THREE YEARS FOR MURDER

It seems that nobody cares in Australia

The family of a popular young man who died in an unprovoked attack said yesterday they were "sickened" by a Court of Appeal decision not to increase the killer's sentence. "What you hear is 'how good is the bloody criminal' – don't it make it sick?" the victim's devastated father Roy Markham said outside the court. "The system is rotten, rotten to the core." Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo had dismissed an appeal by Attorney-General Linda Lavarch, who wanted to increase the jail sentence for university student Moses Rupert Katia, 19, to 10 years.

Earlier this year, Katia was jailed for eight years with a recommendation for parole after three years when he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the Gold Coast concreter, 23. The court was told Katia had drunk 15 rums and cola and was walking with a friend through the city shortly after 5am. They came across Markham, who had passed out, sitting on a bench outside the Embassy Hotel in Elizabeth St. They were seen taking his mobile phone and shoes. Katia returned a short time later, punched Markham and stole his watch before fleeing. Markham died in hospital the next day.

Choking back tears, the mother of Paul Bernard Markham, Pam Markham, said: "I'm tired of being told what a nice person Moses is – nobody in this whole time has said what a nice bloke my son was. He was a delight and I haven't got him any more."

Judge McMurdo said Markham's death in February last year was a stark warning to all in the community about binge drinking. In dismissing the appeal by Mrs Lavarch, who had sought a 10-year jail term for Katia, Justice McMurdo attacked the binge drinking culture which she said could make pleasant and amiable people behave aggressively and out of character. She said Markham was an affable man of good character but had been grossly intoxicated and an easy target for predators. "His intoxication was almost certainly why a relatively minor punch to the head caused devastating vertebral artery rupture and a resultant serious brain injury which led to his death," she said. Justice McMurdo said alcohol abuse was also how Katia – a talented university student of good character when sober – came to rob, steal, assault and kill Markham.

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And NO jail-time for this:

How do you value a life? Susan Harris, whose much-longed-for IVF baby died in her womb after a negligent driver crashed head-on into her car, has thought of little else for 19 months. As the law stood at the time, in January last year, her seven-month pregnancy accounted for nothing. Mrs Harris suffered serious internal injuries and underwent an emergency caesarean but her child, Lars, was stillborn. Although a birth certificate was issued and a funeral held, the child was not considered a living being by the law, as he had not drawn breath.

In May last year, the State Government amended the law so that the killing of a foetus became an aggravating feature, which could attract a 25-year jail sentence. It was dubbed "Byron's law" after the tenacious lobbying of the Government by Renee Shields, who had lost her unborn child, Byron, in a road-rage incident. Two hung juries and one acquittal later, Mrs Harris is in shock that the man accused of injuring her and causing the death of her child walked free from Goulburn District Court on Monday.

Mrs Harris wanted the jury to hear of the grief she and her husband, Tim, and their older son, Jehru, went through, and their renewed grief when doctors told her that her injuries would not allow her to have any more children. The couple had enrolled to adopt overseas when they convinced another clinic to implant the last embryo. "We said, 'This is our last chance, our last hope, and maybe then we can move on' … And look, now I have a five-week-old baby who we've named Byron to remember Byron's law," she said.

As for the most recent trial: "I just felt like the system let us down again. I am really angry with the DPP because they didn't allow me to do a victim's impact statement. My story never got heard," Mrs Harris said. Nathan William Crossley, 26, was accused of causing the accident when he was attempting to overtake a cattle truck near Braidwood in southern NSW.

A spokeswoman for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions said when Crossley was acquitted by the jury of the dangerous driving charge, and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, neither Mrs Harris nor her husband were at court. She said Mrs Harris had given evidence at the trial, and the Crown Prosecutor made sure the court was aware of the severity of Mrs Harris's injuries, and the magnitude of her distress. She said evidence that the deceased foetus was the result of IVF was not legally admissible in the trial. Victims' impact statements could be presented only after there was a conviction. Crossley was sentenced to six months' jail, which was suspended, and was disqualified from driving for two years.

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(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)