Criminals use legal loophole to cut jail terms
DESPICABLE criminals including paedophiles and black market gun suppliers are having their jail sentences slashed after a landmark court decision that has enraged victim support groups and sparked a flood of appeals.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
VILE criminals including paedophiles and black market gun suppliers are having their jail sentences slashed after a landmark court decision that has enraged victim support groups and sparked a flood of appeals.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal federal Attorney-General Christian Porter is urgently investigating the impact of a NSW Court of Criminal Appeal case that found felons should get a discount for pleading guilty even when it is not believed they did so out of remorse.
The worrying legal loophole has emerged after one of Australia’s worst insider traders, Steven Xiao, managed in February to get more than a year knocked off his jail term after his lawyers successfully argued he had saved the court money by pleading guilty. This has led to crims getting reduced sentences even when it is believed they only pleaded guilty because police had hard evidence against them.
MORE:
Cecilia Haddad’s ex officially a murder suspect
Abbott’s threat to vote against Turnbull
The new video chat app parents need to know about
Previously, a discount for pleading guilty to Commonwealth charges — which can include child pornography, terror and drug smuggling — was only given if the court believed guilty parties had demonstrated “remorse” or “willingness to facilitate the course of justice”.
In one case using the new interpretation of the law, paedophile Troy John Peters, who had 676 sickening photos and videos of children being tied up and raped, was able to reduce his sentence by 25 per cent to a measly one year and three months’ jail time.
In another example, drug smuggler Wei Liu, who imported 20kg of methamphetamine into Australia, was able to get his sentence reduced from a non-parole period of nine years and five months to eight years and six months. And even the man convicted of supplying the gun used to murder police accountant Curtis Cheng in 2015, Talal Alameddine, has benefited from the changes.
The appeals have been slammed by victims’ advocates as an example of defence lawyers “playing with the law”. The case that kicked off the reinterpretation of the law was heard by the Court of Criminal Appeals in February, when Xiao managed to get his sentence reduced from eight years and three months to seven years. He was initially sentenced in March 2016 after pocketing $1.5 million from illegally trading in the shares of Australian companies Bannerman Resources and Sundance Resources.
Xiao had to be extradited from Hong Kong after ignoring a court order to attend, but in his appeal his lawyers successfully argued he was still entitled to a discount for pleading guilty as he had saved the court money.
The case has been added to the NSW sentencing bench book and has been cited in 13 court battles since then by defence lawyers looking to getting their clients sentence discounts.
Mr Porter said he was closely monitoring the situation. “I’m aware of the case and also aware that there have been some recent cases dealing with sentences on appeal that have made reference to the previous decision,” he said. “It is my intention to monitor case law to consider the impact of the original decision and I am doing that on an ongoing basis. Ultimately sentencing overall … must reflect community expectations.”
Hetty Johnston, chief executive of child protection organisation Bravehearts, said she thought the effect of the legal change was wrong. “It’s about saving courts time and money but when it comes to child sex offenders particularly I don’t think they should be given these gift discounts just for pleading guilty,” she said.