Sentences shake- up for killers of children

CHILD killers will spend more time behind bars under a sentencing shake- up designed to reflect the “defencelessness and vulnerability” of victims.

But the parents of slain North Queensland toddler Hemi Goodwin- Burke said the recommendations of the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council’s final report into child homicide sentencing didn’t go far enough.

The council’s report, released yesterday after a yearlong investigation ordered by Attorney- General Yvette D’Ath, recommended eight changes to the way courts deal with child homicide offenders, including making the killing of a child under 12 an aggravating feature of manslaughter.

Hemi’s father Shane Burke said he was “disappointed” in the findings.

“They think [ implementing an aggravating feature] might push [ sentences] upwards but the report states that they don’t actually know if it will,” he said.

“Most of the recommendations are about information sharing and that is something that definitely needed changing.”

The nearly 300- page report found sentences handed down for child manslaughter “do not adequately reflect the defencelessness and vulnerability of child victims”.

“While many in the community view offences against children … as being of the highest level of seriousness, this is not reflected in higher sentences being imposed,” the report stated.