Thug back on the streets as government abandons challenge to parole

The parole of a drug addict who bashed a police officer with a brick and left her for dead is a reminder that systems designed to protect society from violence can indeed aid violent men.

Roderick Holohan was on parole for several violent offences in May 2009 when he bashed then-sergeant Samantha Barlow, who was walking to work in Kings Cross, with a brick. It was Holohan’s third attack on a woman after stabbing a partner and clubbing another stranger for drug money. He was sentenced to 19 years.

Chris Minns and former police officer Samantha Barlow.

The Serious Offenders Review Council last month concluded Holohan should be recommended for release. Its recommendation went to the State Parole Authority, which agreed, arguing it would be better to monitor him in the community than leave him unsupervised after serving his full sentence. The council heard evidence of Holohan’s poor behaviour in prison and his high risk of reoffending. The NSW government opposed his release.

When the Herald revealed Barlow had been initially kept in the dark about her attacker’s parole hearing, a shocked NSW Premier Chris Minns foreshadowed changes to ensure more transparency for victims of crime when parole considerations were made. A legal loophole prevents the justice system from warning victims of crime that their convicted assailants are being considered for release. It wrongheadedly puts the interests of convicted criminals above those of their victims.

We praised Minns for heeding Barlow’s concerns and promising to reform the parole notification regime. Further, following the parole decision, the premier also said Attorney-General Michael Daley would seek “advice about potential avenues for appeal” on behalf of the government.

But that has all come to very little. Sources within the justice system told our reporters Perry Duffin and Jessica McSweeney that the government had been informed there was no chance of any appeal succeeding.

Hours before Holohan walked free, Barlow received a call from Daley at 6pm on Tuesday to confirm an appeal would not proceed. “It was better late than never. It was the first time I had heard from him,” she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham. “Clearly, he knew there was nothing he was going to be able to do at that late stage.”

Community Corrections, a branch of the government that supervises offenders outside prison, supported Holohan’s release, saying he had become “institutionalised”. He will be under supervision until 2029.

While authorities must be able to act independently, this case has drawn attention to what can result when a convicted criminal’s welfare outweighs the system’s concern for a victim’s welfare.

Holohan’s history of violence while on parole proves a propensity to reoffend. His parole was judicially inevitable, but it raises the question of how our justice and rehabilitation systems deal with violent criminals who refuse to change.

Despite good intentions, the government’s flagging of a potential appeal, only for it to fall in a heap, has inflicted more pain on Barlow. The citizens of NSW have the right to be appalled by Holohan being back on the streets.

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