Off Spud's Chest

To the Minister for Justice,

The tragic case of Jill Meagher continues to cause anxiety for not only her husband but the entire nation of people struggling to come to terms with our weak justice system and it’s soft sanctions.

The fact that Adrian Ernest Bayley can even appeal his life sentence with a minimum of 35 years is an insult to us all. Why should a man that commits a series of rapes and then bashes another person whilst on parole be given anymore chances? So he can rehabilitate? If you didn’t laugh at that last sentence, you’d cry. Crying because we all know you cannot rehabilitate this sexual murdering fiend. He is scum.

Justice Geoffrey Nettle, a well respected Judge said the 35 year non parole period was to give Bayley an incentive to rehabilitate himself and that he considered the guilty plea reflected a small degree of remorse. Wow, well respected hey. On what grounds? Any respect you ever had went right out the window when you made that call Justice Nettle. Your role is to make sure the time fits the crime. Is Jill going to come back in 35 years? No, so straight away you’ve delivered the wrong sentence. Who are we more concerned about here? The offender, the victim or the potential victims in 2048 when the dirty old bastard is released? I’d say firstly you were worried about the offender, then the community and then Jill and her grieving family.

David Provan is the General Manager of the Parole Board and should be accountable for the decision that was made under his leadership. The fact that a man with such prior’s was released back into the community and has had such tragic consequences is a disgrace. Mr Provan should recognise this by stepping down. Rather than making excuses as to why he would not respond to reasonable questions from Jill’s loving husband Tom Meagher, be a man, show some respect and step down. Why? You have blood on your hands Mr Provan.

It shocks me to think we live in a society that would kill a certain breed of dog because the animal could kill. Yet when we are faced with a known killer/rapist like Adrian Ernest Bayley our parole board is itching to release him back into the community. This makes no sense to me. The parole board exists to allow genuinely rehabilitated prisoners a second chance, without risk to the law abiding community. Car thieves, burglars and people that commit fraud to name a few are the types that should benefit from such a system. People that take a life for their own sexual pleasure, please, there’s no coming back from that. The two most disgusting crimes, rape and murder need to be dealt with much more harshly especially when the death penalty is not an option. I don’t care if your running out of jail room, build another one.

Any kind of rape is a disgrace. No matter who the victim is, our justice system must look forward to protect the next victim. In this case Jill and Tom Meagher were so insanely let down, no words I write will be able to describe it. In many cases like these I can't help but think of the movie ‘Law Abiding Citizen’. Family are very precious to some people and as men we want to protect the females closest to us. If the government don’t act and take a harder stand it’s only a matter of time before people will take the law into their own hands.