Latest news with #CorrectiveServicesNSW
The Age
05-05-2025
- The Age
Cruel loophole targeted after outrage of cop bashed and left for dead
The statement said the decision was made after several months of consultations between Corrective Services NSW – which oversees the registries – and victim-survivors, victim advocates and victim support services. Last October, this masthead revealed that former police officer Samantha Barlow felt betrayed by the legal loophole, which meant she only discovered her violent attacker was earmarked for parole through a call from a friend. Drug addict Roderick Holohan was on parole for the second time after two attacks on women when he bashed off-duty Barlow with a brick in May 2009. Barlow miraculously survived, but it left her and husband Laurence unable to carry on as police officers. They have spent the past 15 years rebuilding their lives in regional NSW. They were furious to learn, through a friend, that Holohan had a parole hearing almost a year earlier and, had he been released then, they may have crossed paths without them even knowing he was out. Barlow said she was not approached by the victims' registry and effectively fell through the cracks. 'There are no words that can accurately describe the sense of betrayal that comes from something like this,' Barlow said at the time as she described having just days to compile a statement pleading for Holohan not to be released. She urged the NSW government to ensure victims of offences punishable by a sentence of five years' jail or more are automatically added to the register and remain unless they opt out. Following the Herald's report, Chanthivong said he found that victims of crimes were discovering the opt-in register only in limited circumstances. The minister's office discovered that no single agency involved – NSW Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, or Corrections – was compelled to notify victims about the scheme. Responding to the reforms, Chanthivong said they were 'about ensuring that victims of serious crimes know about the victims registers and have a clear opportunity to sign up and benefit from being registered'. 'We have listened to the voices of victims, and we are responding to their call to improve the system, whilst balancing the critical need to avoid re-traumatising those victims who do not wish to be re-exposed to the heinous crimes of their offenders'. Daley said the changes were 'important to help victim survivors engage in the legal process in a way that is empowering and promotes recovery'. The three NSW victims registers include the Corrective Services NSW Victims Register, the Youth Justice Victims Register and the Specialist Victims Register for victims of forensic patients. In November, Holohan was quietly released out the back gate of a Sydney prison after the NSW government abandoned a plan to challenge his parole. The State of NSW and the commissioner of Corrective Services had opposed Holohan's release, while Barlow warned that the state would become more dangerous for women with him walking the streets. The State Parole Authority (SPA) said no parole was risk-free, but it was safer to supervise Holohan outside prison than to release him unsupervised at the end of his sentence.
Sydney Morning Herald
05-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cruel loophole targeted after outrage of cop bashed and left for dead
The statement said the decision was made after several months of consultations between Corrective Services NSW – which oversees the registries – and victim-survivors, victim advocates and victim support services. Last October, this masthead revealed that former police officer Samantha Barlow felt betrayed by the legal loophole, which meant she only discovered her violent attacker was earmarked for parole through a call from a friend. Drug addict Roderick Holohan was on parole for the second time after two attacks on women when he bashed off-duty Barlow with a brick in May 2009. Barlow miraculously survived, but it left her and husband Laurence unable to carry on as police officers. They have spent the past 15 years rebuilding their lives in regional NSW. They were furious to learn, through a friend, that Holohan had a parole hearing almost a year earlier and, had he been released then, they may have crossed paths without them even knowing he was out. Barlow said she was not approached by the victims' registry and effectively fell through the cracks. 'There are no words that can accurately describe the sense of betrayal that comes from something like this,' Barlow said at the time as she described having just days to compile a statement pleading for Holohan not to be released. She urged the NSW government to ensure victims of offences punishable by a sentence of five years' jail or more are automatically added to the register and remain unless they opt out. Following the Herald's report, Chanthivong said he found that victims of crimes were discovering the opt-in register only in limited circumstances. The minister's office discovered that no single agency involved – NSW Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, or Corrections – was compelled to notify victims about the scheme. Responding to the reforms, Chanthivong said they were 'about ensuring that victims of serious crimes know about the victims registers and have a clear opportunity to sign up and benefit from being registered'. 'We have listened to the voices of victims, and we are responding to their call to improve the system, whilst balancing the critical need to avoid re-traumatising those victims who do not wish to be re-exposed to the heinous crimes of their offenders'. Daley said the changes were 'important to help victim survivors engage in the legal process in a way that is empowering and promotes recovery'. The three NSW victims registers include the Corrective Services NSW Victims Register, the Youth Justice Victims Register and the Specialist Victims Register for victims of forensic patients. In November, Holohan was quietly released out the back gate of a Sydney prison after the NSW government abandoned a plan to challenge his parole. The State of NSW and the commissioner of Corrective Services had opposed Holohan's release, while Barlow warned that the state would become more dangerous for women with him walking the streets. The State Parole Authority (SPA) said no parole was risk-free, but it was safer to supervise Holohan outside prison than to release him unsupervised at the end of his sentence.
