City needs closure

THERE are events that change a community for good and for bad.

Great sporting victories by the home team, on one side of the ledger.

And terrible crimes on the other.

The murder of Ricky Balcombe fell into such a category.

The daytime stabbing of a skinny kid in the mall, and the decades of not bringing a killer to justice, cast a pall.

More intensely, it affected a generation of Geelong kids — then teens now 40-somethings — whose social lives revolved around Market Square and the mall.

The conviction this year of Karl Hague provided some level of closure for many, not least the Balcombe parents, siblings and extended family.

But it also provided a balm to this historical wound on Geelong more broadly.

It showed a killer could be brought to justice even if it took a long time.

It showed clever and patient vocational work by police and lawyers could bring about a just result.

And it reassured our community that a perpetrator could not with reckless impunity just erase a young man from existence and remove him from his family and loved ones with no consequences.

Karl Hague, serving a minimum of 20 years in jail, has through his lawyers expressed an intention to appeal his conviction and sentence.

In a civil society we are all afforded the protection of the law and fair procedure.

And the courts will rightly determine whether such an appeal be allowed and be successful.

But separate to that, it is important that such proceedings do not drag on interminably.

There is a saying: Justice delayed is justice denied.

Now that a jury has determined the guilt of Ricky’s killer few would have a desire to go through the process of a trial all over again.

The Balcombe family and Geelong need to be able to draw a line under this horrible crime.