Seven Years May Give Bailey Kurariki a Chance

Bailey Junior Kurariki's lawyer will do the boy a disservice if he appeals the sentence, ACT Justice Spokesman Stephen Franks said today.

"Seven years in a secure facility will provide the structure and routine sorely lacking in his young life. It will provide an opportunity for him to be educated. With an education, self discipline, structure and routine, perhaps there is a chance that Bailey will be rehabilitated, and then be able to be successfully reintegrate back into society at the age of twenty.

"Kurariki's lawyer would also be doing the rest of us a favour too by not wasting any more of the taxpayer's money - the trial has already cost $3 million.

"There has been endless talk about how Bailey Junior Kurariki has been out of control, and has not attended school for the last three years. People are questioning the role of the CYF, his parents and others involved. If Bailey couldn't be controlled before, how will he be controlled if he is released 18 months time?

"A headline that says a person who has participated in a murder could be out 18 months after sentencing simply confirms for all those vicious young thugs who get a kick out of being staunch that the price they will pay is pitiful.

"Those who care about Bailey should give him a real chance. They should be urging him to serve his seven years. He should be feeling enough remorse to see seven years' care as getting off lightly. If he doesn't, what prospect is there of enough remorse to risk letting him out?," Stephen Franks said.

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