NO RELEASE FROM PAIN

A CASE in north Queensland goes a long way in demonstrating why “no body, no parole’’ legislation has been introduced into Parliament.

The Gold Coast has at least one particular high-profile case involving a missing body, but since matters are before the courts the circumstances cannot be canvassed here.

However a Townsville case is fair game since there has been a conviction. Family pleas and a judge’s condemnation of the killer support the case for ensuring offenders found guilty are not granted parole unless they reveal where they have hidden the body.

In the Townsville case, a man was found guilty in March of the manslaughter of his wife and jailed for over 15 years. Under the new legislation, he would serve the full sentence without hope of early release if he failed to say where the woman’s body was.

The sentencing judge was highly critical of the man’s lack of co-operation with police and lack of compassion for family members, who told how they had been deprived of closure, had no body to bury, did not know how she died and had no grave to visit.

The judge was particularly scathing of the husband’s “smug silence’’, which had caused so much family sorrow.

There is also the McCulkin case to consider, in which two killers have been jailed for the cold-case murder of a mother and two daughters. The bodies have never been found.

This is a difficult issue. There are strong points for and against, and we understand the argument that an innocent person wrongly convicted cannot possibly reveal where a body lies.

But the Gold Coast has known too much heartache caused by violent crimes and the Bulletin feels enormous empathy for families who spend decades grieving yet never knowing what became of a loved one while culprits, if they stay out of trouble in jail, can look forward to early release.

It has been said before that parole is a privilege, not a right. That is what this legislation is about.

There is no early release from pain for victims’ families. They should not be left to suffer the added, enduring agony of never knowing where a loved one lies, and victims deserve the dignity of being mourned with a proper farewell.