Linda Sidon’s sister Pamela McLaren hopes proposed ‘no body, no parole’ changes will better help victim’s families
The sister of slain Gold Coast woman Linda Sidon hopes proposed changes to the ‘no body, no parole’ laws will protect families from seeing killers walk free when their victim’s remains have not been found.
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THE sister of slain Gold Coast woman Linda Sidon hopes proposed changes to the “no body, no parole” laws will protect families from seeing killers walk free when their victim’s remains have not been found.
Under proposed ministerial guidelines the parole board would have to ensure that the “timeliness” of a prisoner’s co-operation is a significant consideration in the decision.
“We know that it’s too late to be of any benefit to us, but it means a lot to us if it can help other people so that they don’t have to go through this,” Linda’s sister Pamela McLaren said on Friday.
Ms McLaren told the Bulletin in April she felt “physically sick” when nephew Daniel Heazlewood was released on parole in February, just 32 months after he was sentenced to eight years’ jail for the manslaughter of his mother in 2009.
The Gold Coast party boy lied to authorities for six years about his mother’s death and was arrested in 2015.
Her body has never been found, but despite this Heazlewood was released.
The parole board found he had made genuine attempts to help authorities locate Ms Sidon’s body by taking them to the deserted location in Numinbah Valley where he claimed he buried her.
Timeliness of the prisoner’s co-operation is one factor considered under the legislation.
In the wake of his release Ms McLaren called for the no body, no parole laws to be rewritten and questioned the definition of timeliness.
She told the Bulletin on Friday “any change is a good change” but wanted to see how the guidelines would be written before commenting further.
The government introduced a raft of tough new parole laws to parliament this week.
Among them were amendments to the no body, no parole framework to consider a prisoner’s co-operation at an earlier time, and restrict prisoners who have not co-operated from reapplying for parole until they chose to provide new information.
Corrective Services Minister Mark Ryan said: “Acting in concert with the legislative amendment, a new Ministerial Guideline will require Parole Board Queensland to consider the timeliness of the prisoner’s co-operation as a significant factor when determining a parole matter.”
The reforms are aimed at bringing a measure of closure to a victim’s family at the earliest possible opportunity.
The government committed to a review of the laws at the last election.
Brett Thompson, of the Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group, previously told the Bulletin the decision to release Daniel Heazlewood on parole highlighted a major issue with the laws – and was concerned timeliness was not being considered.
“I’m especially keen to see a change to the framework around the timeliness of co-operation factor in the Parole Board Queensland’s consideration of ‘no body, no parole’ applications,” he said.
“I know this is important to our members”.
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