CHEAP TO KILL A CHILD IN AUSTRALIA

More than a dozen people charged with murdering children in the past decade in Victoria have struck deals to dramatically reduce their time behind bars. Families, police and victims' groups are appalled by the "institutionalised injustice" that lets child killers beat murder charges in favour of manslaughter. A wave of community outrage over the death of five-month-old Rachael Joy Arney has prompted calls for a review of the law.

The Herald Sun has identified 12 cases where attackers inflicted horrific injuries on young children. In each, the offenders were charged with murder but prosecutors accepted a plea of guilty to manslaughter. All but one received sentences of less than half the 20-year maximum penalty for manslaughter. Their minimum non-parole jail terms totalled just 64 years. In developments yesterday:

VICTORIAN Premier Steve Bracks took the rare step of urging the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against the minimum five-year sentence imposed this week on the killer of baby Rachael.

FRUSTRATED police called for juries to be left to decide child murder charges.

THE father of one victim spoke of his devastation at seeing his son's killer jailed for just four years.

A PROMINENT barrister called for the DPP to make public the reasons for accepting lesser pleas.

The list of case studies reveals the horrific injuries and torment suffered by the child victims. They include skull fractures, broken ribs, bleeding on the brain, and torn internal organs. The highest sentence - 10 years' jail with a minimum of seven - was given in 2000 to Gary Stanley Kesic, who violently shook Jed Britton, 2, over the child's inability to learn toilet training.

David Scott Arney, 25, was sentenced on Monday to a minimum five years for repeatedly punching daughter Rachael in the stomach. Mr Bracks, clearly moved by baby Rachael's death, said he hoped the DPP would consider an appeal. "This is a horrific case, a dreadful case. I'm appalled by all of it," he said. "It would be up to the DPP to decide if it wishes to appeal on that matter . . . and you would hope if there is an opportunity . . . they would take that up."

One homicide squad detective said police were resigned to such sentences being imposed. "It's sad but it's at the top end," he said. "When a bloke gets nine (years in prison) with a six (year non-parole period), it's above average. "The little baby's got no choice. They're gone forever." The detective said it was a sad reality that if judges handed down stiffer sentences, they would be reduced on appeal. He said sustained public outrage might be the only thing that changed the situation.

Australian Childhood Foundation CEO Joe Tucci said the law was letting children down by reducing the seriousness of a horrific crime. "The price of a child's life is 5-10 years at the most and that, to me, is a tragic indictment on the way we see the sanctity of childhood," Mr Tucci said. He said the Office of Public Prosecutions should be transparent and accountable when it accepted a reduction in the charge. Mr Tucci wants plea bargaining abolished and a new child homicide offence with a minimum term introduced.

The father of Jonathan Guiver, 3, who was beaten to death by Mark Mietto in 2001, said the penalty for his son's death did not fit the crime. Mietto received a minimum four-year jail term and was released this year. "A fair penalty? There probably isn't one," Mr Guiver said. "Ten years is what I thought he would have got but nothing could be right for what he's done. "A child is defenceless. A child needs the protection of the courts."

Barrister Peter Faris, QC, said a jury should decide between murder and manslaughter in child homicide cases. "You hear that a jury is the hallmark of democracy and it reflects the views of the man in the street . . . why wouldn't you leave the case to them?" Mr Faris said. He said a culture had developed where child-killing cases were put in their own category with their own rules. "It's the theory that these are usually horrific circumstances for everybody," Mr Faris said. "It's an overly sympathetic attitude for factors that can be reflected in the sentence for murder."

Office of Public Prosecutions spokesman Bruce Gardner said plea offers were always considered, but whether they were acted on depended on differing legal factors. The Arney case, like all others, was being considered for appeal.

Report here



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