February 4th 2007

Sensible Sentencing Trust Offers Advice On Parole

The Sensible Sentencing Trust has requested a Ministerial meeting to offer advice on preventing tragedies like the Graeme Burton parole fiasco.

Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said it was absolutely critical that systemic failures in the parole system were fixed, "disasters like the Karl Kuchenbecker tragedy must not be repeated".

"The Sensible Sentencing Trust has supported a number of families following similar parole disasters, we have been involved in suing the Crown in the William Bell / RSA tragedy, there would be no other organization in New Zealand that has the experience in this area that we have."

"Innocent members of the public must be protected, that is the first responsibility of any government, and we want to help prevent similar tragedies in the future."

Mr. McVicar said the Trust had offered the Government the services of its lawyers involved in the William Bell case to "help draft legislation to prevent the recurrence of parole disasters."

"These are very experienced lawyers with first-hand knowledge of how existing offender-friendly legislation is being manipulated by criminals to ensure they are granted parole yet again."

"These guys are professionals, Burton conned the Parole Board once, and under existing legislation he will do it again."

"Graeme Burton may have pleaded guilty to murder and 10 other charges with further to come, but the public need to be aware that Burton will spend no additional time in jail for all the other offences and is entitled to a discount on the murder sentence due to his guilty plea. and he will be eligible for parole again.

ENDS

© Scoop Media