Offenders who refuse to provide information or assistance to locate their victim’s remains cannot be granted parole, under proposed ‘no body, no parole’ laws.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the government’s new bill would mean offenders must co-operate with investigators and disclose the location of remains for any chance of release on parole.
‘We will make it impossible for offenders who willfully and deliberately refuse to disclose information about their victim’s remains, to be granted parole,’ said Mr Perrottet.
‘Being unable to locate a loved one’s body is extremely distressing and traumatic for the families and friends of victims and it denies a victim the dignity of being laid to rest appropriately.
‘These laws are to stop inmates convicted of murder or homicide offences from getting parole unless they co-operate with police to end the torment of families and return to them the remains of their loved ones.’
Cooperation required
The proposed reform will mean the State Parole Authority (SPA) must not grant parole unless it concludes the offender has cooperated satisfactorily in identifying the victim’s location.
Under the reforms, the SPA must rely on written advice from the Commissioner of NSW Police Force and other relevant information to determine whether the offender has co-operated satisfactorily to identify a victim’s location.
Corrections Minister Geoff Lee said the reforms are modelled on laws in other jurisdictions and would apply to all current and future inmates in NSW to capture convicted offenders who have not yet been considered for parole.
‘Any offender in prison coming up for parole should really think hard about maintaining their refusal to cooperate with police if they want to retain their prospects of getting parole,’ said Dr Lee.
People are wrongly convicted of murder all the time. How can they show where the body is?
If you only need to help, couldn’t you just take the police out to some random piece of forest and say ‘I put it somewhere around here somewhere’. Would that count as helping?
This legislation makes no sense.
It is sad how stupid humanity has become.
This proposed legislation demonstrates it.
People need to consider what it must be like to be wrongly accused of murder, and remember what happened to Lindy Chamberlain as a pertinent example