Child murderers should never be let out of jail
TRENT Thorburn, when 18 years old, had sex with his stepsister Tiahleigh Palmer. Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12. To cover for his son’s crime, Trent’s father Rick Thorburn murdered Tiahleigh and dumped her body by the banks of the Pimpama River, “left like the carcass of an animal,” as one judge remarked.
There her body lay, decomposing beyond recognition, until sighted by two fisherman six days later.
For almost a year Trent Thorburn denied any knowledge of Tiahleigh’s death, or of having had sex with her. He lied to the community and under oath.
Trent Thorburn was charged with incest, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He pleaded guilty to the charges.
The maximum penalty for incest under Queensland law is life imprisonment.
Trent Thorburn received a four-year sentence.
He was released on parole, on January 19, after serving just 16 months behind bars. Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12. Julene Thorburn, 55, wife of Rick and mother of Trent, played an instrumental role in hiding the crimes of both.
She knew her husband had murdered Tiahleigh. She watched from her kitchen window as he reversed his car into their garage, knowing he was loading her body into the boot. She took custody of his mobile phone while he set off on his twisted mission, with instructions to reply to his messages so his movements would not be traced.
When police bugged the Thorburn house, Julene Thorburn was heard ordering her sons to lie to police and the Crime and Corruption Commission.
She did so, said prosecutors, to protect her “family and lifestyle”.
Julene Thorburn pleaded guilty to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The maximum penalty for perjury under Queensland law is life imprisonment. The maximum penalty for attempting to pervert the course of justice is seven years imprisonment.
Julene Thorburn was sentenced to 18 months custody, suspended after just six months behind bars. Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12. Tiahleigh had another foster brother, Joshua Thorburn, 22, who knew about her murder, but also lied to protect his father and his brother.
Like his mother, Joshua Thorburn pleaded guilty to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The maximum penalty for perjury under Queensland law is life imprisonment. The maximum penalty for attempting to pervert the course of justice is seven years imprisonment.
Joshua Thorburn was sentenced to 15 months jail, suspended after a mere three months behind bars. Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12. Rick Thorburn, 57, murdered Tiahleigh Palmer, who had been placed in his care.
He was supposed to provide a good home for Tiahleigh. Instead he disposed of her as if she were mere garbage, a fragile, beautiful young girl needing love and protection, murdered and tossed aside to rot in the fly-ridden heat.
He lied to police. He carried her coffin at her funeral. He pretended to care.
Rick Thorburn pleaded guilty to murder, interfering with a corpse, attempting to pervert the course of justice and two counts of perjury.
Last week he was given the mandatory sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20 years. He will be eligible to apply for parole in 2036.
Queensland law states that the minimum no parole period for the murder of a police officer is 25 years, and 30 years for the murder of more than one person.
There is no such additional penalty for the murder of a child.
Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12. Tiahleigh will never get to live out her life. Conspirators in the cover-up of her murder, Trent, Julene and Joshua Thorburn, are already free to continue theirs.
Their evil father Rick Thorburn has hope he will one day join them.
This is how we punish the taking of a young life.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston was among those to express outrage, calling for child murderers like Rick Thorburn to be jailed indefinitely.
“I’m really quite upset that parole could ever be a possibility for this man,” she said. “There is no way a man who could knowingly, coldblooded, calculatingly kill a little girl and leave a body to rot on the river bank should ever, ever be able to re-enter society.
“It’s incomprehensible. Anyone who kills an innocent child should never have any expectation they should see the outside of a jail ever again. We need to fix it so it’s really clear.” She is 100 per cent correct. There is a special place in hell for child killers, but not in our judicial system. This should change.
The law already quite rightly demands greater punishment for those guilty of murdering police officers. It should be even harsher on those who murder children. They should never be let out.
Those who protect such killers, such as Trent, Julene and Joshua Thorburn, should be dealt with far more harshly too.
It is hard to fathom why all three escaped with such minor jail terms, why someone guilty of Trent Thorburn’s crimes is sentenced to little more than a gap year away from home when the statute books would allow for life.
Mandatory sentencing appears the only solution.
Knowingly aiding and abetting a child killer to escape punishment should itself be treated as a serious crime. A special category of offence, because our children require a special level of protection. And it should carry a mandatory sentence, of 10 years or more.
The State Government is aware of the anger surrounding these issues. The murder of Tiahleigh Palmer is far from the first where the length of sentences has been a source of outrage. Even Brett Peter Cowan, the twisted killer of Daniel Morcombe, was given the possibility of parole after 20 years.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath told this column: “We are all heartbroken when we hear about the death of a child, let alone the murder of a child. We want to be sure that the community’s expectations are being met in the justice system.
“That’s why the AttorneyGeneral referred the issue of child homicide sentencing to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (QSAC) last year.”
QSAC is taking public submissions on its website until July 31, and must report to the Attorney-General by the end of October.
We should all take the time to send a strong message to QSAC urging them to examine how the Thorburn clan could escape more serious punishment and demanding major change to our legal system.
It’s the least we can do to atone. Society as a whole has a duty to protect vulnerable young children like Tiahleigh Palmer. We failed in that duty. Rick Thorburn was a man with a long criminal history who should never been a foster carer.
And now, courtesy of our legal system, Tiahleigh has been let down in death, as she was in life.
Tiahleigh Palmer deserved far better. Tiahleigh Palmer was just 12.