Relatives of seven Victorians who were murdered or sexually assaulted by convicted criminals on parole or on supervision orders have officially lodged legal proceedings against the State Government.
Spearheaded by Noelle Dickson, the mother of murder victim Sarah Cafferkey, the families are seeking compensation accusing the State of Victoria of negligence and breaching its duty of care.
It was Hunter’s second murder and he had just finished a period of parole for other violent offences when he killed Ms Cafferkey.
The families of murder victims, Raechel Betts, Joanne Wicking, Evan Rudd and Douglas Philips, have now lodged official writs with the court, claiming the system failed them.
Writs allege state was ‘responsible’ for offenders
All writs lodged with the County Court argued the state was at all times responsible for the offenders, including assessing the suitability of the prisoner’s release, putting in place suitable conditions of parole, including proper monitoring and was responsible for protecting the community against offenders.
Raechel Betts, 27, was murdered in August, 2009, by serial killer John Leslie Coombes, 56, while he was on parole. It was his third murder.
John Leslie Coombes was on parole when he strangled and dismembered Ms Betts.
Joanne Wicking, 29, was killed in front of her four children by Sean Maraffko in 2010. He was on parole having been released from prison just 18 days earlier.
Evan Rudd, 29, was killed by serial offender Richard Stephen Devries during an argument over a car parking spot in Moe in 2011. Devries had 80 convictions dating back to 1991 and was on parole for assault at the time.
Douglas Phillips was killed by his parolee son Christopher Phillips at Frankston North.
Two families of victims of sex offenders who breached supervision orders under the Serious Sexual Offenders Act were joining the law suit.
At least one other family was also expected to join the fight for compensation.
Compassion for families involved
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he had empathy and compassion for the families involved.
"What has occurred to those families and indeed to others is a tragedy and we send our best wishes to those families," the Premier said.
"I'm sure we have, all of us, just some inkling of the pain they have to live through every day.
"As [the matters are] before the courts though I wouldn't want to comment any further than that."
There have been numerous reports and reviews into the parole system's failings over the years.
A report by retired High Court judge Ian Callinan resulted in a raft of legislative changes regarding parole and supervision of offenders.
The failures of the system were again placed under the spotlight in the recent Harper Review following the brutal stabbing of 17-year-old Masa Vukotic by Sean Christian Price while he was on bail and on a 10-year serious sex offender supervision order.
The Andrews Government has vowed to implement stricter management of sex offenders including the creation of a new "public protection" agency.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
Good on them for suing. The only thing the bean counters understand is money, if this ends up costing the system lots of money in the form of huge payouts then this may lead to change. Next should be killers/rapists whose sentences were too short (though I'm not sure what law the families victims could sue under). Also maybe domestic violence victims families for the offenders not being dealt with effectively, though once again I don't know what law that would go under either.
I wonder if judges are handing out inadequate sentences, or criminals are getting parole because gaols are overcrowded? Does anyone know if this may be the case? If so it's false economy to save on prisons if these crims kill others, as it must cost a lot to investigate and prosecute again.
I realise of course the money should be irrelevant but I'm thinking that talking money savings might be more effective in getting change, because obviously the compassion/justice argument isn't getting far, particularly if a two time killer can be released to murder again!
By the standards of this forum I probably count as a law and order nazi - I'd like to Singapore justice standard with the the cane and the police essentially deciding who is is or not guilty but I think this is a bad idea - any decision will let things wrong and if the impact is that parole is essentially diend what incentive is there to behave in prison? the idea of a bail type bond though is a good one