ALL IN THE FAMILY

I must be going crazy. Which will probably confirm what some of you already suspect. But I am bewildered, yet again, by what happens in our courts and decisions of some of our judges. And I’m not talking about my own legal problems. Read this and see if you can figure it out.

A mother of eight and three of her daughters have been charged with drug trafficking. Police allege that 39-year-old Leanne Elizabeth Walker and her daughters trafficked ecstasy and amphetamines in western Victoria. Two of their boyfriends were also allegedly runners.

Police claim that members of the family gang made more than twenty trips from Warrnambool to Melbourne and Ballarat to meet drug runners between April and September.

They were charged after a covert Police operation. Walker, the alleged boos of the drug ring and one daughter Jaimee Lee Hurle were in jail awaiting trial. They were refused bail in the Warrnambool Magistrate’s  Court. Went to the Supreme Court and yesterday Justice Robert Osborn released them on bail. Why? So they could look after their kids.

Walker has been living in prison with a six week old baby and wanted bail to look after two other toddlers. Her daughter Jaimee has an 18-month-old child.

Now, a person is innocent until proven guilty. And that’s the way they should be treated. But the decisions on bail should be based on the nature of the crime not the circumstances of the accused. An alleged murderer should not be let out on bail because of his age or his health. Nor a bank robber because he has a heart condition.

A mother should not be bailed just because she has a tribe to look after at home.

Leanne Walker faces serious charges. If the Police are right she corrupted three of her older daughters into lives of crime. Is she a fit and proper person to look after those younger children anyway?

It is true that because of drug testing delays their trial may not start for some time and justice delayed is justice denied. But when these women applied for bail for the sake of their children did they even pause for a second to think about other people’s kids whose lives are ruined by drug traffickers’ greed.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008