Qld politics: A-G appeals sentence for couple who raped teen after party

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has lodged an appeal against a sentence handed down to a Gold Coast husband and wife who raped a 15-year-old girl after a party.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has lodged an appeal against a sentence handed down to a Gold Coast husband and wife who raped a 15-year-old girl after a party.

In April 2024, after a five-day trial, Christopher Luke Hili and Lee Kathleen Hili were found guilty on two counts of rape, one count of exposing a child to an indecent act and one of exposing a child to an indecent film following a five-day trial.

The couple were sentenced in April 2025 after spending nearly a year in custody.

Christopher Hili was sentenced to seven years’ prison and will be eligible for parole from March 31, 2026. Lee Hili was sentenced to six years and will be eligible for parole from September 30, 2025.

Ms Frecklington told The Courier-Mail she had instructed the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to lodge an appeal against the Hilis’ sentences.

“This was sickening offending against a young and vulnerable victim and I do not believe the sentences meet community expectations,” Ms Frecklingon said.

“My thoughts are with the victim and her family.”

Ms Frecklington also revealed the sentence against Jack Ronald Murray was appealed after he broke another patron’s jaw and knocked his tooth out at Rolling Rock nightclub in Noosa in 2023.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in relation to grievous bodily harm with an immediate parole release date of March 10, 2025.

Ms Frecklington has lodged five appeals since the LNP were elected last year.

In January she announced she would appeal the sentence of a teen who caused the crash that claimed the lives of Kelsie Davies, 17, Michale Chandler, 29, and Sheree Robertson, 52, in Maryborough in 2023.

The teenager was sentenced to six years’ detention and is required to serve 60 per cent of the time behind bars.

Another appeal was lodged that same month, against the sentence given to Brock Andrew McDonald, who attacked a young woman and wrapped a rope around her neck while she was trying to walk home from a night out in Bundaberg.

However, Ms Frecklington failed in her bid to extend the sentence in June this year with the Supreme Court finding the Attorney-General could not demonstrate McDonald’s sentence was inadequate.

In April, Ms Frecklington lodged another appeal against a teen gang member who stabbed army veteran Chris Sanders at Alexandra Hills Shopping Centre. The teen was sentenced to a three-month conditional release order as he has already served 189 days on remand in juvenile detention for that and other crimes.

Originally published as Qld politics: A-G appeals sentence for couple who raped teen after party