Hague sympathy plea
Lawyer claims killer was vulnerable at the time
KARL Hague was “vulnerable” when he ambushed a defenceless, unarmed boy at a Geelong shopping centre and stabbed him to death with a knife, his lawyers say.
After being found guilty last week of Ricky Balcombe’s murder 23 years earlier, the killer returned to Melbourne Supreme Court yesterday to try and minimise his sentence at a plea hearing.
But prosecutors pushed for a “substantial” jail term, comparing his case with other child killers, who all got more than 20 years for stabbing murders.
Justice Lex Lasry heard heartbreaking testimony from Balcombe’s family at yesterday’s hearing, and will deliver Hague’s sentence on June 15.
Crown prosecutor Sally Flynn, QC, read victim impact statements from the family, and urged Justice Lasry to con- sider the fact Hague, then 21, caught his smaller, younger victim unaware in an attack that “shocked Geelong” and left “horrified onlookers traumatised”.
“(Balcombe) had all of his life ahead of him,” Ms Flynn said.
“(It was a) cowardly and vicious stabbing of an unarmed and defenceless boy.”
After airing intimate medical records of a number of key witnesses during the trial, Hague’s legal team carefully directed Justice Lasry to a psychologist’s report that showed their client was “someone who was vulnerable at the time and remains vulnerable now”.
“I am well aware that that may not be understood by the public, but . . . I do not propose to read out his private medical history,” Felicity Gerry, QC, said.
Later, outside court, Hague’s partner, Corynne Pyle, continued to protest his innocence, suggesting the prospect of an appeal remained on the cards.
However, Ms Gerry made her submissions on the basis her client was found guilty.
Despite that verdict, she said there was no evidence the man planned the murder or intended to kill the victim.
“What (was it) a spontaneous act . . . whilst in pos- session of a knife?” Justice Lasry said.
But Ms Flynn argued the murder was premeditated, noting Hague bashed Balcombe two weeks earlier, and came at Balcombe with a weapon.
The victim’s mother, Christine Loader, reminded the court about the guilty man’s lack of remorse.
“I thought Ricky’s murderer would be found quickly and punished for killing my child . . . surely his conscience would get the better of him and he would confess,” Mrs Loader said in her statement.
“(I kept asking) why should he (the killer) be able to enjoy all of the things Ricky missed out on? Why should he be able to get on with his life.”
While relieved to finally have answers, she said the eight-week trial was painful.
“To hear that my beautiful 16-year-old child was lying in the foetal position crying out in fear while he was being savagely beaten . . . broke my heart all over again,” she said.
“I have sat through witness after witness stating how frightened and defenceless he was.
“This will stay with me for the rest of my life.”