Killers’ jail time slashed with plea deals that leave victims betrayed
EXCLUSIVE: KILLERS and other violent criminals are getting shorter jail terms because of secret plea deals, devastating crime victims and their families.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
KILLERS and other violent criminals are getting shorter jail terms because of secret plea deals, devastating crime victims and their families.
A new study found nearly 90 per cent of plea negotiations it looked at lead to charges being withdrawn or downgraded in exchange for a plea.
A Herald Sun analysis of recent deals in homicide cases — many made against the wishes of the victims’ families — show killers will get back on the streets sooner as a result of pleas to lesser charges.
Victims’ advocates say the Office of Public Prosecutions is fast-tracking cases via plea deals to save money, while ignoring their rights.
In one recent case, Rebels bikie Brandon Osborn got a six-year non-parole term for shooting domestic violence campaigner Karen Belej in the head, after prosecutors dropped a murder charge and accepted a manslaughter plea.
EDITORIAL: SECRECY BEHIND PLEA DEALS HAS TO END
Osborn claimed that when he pulled the trigger, he never intended the gun to fire.
Ms Belej’s family was “gutted, devastated, abandoned” by the result of the plea, her brother, Chris, said.
“When the DPP spoke to us about their decision to accept the downgraded charge of manslaughter, we were told this was a very serious example of manslaughter … and the court would see this the same way,” he said.
“These reassurances are why we have been left disappointed by the outcome.
“Hopefully, Karen’s case can be a benchmark,”
Just last week, in accepting a guilty plea to manslaughter from one-punch killer Andrew Lee, the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed not to ask for a minimum 10 years’ jail that would otherwise have been mandatory in such a case.
ANDREW LEE PLEADS GUILTY TO COWARD PUNCH KILLING OF PATRICK CRONIN
The cases are among a string of recent OPP deals that saw:
A TEEN charged with murdering a mate by shooting him at close range pleading guilty to manslaughter because he was high on drugs at the time,
A MAN charged with attempted murder after hacking his wife’s head with an axe pleading guilty to intentionally causing serious injury instead and,
TWO thugs charged with attempted murder of a police officer they shot in the face pleading guilty to recklessly causing injury.
Critics say the deals deny grieving families justice, fail to properly consider the rights of victims and risk undermining fundamental criminal justice principles.
But others say the deals help increase court efficiency, reduce court backlogs and save millions of dollars running expensive trials.
Former senior homicide squad detective Charlie Bezzina said:“They’ll never admit it, but it’s dollar-driven.”
He said this contributed to a sentencing regimen where hardened offenders almost never got the maximum sentence, apart from in an occasional murder case.
Mr Bezzina said he accepted that when the matters reached court, judges were often bound to impose sentences which had previously been handed down in similar cases.
Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said in some cases, a trial to test the evidence would be preferable.
“It would be nice if the question of whether, for example, a person knew whether a firearm was loaded would be put before a jury,” Mr Davies said.
A yet-to-be published report by legal academics Emeritus Professor Aries Freiberg and Dr Asher Flynn found 87 per cent of cases studied resulted in charges being dropped. It usually led to guilty pleas to fewer and less serious offences.
“Plea negotiations can be regarded as offering limited justice to victims and, in turn, the public,” it said.
The OPP said it did not keep plea bargain statistics.
But figures obtained under Freedom of Information found the number of cases resolved by pleas had risen 10 per cent since 2011/12 while the number of trials had fallen 17 per cent.
New OPP guidelines stipulate victims’ views must be sought, but the ultimate decision is the DPP’s.
Reasons behind plea bargains are rarely, if ever, aired in court.
Victims can ask for reasons, but there is no way to seek a review.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission has called for reforms to establish a right for victims to seek internal reviews of plea bargain decisions by the DPP.
VLRC spokesman Nick Gadd said the recommendation was still under consideration by the government.
DPP spokesman Anthony Loncaric said plea negotiation was a legitimate aspect of the prosecution process guided by the director’s policy and legislative obligations.
He the DPP was required to conduct prosecutions in a way which is “effective, economic and efficient”.
“In considering whether to pursue any prosecution, the DPP takes into account whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether it is in the public interest to proceed,” he said.
“In all cases OPP solicitors spend time talking to victims about their case to ensure they are consulted and engaged in the decision making process.”