News.com.au
28-04-2025
- News.com.au
‘Not right': Audrey Griffin's mum describes moment best friend found her body
The mother of Audrey Griffin, who was murdered as she walked home from a night out with friends on the NSW Central Coast, has described the moment her daughter's best friend found her body. Kathleen Kirby told A Current Affair on Monday night that she knew something was terribly wrong when she checked her daughter's location. 'I'd woken up and I looked at the phone and I saw the location, and straight away I was alarmed,' she said. Unable to reach Audrey, Kathleen phoned her daughter's friends who went to the location along Erina Creek, just metres from the main road, where they came across Audrey's bag and phone before finding her body partially submerged in the creek. 'It's not right for a young girl to have to find her best friend in the water,' Kathleen said. Audrey had left her friends at Hotel Gosford in the early hours of March 23, telling them she was going to get an Uber or a cab back to her dad's house. She was unable to book an Uber, and her mum believes 19-year-old Audrey had chosen that route home in the hope of finding a cab to hail along the way, as there's a shorter route that passes through the centre of Gosford that she could have taken instead. While walking, Audrey sent two Snapchat messages to her friends, these later helped police to track some of her movements. Following an autopsy, police were quick to rule the teen's death an accidental drowning - a finding that never sat well with her mother. 'She was a swimmer, she's an ocean swimmer, she was strong,' she told ACA. 'My gut was telling me one thing, and it was not to give up. I couldn't just go with she drowned. Not one person has walked up to me and said she drowned… No one believed it.' Then, last week came the sensational announcement that a man had been arrested and charged with her murder. The man, 53-year-old Adrian Torrens, died in custody three days later. Torrens was found unresponsive in a cell at Silverwater Correctional Complex in Western Sydney at about 4.50pm last Thursday after taking his own life. He was unable to be revived by Corrective Services staff and paramedics. In a statement following news of Torrens' suicide, a spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW said the Torrens' death will be reported to the NSW coroner and will be subject to a public inquest. 'Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances,,' the statement read. 'Corrective Services NSW extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Audrey Griffin at this distressing time.' Audrey's mother Kathleen want to see leaders do more to prevent violence against women in Australia, saying on A Current Affair, 'Get on board, do something, make a change. She [Audrey] wasn't a number. She's not another person that just gets brushed under the carpet.'
