State will fight for harsher sentences in two cases
Tough new youth crime laws would have meant harsher sentences in two cases the state is seeking to appeal.
The premier says that two sentences would have been harsher under a governmentâs centrepiece youth crime laws as the state seeks to appeal the court decisions.
Queenslandâs Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has lodged notices of appeal on two cases including the sentence of a juvenile who crashed a stolen car, killing three people and seriously injuring another in Maryborough in 2023.
The other case is that of Brock Andrew McDonald with the alleged assault and deprivation of liberty of a young woman in October 2023.
Frecklington described the sentences as âmanifestly inadequateâ and in her view, did not meet community standards.
âI consider both sentences handed down to be manifestly inadequate,â the attorney-general said in a statement on Monday.
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The decision to appeal both sentences was backed in by Premier David Crisafulli who said Frecklington ânailedâ the description of the lenient sentences.
âI think that sheâs nailed it. Thatâs exactly what it is,â he told Nine Networkâs Today Show on Tuesday.
However, he said the sentences would have been harsher under the Liberal National governmentâs centrepiece youth crime laws that were urgently passed before Christmas.
The laws mean youth offenders as young as 10 will be sentenced as adults on a range of serious crimes including a mandatory life term for murder and manslaughter.
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âNow, bear in mind, these people were tried under the former laws,â the premier said.
âWe have put in place the strongest youth crime laws in the nation, and weâre serious about that.â
The first sentence to be appealed relates to the deaths of nurse Sheree Robertson, 52, Kelsie Davies, 17 and pastor Michale Chandler, 29, after a 13-year-old in a stolen car crashed into their vehicles in 2023 on Queenslandâs Fraser Coast.
A fourth woman, 23-year-old Kaylah Behrens, was critically injured.
The youth, with other juveniles, stole a Mercedes-Benz from a Maryborough home on April 30, 2023 and drove at speeds between 180 and 200km/h.
The child is likely to be released in just over two years after being sentenced to six yearsâ detention in December.
In the second case, McDonald is alleged to have put a rope around a young womanâs neck before dragging her into a car in the early hours of the morning.
McDonald had pleaded guilty to charges of deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on parole in December, with 413 days as time served.
Crisafulli said the government would fight to have the two sentences appealed as neither reflected what community members wanted to see.
âWe owe it to those families and to every Queenslander to put up a fight,â he said.
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