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Speaker 2: It seems too often we're reading these headlines about another
Speaker 2: violent crime, another murder, and it is hard to keep up.
Speaker 2: But every now and again, there's a crime that happens
Speaker 2: that just grabs your attention, makes you wondering if we're
Speaker 2: heading in the right direction when it comes to addressing
Speaker 2: violent crime in New Zealand. For me, that crime was
Speaker 2: the murder or should I say, the alleged murder of
Speaker 2: American entomology student Kyle Warrel. And thinking about it, you know,
Speaker 2: we often hear about crimes where we think and well,
Speaker 2: hopefully it's gang on gang or a drug deal gone wrong,
Speaker 2: and it feels a degree removed. But that illusion of security,
Speaker 2: I don't know if we have it so much with
Speaker 2: the news that a sixteen year old is now being
Speaker 2: charged with the aggravated robbery and murder of Kyle Warrel,
Speaker 2: and I found myself increasingly of the view that our
Speaker 2: justice system simply isn't delivering sentences that act as any
Speaker 2: sort of deterrent. Of course, you've got to have a progress,
Speaker 2: a process, should we say and we shouldn't get ahead
Speaker 2: of ourselves with assuming guilt. But if someone has found accountable,
Speaker 2: what real chance do you think there's going to be
Speaker 2: a sentence that is any sort of deterrent in a
Speaker 2: society that's becoming more brazen and more violent. Because what
Speaker 2: happens is what will happen, is the focus shifts to
Speaker 2: the accused until all the terrible reasons they've ended up
Speaker 2: where they are, and the discounts start rolling in. We've
Speaker 2: got age, remorse, the troubled upbringing, maybe even a guilty plea,
Speaker 2: and well they're soap called prospects for rehabilitation. Before you
Speaker 2: know it, the sentence is chipped away discount after discount,
Speaker 2: and they're unholded home detention after barely a couple of
Speaker 2: years inside. Meanwhile, for the victim, there's no second chance.
Speaker 2: He's dead. There's no chance to make a submission to
Speaker 2: the court to try and mitigate the outcome. He's dead.
Speaker 2: He can't make a plea that his life was only
Speaker 2: just getting underway because he's dead. And I'm sorry that
Speaker 2: does sound jarring, doesn't it, But maybe it should because
Speaker 2: we like to dress up tragedies and like this in
Speaker 2: euphemisms and euphemism so we can soften the blow, but
Speaker 2: there's no cushioningness. Kyle Warrell has died and is dead,
Speaker 2: and he shouldn't be and I'm sorry, But when it
Speaker 2: comes to our justice system, in my view, it's doing
Speaker 2: bugger all to send any message that violent crime isn't tolerated.
Speaker 2: Just ask any police officer who spent time dealing with
Speaker 2: this stuff. So yes, I'm all for harder sentences, sentences
Speaker 2: with consequences that send that unequivocal message around violent crime
Speaker 2: because the murder victim gets no say in how things
Speaker 2: play out, no play mitigation. So when it comes to
Speaker 2: the perporotrada of this crime, I'm not interested in their tears.
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in their regrets. I'm interested in seeing
Speaker 2: a sentence that actually acknowledges what's happened and maybe sends
Speaker 2: a message that this stuff is not okay when someone's
Speaker 2: life cut is cut so brutally and tragically.
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