By Michael McGowan and Perry Duffin
The NSW government is considering appealing the decision to release on parole the man who violently attacked a former police officer, while Premier Chris Minns also vowed to reform a victim notification system under which she was not warned about his impending release.
The family of former Sergeant Samantha Barlow welcomed the announcement on Thursday, which came with an apology from Minns, after her attacker, Roderick Holohan, this week won his bid for parole despite warnings he was a “high risk of violent offending”.
Chris Minns and former police officer Samantha Barlow.
Holohan was on parole for the second time after two attacks on women when he repeatedly bashed Barlow, a sergeant, in the head with a brick as she walked through Kings Cross on her way to work in May 2009.
The state parole authority said on Wednesday that it planned to release Holohan on supervised parole despite opposition from Barlow and NSW Corrective Services.
Barlow, once a rising star in the NSW Police who was forced to quit her job after the attack, said the state had now become “a more dangerous place for women” after the decision.
Minns said on Thursday he was concerned about the decision and revealed the government, through Attorney-General Michael Daley, was “seeking advice about potential avenues for appeal”.
“I understand why officer Barlow and officer Barlow’s family are furious about it,” he said.
Though he said he did not “want to put the cart before the horse” on the potential for an appeal, saying it was still under consideration, Minns committed to changing a victim notification system under which Barlow was originally not told about her attacker’s impending release.
The Barlows were not formally advised of Holohan’s parole hearing last year until four days prior due to cracks in the Victims Register. The register works on an opt-in basis, meaning victims of violent crime need to sign up to the scheme.
The government later discovered no single agency was responsible for informing victims when their attackers were due for parole, a situation Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong has also vowed to fix.
The Barlows deny ever being contacted and have argued the failure to notify them made it harder to prepare arguments against his release.
Minns said he had been “convinced by officer Barlow’s advocacy” on the issue and promised the government would now move to an opt-out system for victim notification.
“She wanted to make an application to the authority to keep this individual behind bars and there could have been a situation where her evidence, her perspective, wasn’t even heard by the authority,” he said.
“I understand some victims don’t want to be notified, but everyone needs to be in the initial phase, so I’ll be seeking to change the arrangements.”
While Minns said it would take “a little bit of time” to introduce the change, given the sheer weight of existing victims of crime in the community, he apologised to Barlow for the time it had taken to change the policy.
“We don’t want to have anyone falling through the cracks,” he said.
In a statement to the Herald, the Barlow family welcomed Minns’ announcement on the possibility of an appeal and changes to the Victims Register.
“If we are serious about making the community safer for women then everything possible must be done to keep him in jail,” the Barlow family said.
“We are glad the premier has agreed to implement the change we recommended in relation to the Victim’s Register.
“Victims of serious crime have been through enough and are entitled to know what happens to offenders, especially when they are going to be released. We would like to thank the media and the community for the outpouring of support that has been generated over the last 12 days.”
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