SBS Australia
26-04-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Who gets to vote? The push to include incarcerated Australians
On the third of May, millions of Australians across the country will be flocking to their local polling booths. Voters will queue outside public schools, town halls and other local buildings, welcomed by the smell of grilled onions on 'democracy sausages" as they shuffle in. These typical elements of election day for so many, are far removed from the reality of voting in prison. Former prisoners have described the barriers to voting in jail to SBS News. They say the system does not appear to encourage voting and inmates are given little information on which to base their decision. New South Wales resident, Damien Linnane, says he tried to vote when he was in custody for 10 months in 2016, but he couldn't. Linnane tells SBS that in the lead up to election day, he was told about the process to enrol during a daily headcount, and he filled out a form in a correctional officer's office. 'So, I just kind of waited because I'd never tried to vote in prison before. 'And it occurred to me about three days before the election, I'm like, hey, they haven't told me how I'm going to vote. 'And so I went back to the guard's office and I said, do you know what's happening about voting? And the guards are like, well, we have no idea.' Despite his attempts to follow-up on the issue, he says there was no further support. In further correspondence with SBS News, Linnane wrote: 'Nothing happened on election day. I was not called up to vote, nor was anyone else [that I saw] …It was as if there was no election.' 'When he enquired about why he wasn't assisted to vote, he says the prison staff told him there was "a logistical issue". He says he approached the New South Wales Ombudsman when a representative was at the prison for a routine visit, but he never received a response. The Ombudsman told SBS News it does not comment on individual complaints, while a Corrective Services NSW spokesperson said correctional centres in the state offer postal voting only. So, how does voting in prison work? The Commonwealth Electoral Act states that a person serving a sentence of three years, or more is not entitled to vote. States and territories also have separate rules for voting in state and local elections. The method by which prisoners vote can also vary between jurisdictions. This is because prisons are often run by state and territory bodies, which leads to different voting experiences. For example, New South Wales prisons lodge postal votes, but Victorian prisons are marked as early voting locations. And although the Australian Electoral Commission oversees voting in federal elections, it must ask the prison's permission to run a mobile polling booth. AEC national spokesperson, Evan Ekin-Smyth explained the process. 'We work very closely with the different facilities to make sure that they can have us, and that is the first port of call. 'We can't go somewhere where we're not wanted or granted access, but we work in with the Department of Corrections to get mobile voting teams going into prisons and taking votes from prisons where we can't get a mobile voting team into prisons. 'We then work in with the Department of Corrections to facilitate postal voting. 'There's a number of prisons who are what we call a general postal voter, which means they're signed up to be a postal voter automatically for when an election comes around.' The AEC reported 274 of the 40,591 people in prison in 2022, voted in that year's Federal Election The AEC says the number was low due to COVID-19 restrictions, and it doesn't have data for prior elections. "The AEC was restricted in all mobile polling activities, meaning we weren't delivering hospital voting and only doing minimal prison and aged care voting etc' The AEC could not provide the number of current inmates who are eligible to vote in the May election. They said no data on prior federal elections is available either. "However, systems have been upgraded to ensure this data will be available for all federal elections (and referenda) from 2022 onwards. The upgrades reflect our commitment to improving and providing accurate information." In Australia, there are moves to expand prison voting eligibility – with the Tasmanian State Government considering a recommendation to give all prisoners the right to vote in state elections. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service (TALS) has called for this recommendation to go further. The Service' Chief executive, Jake Smith, also wants to start conversations on a national level. "With the federal election just weeks away, it is crucial that we consider who is being excluded from democratic participation?' Smith also says these laws disproportionately impact First Nations people - who represented 36% of all prisoners in 2024 – despite being only 3.8% of the population. In 2007, the Human Rights Law Centre assisted in successful legal action by Aunty Vickie Roach, an Aboriginal inmate at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victoria. Her team successfully challenged government legislation that applied a blanket ban on sentenced prisoners being able to vote – which the High Court found unconstitutional. Senior lawyer, David Mejia-Canales, says the Centre is working on expanding the eligibility criteria of inmates to vote. 'The Howard government actually moved to ban people who were imprisoned from voting full stop. And we thought that that was not only just manifestly unfair, that's not how democracy works. People do not stop being citizens just because they are imprisoned. 'We've been working with folks around the country to make sure that all imprisoned people, regardless of where they live, whether they're voting in a state or a federal election or a referendum can vote without restriction. 