Australia doesn’t really do life sentences.
Life without the possibility of release on parole is reserved for the real sickos: killer cops Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara; Robert Xie, responsible for bludgeoning five members of the Lin family to death in 2009; Port Arthur mass murderer Martin Bryant.
Life imprisonment in Australia is usually in the vicinity of 25 years.
On December 5, 2022 – one year ago today – the four killers of Leeanne Medcraft’s son Bobby, 23, were sentenced in Launceston Supreme Court after a jury found them guilty of manslaughter.
North-West Coast quartet Kelsey Maree Ford, her brother Lucas Shane Ford, Michael ‘Mick’ William Hanlon and Cody Christopher Shane Sheehan – the one who brought the deadly sword down on Bobby’s leg, cleaving his hamstring, artery and blood vessels like tissues – were sentenced to a combined 25 years’ imprisonment.
Lucas (six-and-a-half years), Kelsey (five) and Mick (five-and-a-half) were all granted parole earlier this year.
Lucas has been active on social media lately, posting beaming pictures alongside treasured family members, including his sister, fellow killer Kelsey.
Sheahan (eight years) is the only one who remains behind bars.
He will be eligible for parole at the end of March 2024.
Only one person was sentenced to life on December 5, 2022 – Leeanne Medcraft.
A MOTHER’S LOVE
Speaking from a friend’s house at East Devonport, in a cramped living room filled with children’s toys, Ms Medcraft said it was torture dragging herself to each day of her son’s killers’ six-week-long trial.
Waiting for her at the end of the drive from Burnie each day was the trauma of reliving her son’s final night.
“The photos and videos shown in the court destroyed me. I didn’t want to go back to court,” she said.
“But something inside me said you need to.”
But it wasn’t the graphic imagery of her son’s spurting blood shown to the court that finally buried her will – it was the verdict: manslaughter, not murder, which led Justice Robert Pearce to comment on sword-wielder Cody Sheehan’s good fortune.
“I thought I’d get more justice than I did,” Ms Medcraft said.
“I’ll never know the actual truth about what happened to Bobby.”
Ms Medcraft was never meant to have children. Yet she did.
“When I was a baby, I was burnt in a house fire really bad,” she said.
“When I was 16, I was told I could never have kids. When I did fall pregnant, all I wished for was a boy. I did not want a girl.
“Just before Bobby was born, I dreamt I was going to have a boy and that was probably the only time my dreams have ever come true.
“I’ve never won the lotto, never won big money. I’ve always struggled all my life.”
Asked what she misses most about her late son, she said it’s the “little things, not the big things”.
“I miss our midnight chats, where I would ring him up and he’d come and give mum a cuddle, didn’t matter where he was,” Ms Medcraft said.
“When he used to go to mates’ in Devonport he’d ring and say, hey mum come get me, or come hang with my mates, or he’d ring and say, mum cook me noodles.
“I miss his quirky ways.
“Me and him always had each other’s backs. Me and him made our own little family. It was only more or less me and Bobby.”
FROM BAD TO WORSE
The first domino to fall after the quartet was sentenced was Ms Medcraft’s partner, who was a reassuring yet understated presence at the trial – like a life jacket underneath the seat of a runaway 747 hurtling towards the cliff face.
They went their separate ways.
The next to topple was Ms Medcraft’s dad Henry. He died in June at the age of 82.
“I was really close to him. He was where I went after court every day. He’d give me a dad cuddle and tell me I’m doing okay, if I needed to cry he’d hold me,” she said.
“That’s all I had left of my family.
“I fought the demons again because I was more or less left alone then.”
There exists a brother, but Ms Medcraft is no longer in contact with him.
The final domino – the one that brought the house down, literally and figuratively, was the loss of her tenuous accommodation. Ms Medcraft is now homeless.
“I’m just more or less couch-hopping until I can find something,” she said.
“I’ve applied for that many houses it’s ridiculous.”
Having been dumped from the caravan park, Ms Medcraft has a spot at the Warrawee Women’s Shelter Ulverstone until December 11, less than a week away.
“I’ll be back in my car again,” she said.
“My health’s deteriorated, emotionally, physically.
“I fight every day to get out of bed. And I do fight.”
At least she will be able to get away from Ulverstone. She believes one of her son’s killers lives nearby.
“I won’t even shop at Ulverstone just in case I run into [them]. I spend all the time looking over my back. I live in fear of seeing them,” Ms Medcraft said.
PINPRICK OF HOPE
If it wasn’t for Elijah, Bobby’s only child, Ms Medcraft would have folded and dealt herself out already, she said.
“If it gets too hard, I go to Elijah. He pulls nan out of the bad places,” Ms Medcraft said.
“There is a lot of Bobby in Elijah, his quirky way, his laugh, his attitude.
“He’s the one that keeps me here. I don’t want him growing up not knowing who his dad was.
“I’m the only link left to Bobby.”
Asked what her hopes were for the future, Ms Medcraft, a shrunken woman sinking into the couch in the toy-strewn room, voiced a request for a modest dream to come true once more in her life of struggle.
“That I can actually get stable accommodation. That I can have my grandson every second weekend. And try and live the most normal life I can live.”
Dogs Home in midst of unwanted puppy crisis, how to help
The Dogs’ Home of Tasmania is bursting at the seams with puppy love — but the huge number of them has prompted an urgent fundraising push.
Teen assaulted Woolies security, stole eight meat trays
A teen who, with two other youths, assaulted Woolies security and stole meat trays, has been sentenced. Why a Tasmanian judge didn’t give him jail time.