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Morcombes back 'no body, no parole' plan

Bruce Morcombe says he hopes Queensland's major political parties can stop other families from having to wait years to bury murdered loved ones.

The father of slain Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morcombe has praised a new push to get murderers to reveal where their victims' bodies are, even if it means killers might get shorter sentences.

The Liberal National Party has promised to impose a "no body, no parole" policy if it defeats Labor at the next election.

Under the plan, convicted murderers won't be granted parole unless the parole board is convinced they have shared what they know about where their victims' remains lie.

But the Labor government has suggested it might be able to do even better for families waiting to bury their loved ones.

It's considering reforms that would put the incentive for murderers to talk at the time of sentencing, rather than at the end of minimum 20-year sentences when offenders are seeking release on parole.

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"The no body, no parole issue is one that is being considered by the Sofronoff parole review," a spokesman for Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath told AAP.

"The government is considering this issue in a broader context than just at the time of parole, and is looking at options from the time of sentencing."

Bruce Morcombe has welcomed movement on the issue.

He hopes "the next Morcombe family" won't have to endure the years-long wait he had to find and bury his 13-year-old son.

Mr Morcombe says the LNP's policy is common sense but Labor's approach also has merit because it could see bodies returned to families sooner.

The government has not said what incentives might be on the cards at the point of sentencing to get murderers to talk.

Mr Morcombe said the prospect of shorter sentences for people like Brett Peter Cowan, who murdered Daniel, would stick in the throat.

But he also said finding Daniel and holding a fitting funeral for him was always his top priority.

"The focus for me was always to find Daniel. What happens to the person that is responsible, I just let the system worry about that," he told AAP.

Daniel was abducted in 2003 from a Sunshine Coast bus stop and murdered.

Eight years later, Cowan was finally charged after an elaborate sting in which police posed as gangsters to trick him into confessing and revealing the location of Daniel's remains.

The Morcombes were eventually able to give their son a funeral after authorities found some of his remains in Beerwah bushland.

But Queensland widow Fiona Splitt is still waiting for a funeral that might never happen.

Her partner Bruce Schuler vanished in 2012 while prospecting on a remote Cape York cattle station.

Station owners Stephen Roy Struber and Dianne Rose Wilson-Struber have since been convicted of his murder but his body hasn't been found.

The LNP has credited a petition launched by Ms Splitt as a catalyst for its no body, no parole policy.


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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