'That is the case in Canberra and also in South Australia, imprisoned people can vote without restriction.' However, neither Labor or the Coalition is planning to change voter eligibility rules. Eligibility is also not the only barrier to voting, prisoners who do vote say there is little accessible information. Kelly Flanagan is a 38-year-old Wiradjuri woman who voted while incarcerated during the Victorian state election in 2022. She remembers simply being handed a piece of paper. 'I feel like our opinion doesn't matter, and if you do have an opinion about something or you want to find out more information, especially around the elections and things like that, you get treated like a leper because how dare you ask for information? You know what I mean? 'And I know when I speak to other First Nation women, they're like, what's the point? They don't care about us.' Internet access is strictly limited and not available to all inmates in Australian centres. There are also restrictions on which newspapers and television channels are accessible. Information about who to vote for is a gap the AEC can't fill, as polling booths cannot provide information about political parties or their policies. Denham Sadleri s a senior reporter for About Time, Australia's first national prison newspaper. He says he has "heard quite a lot" about the lack of voting information on offer to inmates. 'We've heard from a lot of people that said they weren't really given clear information on how to vote and how that was going to work in prison, whether that's going to be through a mobile polling booth or through postal votes and a lack of information from prison authorities. And I think a few multiple people kind of thought that it was prisons. They're obviously trying to be apolitical, but that kind of extended to the point of not even really talking about the actual process of voting.' Rosie Heselev, the managing director of About Time, agrees. 'People in prison don't necessarily have access to party lines, they don't have access to the internet like we do, don't have access to community events to ask a politician all these things that are so vital to our democracy.' A Corrective Services NSW spokesperson said; Corrective Services NSW works with the NSW Electoral Commission and the Australian Electoral Commission to identify eligible inmates and facilitate enrolling to vote and postal voting in each correctional centre. The Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety had a similar response: "Corrections Victoria works with the Australian Electoral Commission to help eligible people in custody participate in federal elections. 'This includes providing them with information on upcoming elections and helping them enrol or update their existing enrolment details." Despite the challenges during his incarceration, Flanagan is passionate about exercising his right to vote- and encouraging others to do the same. 'I feel more part of society. I feel like my opinion now matters because I'm not a number, I'm a little bit overwhelmed in how much information there is available to me out here because I haven't had access to it for a few years. But I'm excited. I feel like a valid person. 'I feel like I said, I'm very passionate about making change and doing and pushing for that process. And now I have the opportunity to have my voice heard.'
Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Daily Mail
The full inside story of how teenage athlete Audrey Griffin's alleged killer Adrian Torres was spared jail months before she was murdered and he took his own life
The accused killer who allegedly murdered 19-year-old Audrey Griffin was spared jail for sinister offending just months before she was killed. The bombshell revelation came after Adrian Noel Torrens, 53, committed suicide while in custody three days after his arrest for allegedly murdering Ms Griffin. It can be revealed NSW Chief Magistrate Judge Michael Allen spared Torrens jail time when he pleaded guilty to domestic violence offending - instead imposing an 18-month community correction order. Judge Allen sentenced Torrens at Downing Centre Local Court on January 16 after he pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and contravening a domestic AVO in relation to his ex-partner. Torrens also had multiple listings before both Gosford Local Court and the Downing Centre for AVOs taken out to protect a woman believed to be his estranged wife. At the time of his death, Torrens was facing eleven charges other than murder. These included two counts of knowingly contravene an AVO for the third time in 28 days, knowingly contravene an AVO prohibition and eight charges of contravening an AVO. Torrens also had AVOs taken out against him by two different women, in 2018 and in 2014. NSW Chief Magistrate Judge Michael Allen (pictured) spared Torrens jail time in January for domestic violence offending Torrens was supposed to be serving Judge Allen's imposed court order when he allegedly murdered Ms Griffin on Sydney's Central Coast in March. Ms Griffin had spend a night celebrating with friends at the Gosford Hotel on the night of March 22. She left the pub at 2am and walked towards her father's house in Terrigal after unsuccessfully trying to get an Uber. Friends followed her movements via Snapchat's SnapMaps feature, a live tracker of a user's whereabouts, which can be seen by selected contacts. She also sent them two videos while walking home. Instead of arriving home, Ms Griffin crossed paths with Torrens. Police quietly investigated the alleged link between the pair in the weeks following Ms Griffin's death. They found Torrens' DNA under Ms Griffin's fingernails and discovered a mobile ping in the Erina Creek area on the same night from Torrens' phone. Torrens was found unresponsive in his cell at Silverwater Jail in Sydney 's west about 4.50pm on Thursday and couldn't be revived by paramedics and corrective services officers. Daily Mail Australia also revealed today the government department tasked with keeping Torrens alive so he can face trial for Ms Griffin's alleged murder sent condolences to people 'affected by his death'. A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said the death in custody had been reported to the state coroner and would be subject to a public inquest. 'Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances,' she said in a statement. 