Adrian Bayley's crimes 'sickening', says Victoria's police minister
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Version 0 of 1. Victoria’s police minister says he has been “sickened” by the crimes of Adrian Bayley, who raped and murdered Jill Meagher in 2012 and has now been convicted of raping three other women before her murder. Bayley’s rape convictions now stand at 10; he has also been found guilty of two counts of attempted rape. At the time he was charged with Meagher’s murder, questions were asked about why Victoria’s parole board had allowed him back into the community given he was a serial abuser of women. On Thursday the police minister, Wade Noonan, said he was confident Victoria now had the toughest parole system in Australia, particularly for serious and repeat offenders. The previous Coalition government introduced a raft of reforms after Meagher’s rape and murder following revelations that Bayley was released from prison on parole in 2010 yet remained free after he was convicted of assault two years later. The murder two months after Meagher of Sarah Cafferkey, whose killer had murdered before and had just finished serving parole, also prompted a review of the parole system and extensive reforms, which have been introduced on a staggered basis over the past two years. “Parole is not a right, it’s a privilege, and indeed through his actions, Adrian Bayley has ensured that getting parole is in fact very difficult, as evidence by the fact that more than 800 people who applied for parole last year did not get it, and 700 more had their parole cancelled,” Noonan said. “But all of those reforms don’t bring people back to life, sadly, but they do limit risk – though you can never eliminate risk completely. “This is a very difficult day. The crimes of Adrian Bayley are absolutely horrendous and shocking and, quite frankly, they sicken me, absolutely sicken me. I can’t imagine how his victims are feeling today, or how his victims’ families are feeling.” Under the previous government, supervision of offenders on parole was strengthened and the budget of the parole board was doubled – measures that had received bipartisan support, Noonan said. He would not answer questions about whether the parole board officers who made the decision to release Bayley, and who failed to revoke his parole after he committed a further crime, were still serving. “What I will say there has been an increase in the number of board members, I can say that its budget has been doubled, and it has significantly increased administrative support,” he said. He said the IT system used by police to keep records of offenders and their charges was being overhauled, saying the previous, largely paper-based system had been “archaic”. “It is being overhauled to create a modern IT system,” Noonan said. One of his priorities as police minister would be to examine rehabilitation programs within prisons to judge whether they were effective. “We’ve got an enormous problem in terms of our prison system,” he said “They are running at very high levels of occupancy that does place pressure in terms of the passage to appropriately rehab offenders, but it is a key priority of this government to make sure rehabilitation is effective and are measured.” Liana Buchanan, the executive director of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, said a clampdown on parole did not guarantee community safety. “We are now seeing more offenders released without supervision or requirement to attend programs, and we are seeing some go on to reoffend as a result,” she said. “The various parole reviews have been clear: what is really needed to improve safety of parole is better information sharing between agencies and investment in more sophisticated assessment and supervision of parolees.” Bayley will be sentenced for his latest convictions at a later date. |