‘It is a huge problem’: Urgent calls for sentencing reform as child killer walks free
The imminent release of child killer and paedophile Michael Guider has prompted urgent calls for change in the way serious offenders are sentenced.
Guider will walk from jail this afternoon under a strict supervision order after the state government exhausted its legal options to keep him behind bars.
The Supreme Court this week rejected a bid for a 12-month continuing detention order.
Victims’ advocate Howard Brown tells Mark Levy “it is a huge problem”.
“The real problem lies with the high-risk offender legislation. The threshold for us to obtain a continuing detention order, it’s just too high.”
Mr Brown says another major issue is serious offenders being allowed to serve their sentences concurrently rather than consecutively.
He was recently involved in a case where a man was sentenced to 28 years over 101 counts of sexual assault against his step-children.
If the sentences were served consecutively, he would have jailed for 106 years.
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Image:Â Mark Williams