Families welcome no body, parole law

THE sister of murdered Warwick grandmother Gail Lynch has welcomed the State Government’s No Body, No Parole new laws she hopes will bring long sought-after closure to her family.

The No Body, No Parole laws passed parliament yesterday in what Lyn McMillan said was long overdue in too many families’ fight to bury a loved one.

Ms McMillan’s sister was last seen in July, 2012, after she broke up with Ian Phillip Hannaford, a man she had met online.

Hannaford was found guilty of Ms Lynch’s murder in 2015, and earlier this year lost an appeal over the conviction.

Ms Lynch’s body has never been found and Hannaford has never revealed where she was – something Ms McMillan hopes will change with the new laws.

“Hopefully we will find out a hell of a lot more than we knew yesterday,” Ms McMillan said on the laws being passed.

“I’m hoping it will (compel him to speak up) but the thing is, it has been five years and he hasn’t said a word.

“I think he will wait until the very last minute to tell us, just because of how he has been with this bit of power that he has.”

State Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath said the laws were designed to compel offenders to co-operate with authorities.

The laws will be retrospective and apple to people convicted of murder, manslaughter, accessory after the fact to murder, accessory after the fact to manslaughter, conspiring to murder, unlawful striking causing death, and misconduct with a corpse.

Read the full story online at thechronicle.com.au.