Parole board ignored warnings on release of Sean Price
UPDATE: PREMIER Daniel Andrews says he still has faith in the Adult Parole Board, despite it making a decision that allowed killer Sean Christian Price to be released into the community.
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PREMIER Daniel Andrews says he still has faith in the Adult Parole Board, despite it making a decision that allowed killer Sean Christian Price into the community.
The Parole Board has emerged as the prime culprit in the release of Price into the community before he went on to murder schoolgirl Masa Vukotic.
After being reformed in the wake of Jill Meagher’s murder the Herald Sun can reveal the Adult Parole Board made the fatal decision to place Price back into the community, despite a series of warnings the unpredictable and dangerous criminal would almost certainly strike again.
Mr Andrews revealed today he spoke with Masa’s mother last week, and said the government was acting to ensure laws were strengthened.
“We owe it to her (Masa’s) memory and to the pain and the grief and the loss that family feels every minute of every day to do everything we can to put this right,” he said
Mr Andrews said the government was moving to ensure laws were strengthened to try to ensure the “catastrophic failure of our criminal justice system” surrounding the Price situation, did not happen again.
“We always have to work, all of us, to try to constantly improve the system,” he said.
“I’m calling time on this notion that the balance should be anywhere other than with the community and their safety.”
Premier Andrews said there would be more changes to come, once a review was complete.
“We have former Justice Harper looking at these matters. The important review will give us... Lots of reform opportunities,” he said.
“We will deliver on those.”
The Parole Board board on Monday night admitted it issued a direction to place Price back in the community in September last year, just two years after a County Court judge ordered he remain under supervision at a facility for serious sexual offenders.
Because of fears over Price’s mental condition, his propensity for impulsive attacks and his failure to reintegrate into the community following a prison term, he was placed on a restrictive 10-year supervision order in 2012 following an application by the Secretary to the Department of Justice.
In a rare move by the County Court, acting Chief Judge Michael McInerney on Monday ruled it was in the public interest to allow the Herald Sun topublish Judge Roy Punshon’s reasons for imposing the strict order.
Believed to be one of the toughest orders in Victorian history, Price was to remain at Corella Place, a facility that houses sex offenders, until 2022 unless otherwise directed by the Parole Board.
Price was also subject to more than a dozen conditions that included a nightly curfew, and a ban on leaving Corella Place without supervision.
MASA’S BRUTAL KILLER ON BAIL WHEN HE STRUCK
At the time the order was imposed Price had already attacked eight women, including bashing a treating psychologist while on parole.
Medical experts gave evidence that on an absolute best-case scenario, Price’s level of risk would not have altered before May this year.
Judge Roy Punshon found that even after Price’s risk had moderated “he would still present a risk and would need to demonstrate that he can manage his own risk in the community.”
He found Price was a danger to females, had failed to cope while on parole and would need close monitoring.
“The relevant offending at risk is very serious. On the evidence before me I am satisfied that the respondent will pose an unacceptable risk, as defined, for at least 10 years,” Judge Punshon said.
Despite this, the Parole Board instructed that Price could leave Corella Place and move into residential accommodation in Melbourne’s west, a Board representative said.
She said: “The Adult Parole Board has limited responsibility with respect to the management of supervised offenders and discharges those functions through its Detention and Supervision Order Division.
“The Division’s primary function is to consider reports and recommendations from Corrections Victoria for the setting of directions to assist their management of a condition of a supervision order, if the court has authorised the Division to give directions with respect to that condition.
“On 29 September 2014, the Division issued a direction that upon his release from custody, Sean Price reside in the community under the conditions of his supervision order, issued by Judge Punshon.
“In formulating its direction, the Division relied primarily on a detailed report and recommendation from Corrections Victoria. It also had available to it other material, including Judge Punshon’s reasons for making the supervision order.”