By Perry Duffin
The drug addict who bashed a heroic police officer and left her for dead will be paroled despite warnings he is a “high risk of violent offending” and his victim saying NSW has now become “a more dangerous place for women”.
Roderick Holohan repeatedly bashed sergeant Samantha Barlow in the head with a brick while she walked through Kings Cross on her way to work in 2009.
Former police officer Samantha Barlow was attacked by Roderick Holohan.Credit: Steven Siewert
Holohan thought he had killed Barlow, and robbed her of $200 for his next heroin fix.
The NSW State Parole Authority on Wednesday said it intended to release Holohan to supervised parole after 15 years in prison.
The parole authority said Holohan, who poses clear dangers to the community, could only be supervised while on parole and not after the end of his sentence in 2029.
“The authority has come to the view that the community safety is better protected by monitoring this offender on a very lengthy period of supervised parole with strict conditions to manage his reintegration and reduce his risk of reoffending,” it said in a statement.
Samantha Barlow with her husband Laurence before last week’s parole hearing.Credit: Janie Barrett
“If the offender were released at the end of sentence, there would be no risk mitigation plan in place and no supervision, and the danger posed to community safety would be substantially greater.”
Barlow and her husband Laurence said Holohan’s release undermined their faith in political commitments to halt violence against women.
“NSW just became a more dangerous place for women to live,” the Barlows said in a statement to the Herald.
“Politicians are not serious about protecting women.”
The Barlows had not been advised, formally, of Holohan’s parole hearing last year until four days prior, due to cracks in the Victims Register.
The register could not contact the Barlows because they did not opt in back in 2009 – the Barlows deny ever being contacted.
“If we had known 12 months ago that he was up for parole … maybe we could have done something more to protect the community from this animal,” the Barlows said on Wednesday.
“We feel incredibly sorry for the family of his next victim.”
The SPA said it considered reports by the Serious Offenders Review Council, psychiatric experts and Community Corrections – all of whom had pushed for Holohan’s release.
Samantha Barlow pictured in 2011. She returned to work after the attack, but has now left the force.Credit: Photographic
But the authority also took into account Barlow’s words, which she had rushed to cobble together in a few, frantic days last week.
Barlow and the commissioner for Corrective Services urged the authority to keep Holohan behind bars.
“Why are we even considering letting him back into the community we all live in?” Barlow asked the hearing last Thursday, the first time she had locked eyes with Holohan in 15 years.
“Surely, he has no right to any form of freedom until he has served 100 per cent of his sentence.”
Holohan’s attack ended the police careers of both her and Laurence, through diagnoses of PTSD.
Barlow was a rising star in the NSW Police and had been earmarked as a potential commissioner.
She was also the third woman to survive a brutal attack by Holohan.
The first was on his ex-partner, a stabbing, in the late 1990s. The second was on a stranger in shockingly similar circumstances – he clubbed the back of her head with a blunt instrument while on parole.
Community Corrections, however, was concerned Holohan needed to be paroled to engage in reintegration programs.
“Should he not be released at this juncture, there is a possibility that he will be unable to participate,” its report says.
“Such occurrence could further institutionalise Mr Holohan and could attribute to a further distrust in authority.”
Barlow’s criticisms of the opt-in Victims Register sparked debate about need for reform, with Premier Chris Minns acknowledging “the system isn’t good enough”.
“I’d like to see changes because we need to be completely transparent with victims of crime,” he said last week.
Holohan will be released from custody between November 20 and 27. He will be supervised until the end of his sentence in February 2029.
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