Harley Hicks seeks shorter sentence over murder of baby Zayden Veal-Whitting
UPDATE: LEGAL Aid has funded an attempt to cut the 32-year jail sentence of baby killer Harley Hicks so he doesn’t feel “utterly helpless”.
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LEGAL Aid has funded an attempt to cut the 32-year jail sentence of baby killer Harley Hicks so he doesn’t feel “utterly helpless”.
Hicks beat 10-month-old Zayden Veal-Whitting to death in his cot with a copper-wire baton while high on ice during a June 2012 burglary.
He will learn on Wednesday at the Victorian Court of Appeal, sitting in Bendigo, if his bid is successful.
His lawyers claimed his jail term was “manifestly excessive”, saying his crime was not as heinous as other child killings as it was not premeditated, nor an act of revenge.
Zayden’s grieving mum, Casey Veal, slammed the decision to fund Hicks’ appeal as a “waste of taxpayers’ money”, saying it could be far better used on deserving Victorians.
“They said in court he (Hicks) will be in his 50s when he gets out. My son never saw his first birthday. He’ll never have the chance to have a girlfriend or get married,” she said.
She is raising cash for a playground in Zayden’s memory.
Victorian Legal Aid’s funding of the appeal comes on top of tens of thousands of dollars used on legal fees at Hicks’ trial.
A Legal Aid spokesman said the body was prohibited from revealing information about anybody who had applied for funding, but it was the job of the organisation to “fund the representation of people charged with serious crimes and to make sure they are fairly treated by the justice system and our decisions must be made objectively”.
New changes to the appeals process come into effect in early March following a review published late last year.
“There will be tighter rules on appeals which go straight to hearing stage and appeals which claim that the sentence is manifestly excessive as the main reason,” he said.
But he said the changes weren’t backdated, and there would still be some appeals that had funding approved in 2014 that would be heard by the Court this year.
A spokeswoman for Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula acknowledged Legal Aid had promised to implement tighter scrutiny on funding for criminal appeals.
“We look forward to the VLA’s assessment of those new guidelines after they are implemented in March,” she said.
On Tuesday, Hicks was compared to child-murderers Arthur Freeman and Robert Farquharson in a bid to reduce his 32-year jail term.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye described Hicks’ actions as “totally and utterly evil” in handing down the non-parole period after a jury found the 21-year-old guilty of murder in April last year.
But barrister David Hallowes, acting for Hicks, told the Court of Appeal in Bendigo on Tuesday morning his client’s sentence should be reduced because of his age, his traumatic upbringing, and because the killing was “spontaneous and impulsive” rather than planned.
He also said there was an “absence of features of vengeance and premeditation that attend the comparable cases where children are victims of murder”.
Mr Hallowes said Freeman, who threw his daughter over the West Gate Bridge, and Farquharson, who drove his sons into a dam, had committed more heinous acts because they had planned acts of revenge.
“We say that is worse,” he said.
Both men, who were far older than Hicks when sentenced, were given similar sentences to the younger criminal for their acts.
But barrister Susan Borg, for the DPP, said Hicks’ actions were worse because it was a “cold, calculated killing of a baby for no apparent reason”.
Ms Borg said Hicks, who was absent from the courtroom, used a homemade baton to strike Zayden 33 times while the infant lay in his cot.
“When he is confronted with a child that is no threat to him at all, he used it on that child. Not once, not twice, but 33 times,” she said.
Zayden’s mother is traumatised by the grisly discovery of her battered and bloodied child under a blanket on the morning of June 15, 2012.
Hicks pleaded not guilty the murder and claimed he was never in the house.
Ms Veal sat calmly with family and friends towards the back of the packed courtroom on Tuesday.
His mother and brothers, including twin Ashley Hicks, sat in court behind Mr Hallowes during the Bendigo hearing.
Mr Hallowes also claimed that Justice Kaye aggravated the sentence upon finding there had been an absence of remorse.
During his sentencing remarks Justice Kaye said: “During the trial I took the opportunity to observe you in the dock. At no stage of the trial could I detect from you any sign of remorse.”
Mr Hallowes argued Hicks’ demeanour had never been raised during the plea hearing.
“Had it been raised, there may have been appropriate explanations given for the various affects over the course of the trial.
For example, evidence was put on the plea that the applicant was taking various forms of psychiatric medication during the case,” he said.
Hicks will be at least 52 by the time he is eligible for release.
A judgment will be handed down at 10am Wednesday.