The Queensland attorney-general will appeal the 20-year non-parole sentence handed down to Daniel Morcombe’s killer, Brett Peter Cowan, last week.
Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Queensland Supreme Court last Wednesday after he was found guilty of abducting and murdering the 13-year-old schoolboy in December 2003.
The attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie said yesterday that the 20-year none parole period was manifestly inadequate and not in line with community expectations. Nor did it serve as a deterrent to potential offenders, he said.
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He said he decided to appeal following talks with both the Queensland Department of Public Prosecutions and with the Morcombe family.
Mal Brough, the Federal member for the Sunshine Coast, told Federal parliament this morning that offenders such as Cowan should never be released from custody.
He said that Cowan who never have killed Daniel if he’d been held in jail on previous child molestation charges.
“I’m saying to the judiciary today this is not meeting public expectations,” he said.
“Daniel Morcombe died because the judiciary failed him when a man like this did what he did … when you hurt a child in this way you forfeit your right to be free for the rest of your life.”
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