Search for body scaled back
THE Queensland Law Society is in favour of parole reforms proposed by the State Government but has concerns about how the “no body no parole” recommendation is delivered.
Queensland Law Society president Christine Smyth ( pictured) said the proposed policy could be unfair on convicted people who maintain their innocence.
“If this particular legislation was in place, Lindy Chamberlain, whose baby was never found, would have been affected by that,” she said.
Ms Smyth said the proposal could also be problematic in cases where bodies had decomposed.
“The decomposition rate of a body varies significantly according to the topography, the weather and according to the moisture,” she said.
Ms Smyth was in Townsville this week speaking to local lawyers and at the valedictory service for retiring Judge John Baulch.
Ms Smyth, who took over the presidency from Bill Potts at the start of the year, told the Bulletin that Townsville’s economic downturn was affecting solicitors and clients alike.
“The difficulties you’re facing in Townsville with the high unemployment mean that people’s inability to afford proper legal services is quite significant,” she said.
Ms Smyth said the newly established High Risk Youth Court was a step in the right direction to solving Townsville’s youth crime problem.
“Youth offend for multiple and complex reasons – they come from families who are affected by unemployment, intergenerational violence, substance and alcohol abuse, mental health issues,” she said. THE search for a body in the Ross River yesterday has been called off.
The alarm was raised by a jogger who told police she spotted a body in the river near River Blvd in Idalia about 6.50am.
A frantic search of the river started with police scouring the river on foot, motorcycles, a boat on the river and the Queensland Government Air Rescue helicopter in the air.
After hours of searching and waiting for the tide to go out, police called off the search about 4pm and have called for witnesses to come forward with information.
Police spent the day searching for people who had been reported missing on Wednesday and managed to find those people safe and well by late yesterday.
Inspector Graeme Paterson said the jogger was sure she had spotted what she believed to be a body in the river.
“( The jogger) just believes that they saw the object floating to be a human body,” Insp Paterson said. “They don’t believe that they were confused by what they saw so as a result of that we’re taking the report seriously and doing as thorough search as we can.”
Acting Chief Superintendent Kev Guteridge said police would always act on these kinds of reports and do their utmost to find out what the circumstances were.
“We are very grateful for the information provided to us, despite not finding anything,” Supt Guteridge said.
“We would ask that if people do spot something, they call as soon as they can, time is always of the essence during these searches.
“While the search has been scaled back, we are asking anyone with any information about this incident to contact police and we will act on the information immediately.” Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 if you have information on the incident.