Serious violent offenders who are released from prison without parole or who have finished parole may pose an unacceptable risk to the community, Shadow Attorney General Greg Smith SC warned today.

“There is a gap in the law where a violent criminal is released without parole or where their parole is completed. There is need for further close supervision of some dangerous offenders,” Mr Smith said.

“The Serious Sex Offenders legislation which is being used to detain prisoners after they complete their sentences, or to have stringent monitoring and other conditions imposed, should be extended to cover serious violent offenders.

“This would allow the State Labor Government to apply to the Supreme Court for orders for the further detention of prisoners who have been convicted of offences involving violence and who act violently in prison or remain in denial or refuse to take part in appropriate rehabilitation courses.

“Alternatively, the Court could order the release of the violent prisoner on stringent conditions, such as involving the wearing of an anklet which can be monitored 24 hours per day, having to report their daily movements to authorities, and remaining away from areas where their previous victims and their families live.

“The State Labor Government is belatedly acting to review this area of the law, but the NSW Liberals & Nationals have been expressing concern about this since the shotgun murder of a Woonona man in November 2007, after he confronted his neighbour, Stanley Francis Maguire, who had been acting in a disturbing and noisy manner.

“Maguire had finished parole after serving a manslaughter sentence, reduced from murder after running over then shooting a man in a club car park. He fled and his victim’s body was found in the bush on the Central Coast 11 months later.