Shadow Attorney General Greg Smith SC today slammed Premier Morris Iemma’s announcement on sentences for child killers, labelling it a beat up which brings disappointment rather than healing to relatives of deceased victims. 

“Most people would think those who monstrously kill children are now certain to be sentenced to a non-parole period of 25 years,” Mr Smith said.

“If they believed this they would be fooled.”

Mr Smith said the Iemma Labor government’s proposed new laws for child killers were an overstatement because the proposed laws would not be mandatory.

“Standard non-parole periods don’t apply to the vast majority of criminals who are sentenced after a guilty plea. They only apply to the small proportion of criminals who are convicted after a trial,” Mr Smith said.

“It is not true to describe the allocation of standard non-parole periods to further offences as setting “mandatory minimum” sentencing.

“The Courts have interpreted a standard non-parole period as applicable to crimes which they can categorise as being in “a mid range of objective seriousness…to be taken as a guide or a benchmark.”

Mr Smith said the Iemma Labor government’s exaggerated announcement had cruelly raised the hopes of victims and relatives of deceased victims.

“If the Labor government really cared about the victims of crime and their families they would bring in legislation to make sentencing Judges take into account victim’s impact statements as aggravating circumstances which they recognise in an increased sentence,” Mr Smith said.

“Labor has consistently failed to change the Sentencing Procedure Act to really do something for victims, despite the Courts emphasising that under the current legislation they are unable to give such recognition to victim’s impact statements.”