August 6, 2014
The State Government has ramped up penalties for animal torturers and sex offenders as part of a raft of changes approved today.
Legislation passed in Parliament has also removed double jeopardy rules which will now mean people charged – but not convicted – of serious offences could be hauled back into court if new and compelling evidence emerges.
The changes will also allow online guilty pleas for minor offences which currently already allow written pleas of guilty.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Jarrod Bleijie said the changes would “rebalance the scales of justice in several ways”.
“Many of the reforms are ground-breaking, putting Queensland ahead of the rest of Australia when it comes to tackling the criminal elements in our community and ensuring swift, efficient access to justice.”
The changes include:
- A new offence of serious animal cruelty, with a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
- Applying amendments to Queensland’s double jeopardy rules retrospectively, leading to retrials if “new and compelling evidence” emerges.
- Mandatory one year imprisonment (maximum five years) for a sex offender who removes his or her GPS monitoring bracelet.
- Amending the offence of stealing by looting to ensure the penalty applies to an offender who steals property from a declared area under the Disaster Management Act 2003, including when the theft occurs immediately after the declaration ends to ensure victims are appropriately protected until they return to their property.
- Increasing the maximum penalty for procuring a child or a person with a mental impairment for prostitution from 14 years to 20 years.
- Allowing the court to list a predator convicted of child grooming as a Dangerous Offender, even if he or she was caught by a police officer pretending to be a child.
- Creating six new match-fixing offences with maximum penalties of 10 years imprisonment, in line with other Australia jurisdictions.
- Allowing online pleas of guilty for minor offences which currently already allow written pleas of guilty.
- Establishing a presumption that expert witnesses will give evidence via video link, instead of in person in court, unless otherwise ordered by the court.