'Corrective Services NSW extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Audrey Griffin at this distressing time. But in a statement, the department also stated it 'sends condolences to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by Mr Torrens' death. Daily Mail Australia understands that it is standard procedure for the department to send condolence messages whenever an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person dies in custody, despite the crimes they may have committed. The statement came just hours after Ms Griffin's family was advised of his death as hundreds attended a beach vigil in her memory on Thursday night. Torrens was arrested in Sydney on Monday – a month after Ms Griffin's body was found in Erina Creek on the NSW Central Coast. Her death was not initially deemed suspicious because a preliminary autopsy indicated she had drowned. Last week, detectives published Torrens' image in a public appeal to locate him. Torrens admitted killing the 19-year-old to an associate not long after in a phone call obtained by police. 'Why did I do it? I don't know, I do not, I just f***ing clicked and I have no reason for my actions, I just did it man,' Torrens said in the call, according to the Daily Telegraph. 'I was so f***ed up, you know I was awake for four or five f***ing days, and I just did it.' In another call, Torrens said: 'I killed someone about a month ago and now they're looking for me'. Another witness told police they recognised Torrens in the CCTV, and that he had told them 'he left her body in the mangroves'. Following this week's arrest, detectives were set to allege Torrens assaulted Ms Griffin - with blows to the face - and knocked her unconscious in the shallow creek; or that he held her underwater to kill her. Many Australians were outraged by the police force's initial suggestion that Ms Griffin's death was 'not suspicious.' On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Brisbane Water Police District said investigators wanted to provide answers for the family and the community following the four week investigation. 'This has not sat well with us as investigators from the outset and that's why we stood up the strike-force,' the spokesperson said. 'There has been a number of lines of inquiry leading up to the arrest yesterday but, significantly, on Friday morning, we received information which transferred the case to a homicide investigation.' Ms Griffin's mother Kathleen Kirby told Daily Mail Australia this week that she 'just wanted justice' for her young daughter. She said her daughter was a fit, intelligent and beautiful young woman who 'had the world at her feet'. Ms Kirby said the pair exchanged messages while she was in Gosford, and she told daughter she was proud of her and loved her very much. News of Torrens' death came just hours after hundreds of mourners gathered to celebrate Ms Griffin's life at Terrigal Beach near her home. In the evening, loved ones, strangers, teammates and detectives flooded the beach dressed in white. Ms Kirby told the crowd sunset was Ms Griffin's favourite time of day. 'My heart is full. As full as it can be right now,' she told Nine News. 'We need change, we need a lot of change.' Her daughter's friend Anna Jenkins added: 'Anyone should be able to walk home at night and not be worried when they do that.' At twilight, the gathering paused in silence to remember the 19-year-old. Family and friends described Ms Griffin was a 'determined athlete, talented student and well-liked teenager'. A fortnight before her death, the popular and sporty teenager had travelled to New Zealand to compete in the gruelling ANZCO half-ironman event, which she completed in just over six-and-a-half hours. She was also preparing to begin a 10-week officer training course in April with the Royal Australian Navy after visiting Japan earlier this year. Ms Griffin was visiting the Central Coast - where she grew up - to see her grandparents and invite her friends to a farewell party in Sydney the next weekend. 'She was the kindest soul to walk this earth and will always be in our hearts,' a GoFundMe for her family said. Anti-violence against women campaigner Sherele Moody posted on social media 'there'll be no justice for Audrey Griffin' after Torrens' death. 'Like every single woman, 19-year-old Audrey had had every right to walk the street at anytime of day or night without some thug killing her,' Ms Moody posted. 'She had every right to live a long life full of peace and happiness.' 'She had every right to not be a victim of femicide. Male violence is an epidemic in Australia - we can't even have a night out without being killed.' A spokesman for NSW Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said thoughts were with those who knew Ms Griffin. 'The minister for corrections acknowledges this very difficult time for the family and loved ones of Audrey Griffin, noting this case will now not be able to be prosecuted through the courts,' he said. For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
