eligible for release.

The offence of “child homicide” would be preferred to the charge of manslaughter if a child has died, under the LNP’s bill.

“Labor’s weak legislation wouldn’t have made any difference to the sentences of Anne Maree Lee and Heidi Strbak because they still would have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder,” says LNP leader Deb Frecklington, describing Labor’s laws a “tricky legal fix that will fail child victims”. She says the “reckless indifference” clause, already enacted in NSW, would see child killers continuing to receive soft sentences.

“The LNP’s Bill would guarantee all convicted child killers would spend at least 15 to 25 years behind bars,” Frecklington says.

“Only mandatory minimum sentences would prevent killers from seeking plea bargains and reduced prison time.”

But Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath says the Opposition’s proposed laws do not take into account the variations in factual circumstances between manslaughter cases.

She says the mandatory sentencing provisions would see a parent who accidentally left their child in the back of a car, who tragically perished, serve the same jail time as a callous killer who violently beat a child to death.

“We are not prescribing what the higher range would be, there are too many variables when it comes to manslaughter cases,” D’Ath says. “The fact is, on average, we are seeing lower sentences and this (legislation) is sending a clear message from Parliament to the courts, that we expect to see that sentencing range go up.

“We are also sending a clear message to those out there who have children and care for children, that they have a responsibility and when you bring significant harm to that child in such a way that it leads to their death there has to be serious consequence to that.”

D’Ath says Labor’s new laws would bring “high-end abuse cases” that previously fell under manslaughter charges into the realm of a murder charge.

“There will still be cases that are pleaded down to manslaughter but there has to be that discretion,” she says.

“We want to see more of these serious-end cases dealt with as murder but we need to give the courts, police and prosecution tools to do that, which they don’t have the way laws are drafted currently.”

GETTING IT RIGHT

Hemi Goodwin-Burke’s father Shane Burke tells Insight his son’s life is worth more than the four years his killer will serve behind bars before being eligible for release.

The Mackay man says a “real difference” to future sentences could be made if both political parties could agree to legislation that includes Labor’s extended murder definition of “reckless indifference” and the LNP’s proposal of a mandatory 15 years’ jail for those who kill children through abuse.

“Our son’s sentence was absolutely inadequate,” he says.

“Expanding the definition of murder is great but our killer took a plea deal so it wouldn’t have made a difference in our case.

“We have our reservations about the legislation ... the plea deals are a big worry because people do end up pleading guilty to manslaughter.

“We’d like to see the definition of murder expanded but also have that 15 years non-parole for children who have died through violent circumstances, and those laws are not going to catch anyone that is a tragic accident. If both political parties could agree I think we would really see a lot of change.”

Queensland Law Society President Bill Potts says the judiciary can only sentence according to previous cases and current legislation.

He says the 12-year-sentence handed earlier this month to Shane Simpson who left his almost two-year-old baby son Baden Bond alone in an Eagleby park beside a river to die in 2007 showed sentences were already starting to move closer toward community expectations. (Baden’s mother Dina, who faced two charges of being an accessory, was given three years’ jail but, with time served, was eligible for parole on the day of sentencing and was released.)

“That decision shows that the court, in appropriate circumstances, is clearly prepared to imposing harsher penalties than they may have in the past,” he says.

“It shows the court is reflecting community standards as well taking into account the mitigating circumstances of each case.”

Potts says the QLS remains opposed to mandatory sentencing for child killers.

“We are strongly against any straitjacket on the courts. All courts must have regard to reason not rage,” he says.

“The courts are being asked to impose mandatory sentencing on people who often have little understanding of their own lack of humanity.

“If the purpose is effectively to deter people, it won’t because the people who commit these offences are not the people likely to read about it or be deterred by it. This type of killing is a failure of humanity, you can’t create humanity by merely imposing harsher laws.”

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