James Gargasoulas verdict: Why life sentence doesn’t actually mean life
Bourke St killer James Gargasoulas will have the chance to seek parole after 46 years in jail. So why is it that his life sentence might not actually translate into a lifetime spent behind bars?
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Bourke St killer James Gargasoulas has been given life, but will still have the chance to seek parole.
So how is it that a life sentence may not actually mean life behind bars? And how is this case different to those crimes that saw some marked as never to be released, such as the Bega schoolgirl murderer Leslie Camilleri and triple killer John Leslie Coombes?
MORE: THE BOURKE ST VICTIMS
‘NOT HARSH ENOUGH’: VICTIMS SLAM GARGASOULAS’ SENTENCE
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In Victoria, Section 11 (1) of the Sentencing Act 1991 states that the court must set a minimum term unless the offender’s history or the nature of the crime makes setting a non-parole period inappropriate.
The non-parole period is the earliest time at which a prisoner can apply for release, but that doesn’t mean they will get it.
Supreme Court Justice Mark Weinberg, who handed down Gargasoulas’ sentence, said it was a “mistake” to refer to a non-parole period as a minimum sentence.
“In truth, there is but one sentence, and that is the sentence imposed by the sentencing judge,” he said.
“(Non-parole) is merely a direction regarding how much of the sentence that is imposed must be served in actual custody before the prisoner can even be considered for parole.”
Gargasoulas’s sentence
The 29-year-old was found guilty of six counts of murder and 27 counts of reckless conduct endangering life over a minute of madness as he mowed down innocent victims.
He has been given the state’s longest non-parole period for his wicked acts, and his non-parole period of 46 years is the longest given in Victoria.
The nature of Gargasoulas’ crimes has him in solitary confinement in prison where he is locked up for 23 hours a day.
Justice Weinberg said his age, the “onerous” time in prison, and his chronic paranoid schizophrenia — which looks likely to worsen — are among reasons for a non-parole period.
He said although his criminal record was bad, it did not prevent him imposing a non-parole period.
“Parole provides for mitigation of a sentence in favour of a prisoner’s rehabilitation,” he said.
“Parole is said to serve not only the offender, but also the interests of the community … even where it is accepted that the community must be protected from dangerous offenders.
“It is important to emphasise that the fixing of a non-parole period does not amount to
the imposition of a separate sentence.”
Justice Weinberg said although Gargasoulas pleaded not guilty, he did not dispute the facts, sparing witnesses the ordeal of having to give evidence and a protracted trial.
But he rejected Gargasoulas’ claims of remorse.
“The need to ensure that you are adequately punished for what you did, and that the community is adequately protected from you, means that any such non-parole period would have to be one of exceptional, even extraordinary, length,” he said.
He said there were few cases similar to the Bourke St carnage to compare. But his age and mental health were the key factors in deciding to set a parole period.
“By far the main factor in support of fixing a non-parole period in your case lies in the exceptional feature arising out of your present mental condition,” he said.
Criminals who won’t ever be free
While Gargasoulas killed and injured a large number of people that day in 2017, many of those who will never be released had very long histories of violence and had killed before.
John Leslie Coombes was convicted of the November 1984 murder of associate Henry Raymond Kells, who he stabbed to death in Kells’ Chelsea home.
He was paroled in 1996 but was arrested only two months later for the February 1984 murder of Michael Peter Speirani. He was jailed for a minimum of 10 years.
He was again freed on parole in 2007. He stabbed to death 27-year-old Raechel Betts two years later, dismembering her body and dumping it from a pier.
The sentencing judge said in declining to impose a non-parole period: “I am clear that this is one of those very exceptional cases where the evidence establishes beyond reasonable doubt that you are sufficiently likely to commit further murders that you should spend the remainder of your life in jail.”
Bega schoolgirl killer Leslie Alfred Camilleri kidnapped, raped and murdered Lauren Barry, 14, and Nichole Collins, 16, in 1997.
It wasn’t his first time. He snatched Prue Bird from her Glenroy home in 1992 and killed her, but has never disclosed where her body is.
“I am satisfied that the nature of this offence, your past history which includes two convictions for murder, the fact that you will never be released back into the community, and that you present as a real and serious danger to the community — and especially to young girls — all render it inappropriate to fix a non-parole period,” the sentencing judge said.
Police killer Bandali Debs was jailed for life with no chance of release for the murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller.
It was only after his arrest for that crime that police identified him as the killer of 18-year-old Kristy Harty, who he picked up beside the Princes Highway in Dandenong in 1997.
He had also killed Donna Anne Hicks in similar circumstances in NSW in 1985.
“You are sentenced to be imprisoned for the remainder of your life. Life means life,” Justice Phillip Cummins told Debs in 2003.
“You are of highly dangerous predisposition and you have learnt nothing and changed not at all.”
Other life terms with parole
Notorious killer and rapist Adrian Bayley copped a minimum term of 35 years for Jill Meagher’s rape and murder.
But his non-parole period climbed to 40 years after he was found guilty of raping three other women, in separate trials.
Sadistic murderer Sean Price is serving a life sentence, with a minimum of 38 years, for the frenzied stabbing death of schoolgirl Masa Vukotic and a rape of a woman inside a bookshop.
Dam death dad Robert Farquharson received three life sentences, with a minimum of 33 years, for deliberately driving into a dam in Winchelsea leaving his three young boys to drown.
West Gate Bridge child killer Arthur Freeman was whacked with life in jail with a non-parole period of 32 years for the murder of his four-year-old daughter Darcey in a revenge act against her mother during a custody battle.
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