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1 OCTOBER, 2024
Boyd Unwil has started a petition after his daughter Katie’s killer had his sentenced reduced because he was behind bars during covid. (Damjan Janevski) 433153_01
Sentence reduction shock By Laura Michell The father of a Diggers Rest woman who was murdered by her partner in March 2018 said he was “gutted” to learn her killer’s sentence has been reduced by 14 months. Katie Haley was killed by her partner, Shane Robertson, at their Diggers Rest home on March 9, 2018. In early 2019, a Supreme Court judge sentenced Robertson to 24 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 19 years. In May this year, Katie’s father, Boyd Unwin, was notified that Robertson had been granted 427 days off his sentence for time spent in prison during Victoria’s covid lockdowns. Emergency management days (EMDs) have been used since the 1990s to maintain security and order in prisons during extraordinary periods. Victorian prisoners were eligible for
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EMDs due to stringent isolation and other measures during the pandemic. The Gisborne resident said the email to the family contained no explanation as to why Corrections Victoria decided to reduce Robertson’s sentence by more than 400 days. Boyd said he had heard about emergency management days a couple of years ago, but his research suggested that violent and high-risk prisoners would not be eligible to apply for a sentence reduction, that prisoners’ non-parole periods would not be reduced, and that the average prisoner would receive a sentence reduction of 26.3 days. “Four hundred and twenty-seven days is a far way off that,” he said. “Four hundred and twenty-seven days is longer than Victoria was locked down. That just gutted us.” Boyd has since launched a Parliamentary petition calling for the emergency management
days legislation to be changed. The petition requests that the Legislative Council call on the state government to remove the eligibility for violent and high-risk prisoners to access emergency management days and ensure that any sentence reduction due to emergency management days cannot reduce the time served to less than the minimum non-parole sentence. Boyd needs to collect 2000 written signatures or 10,000 signatures on an e-petition within the next two weeks for the petition to be debated in state Parliament. He said he launched the petition because he “had to make noise” about the issue. “I couldn’t let this one stand without trying to do something, because it is totally wrong,” he said. “I don’t believe Corrections Victoria should have the power to take so much time off a sentence that a judge has handed down.” The e-petition has been signed by more than
3500 people so far, while Boyd estimates he has collected at least 1200 written signatures. He said community support for the petition has been strong – and the community outrage has been even greater. “People can’t believe this is a thing.” A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesperson said EMDs are no longer automatically considered due to covid restrictions on people in custody. “Our thoughts are with the Haley family as they continue to try and deal with the trauma of Katie’s death,” the spokesperson said. The petition can be found at Woodend Hardware, Romsey Auto Spares, in Gisborne at Gisborne Tyres, Connect Real Estate and Gisborne Smash Repairs, and in Sunbury at Shepards Complete Car Care and Fasto Barbering. It can also be signed online at: https://tinyurl.com/3b9ea5wa