RECENT PLEA DEALS STRUCK BY THE DPP
CASE 1
RODNEY Phillips and Sam Liszczak shot a policeman in the head days after being released from prison in July 2015. They were wanted after targeting the homes of Carl Williams’ ex-wife Roberta and his father George in attacks. They were charged with attempted murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of recklessly causing injury and reckless conduct endangering life.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Attempted murder: 25 years
Recklessly causing injury: 5 years
Reckless conduct endangering life: 10 years
CASE 2
A 17-year-old shot and killed his 19-year-old mate in the chest at close range. The victim never stood a chance and died almost instantly. The teen was charged with murder but the Crown accepted that, having regard to his drug use in the days leading up to the shooting, it could not prove the requisite intent for murder and accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Murder: Life
Manslaughter: 20 years
CASE 3
DOMESTIC violence campaigner Karen Belej was shot dead by her Rebels bikie boyfriend Brandon Osborn in a Russian roulette-style killing. He knew the gun was loaded, with one bullet when he put it to Ms Belej’s head and pulled the trigger at their home near Mildura on May 1 last year. Osborn had his murder charge downgraded to manslaughter, claiming that when he pulled the trigger he never intended it to discharge. He could be free from jail in just six years.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Murder: Life
Manslaughter: 20 years
CASE 4
PATRICK Cronin was killed with a coward punch trying to save friends in a pub brawl in April last year. Andrew Lee’s murder charge was dropped to manslaughter. He pleaded guilty after striking a deal with prosecutors that they would not seek a mandatory 10-year jail term.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Manslaughter under coward’s punch laws: 20 years with 10-year mandatory minimum
Manslaughter: 20 years with no mandatory minimum
CASE 5
A WOMAN was hacked in the head and face with an axe by her jealous ex-husband in a public shopping centre in March. He was charged with attempted murder but prosecutors dropped the charge and settled for a plea to intentionally causing serious injury with gross violence instead.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Attempted murder: 25 years
Intentionally causing serious injury with gross violence: 20 years
CASE 6
KILLER drunk driver Bradley Nicholson was charged with culpable driving causing death over the fatal 2015 crash that killed his mate Charlie Robertson. He was double the legal BAC limit at the time, but the charge was downgraded in exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Culpable driving causing death: 20 years
Dangerous driving causing death: 10 years
CASE 7
ICE addict Sasho Ristovski told his 16-year-old girlfriend Maddison Tilyard he was going to kill her in a car crash moments before he did. It was one of several times he threatened to kill her the night of the 2014 crash. But he was thrown a get-out-of-jail free card by Crown prosecutors, who agreed to allow him to plead guilty to dangerous driving causing death rather than culpable driving.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Culpable driving causing death: 20 years
Dangerous driving causing death: 10 years
CASE 8
AS Victoria’s youth crime epidemic spiralled out of control Jade Hunia plunged a 20cm knife into the face of an off-duty police officer during an aggravated burglary in November last year. Hunia had originally been charged with intentionally causing serious injury, but was gifted with a reduction of the charge by the Office of Public Prosecutions in a plea deal and pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury among a string of other charges.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Intentionally causing serious injury: 20 years
Recklessly causing serious injury: 15 years
CASE 9
ALBERT Rapovski shot his mate Mahamd Hassan in the face with a sawn off shotgun in March last year. He pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter after a murder charge was dropped. He maintained he first the shot accidentally when a selfie turned fatal.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Murder: Life
Manslaughter: 20 years
CASE 10
SERDAR Atesok was on bail when he fatally blasted another man in the eye in a 2015 New Year’s Eve drive-by shooting captured on CCTV. After being charged with murdering Nathank Knight, Atesok pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter instead.
MAXIMUM PENALTIES
Murder: Life
Manslaughter: 20 years
GUN KILLERS’ SENTENCES TOO LIGHT, SAY FAMILIES
THE family of a woman shot dead at close range say Victoria’s leaders must take a stand to change the sentences handed to such killers.
The case of Karen Belej was the third in recent years in which families have been dismayed at the sentence handed to a man who shot a woman.
All three killers argued they did not think the weapon would fire and got sentences of less than half the maximum.
Ms Belej’s killer — bikie Brandon Osborn — was last week jailed for nine years with a minimum of six for the fatal shooting near Mildura in May last year.
Osborn, a member of the Rebels motorcycle gang, knew the handgun was loaded but argued he did not think it would discharge when he shot his girlfriend in the forehead.
Ms Belej, 31, was a popular local council worker and anti-domestic violence advocate.
The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 20 years and Ms Belej’s brother, Chris Belej, said Osborn should have received a bigger slice of that.
“When the DPP spoke to us about their decision to accept the downgraded charge of manslaughter, we were told that this case was a very serious example of manslaughter versus low-range, and that the court would see this the same way without objection,” he said.
Mr Belej said politicians needed to demand more severity in such cases. “I was hoping the judiciary would draw a line in the sand and we’d get a change to the cookie-cutter approach,” he said.
A jury in 2015 accepted Nelson Lai did not know a gun was loaded when he killed his girlfriend Rekiah O’Donnell at Sunshine. He was given 9½ years with a minimum six years and 11 months.
In 2014, Mehmet Torun was handed a minimum five-year stretch and a maximum of eight for manslaughter for killing his girlfriend, Kara Doyle.
Torun claimed he did not know the gun that killed Ms Doyle was loaded when he pointed it at her head.
Ms Doyle’s father, Nick, said he accepted the prosecutors’ view that it was safer to accept a manslaughter guilty plea than to risk losing at a murder trial.
But, in such cases, the courts needed to impose a harsher sentence, he said.
“Something needs to be done,” Mr Doyle said.
In the Belej case, Osborn testified that he thought the revolver’s chamber rotated in the opposite direction to a previous gun he had owned.
The Crown had no evidence to prove his theory wrong beyond reasonable doubt, and accepted a guilty plea to the lesser charge.