Rodney Michael Cherry in High Court bid to overturn No Body No Parole laws.

A Queensland man who has served 20 years for killing his wife and stepdaughter, who he had molested and whose body has never been found, is fighting to overturn the state’s No Body No Parole laws.

Rodney Michael Cherry in 2002. File picture: David Martinelli

A Queensland man who killed his wife and stepdaughter has today launched his bid to overturn the state’s No Body No Parole laws in the country’s highest court.

Rodney Michael Cherry was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 for the 1997 murder of his wife Annette Cherry (nee Guise), and the murder of his stepdaughter Kira Ranee Guise, 17, two years later, both of which occurred in Roma.

Kira’s remains have never been located.

Cherry has served his mandatory minimum of 20 years but a bid for parole was knocked back in July after a “no cooperation declaration” was made by the Parole Board under No Body No Parole laws.

The Board can make a no cooperation declaration for a “no body-no parole” prisoner if it is not satisfied the person has given satisfactory cooperation to identify a victim’s location.

The Board can also make a restricted prisoner declaration for certain inmates, including double murderers like Cherry, which prohibits them from applying for parole for up to 10 years except in exceptional circumstances.

Rodney Michael Cherry has served 20 years in jail

Cherry’s legal team headed by Angus Scott, KC, is today asking the High Court to invalidate Queensland’s no cooperation declarations and restricted prisoner declarations arguing they are punitive and impinge on judicial independence of the courts.

The state government is defending the case arguing Cherry’s position runs counter to the distinction between the judicial function of sentencing an offender and the executive function of determining whether an offender should be released on parole.

The governments of Victoria, NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory have joined the case siding with the Queensland state.

A hearing was set down today before the full court in Canberra.

Cherry appealed his convictions in 2004 but it was dismissed.

Rodney Cherry’s stepdaughter Deborah Guise.

Cherry’s first murder in 1997, involved him handing a loaded gun to his stepdaughter Deborah Guise, 19, and telling her to kill her mother, Annette Cherry.

Cherry had been sexually abusing Deborah’s sister Kira Guise, and was angry at his wife because she had given police affidavits about her knowledge of the abuse.

Cherry then murdered Kira, 17, in 1999 because she knew of his part in her mother’s death.

Deborah Guise was convicted of her mother’s manslaughter and later perjury after giving false testimony during two Supreme Court trials.

Originally published as Rodney Michael Cherry in High Court bid to overturn No Body No Parole laws.