Kelli28

It was his own admission that was secretly filmed.

Pollyana

Not defending him at all but 'secretly' filmed? do they have to read people their rights here.....oh hang on this is Queensland....
And they convicted on that? ok I'm not up on Queensland law but thats as dodgy as the honeytrap issue........ Rachel Nickel comes to mind again.

Dorothy

In his confession to the undercover police he said when he pulled down Daniels pants Daniel resisted and he then killed him. He didn't say he sexually assaulted him but he did say he was going to.
It was an undercover operation and from the video I've seen on the news it looks like he knew it was being recorded. It also wasn't Queensland, but WA where they filmed the confession. It was WA police in a Perth hotel room IIRC.

Pollyana

Don't get me wrong, I am not defending the guy at all, I have no way of ascertaining whether he is guilty or not, but how on earth can a convction bd made on such sneaky underhand methods. We used to go to such lengths in cases like this to ensure everything was above board.
Stinks, not what I call justice.

Dorothy

I agree.

Kim67

Agree it wasn't an ideal way to catch him, but there were a lot of people confessing to the crime - something like 21 persons of interest - he was the most likely candidate from profiling information and he turned out to be the only one who could lead them to the body. I do struggle with this type of entrapment but am glad it's over for the Morcombes.

Now at the risk of sounding like a complete nut job myself, I dreamt about the killer about 8 years ago and according to the information I wrote down when I woke up in the morning, they have the right guy. Sometimes I dream and I know it's just a dream and sometimes I dream something significant (I usually know the difference). Have been doing the crazy dreaming all my life - still think Sarah Spears body is somewhere near the train tunnel in John Forest National Park, East of Perth. Now I shall change my my username from kim67 to crazyladywhothinksshehaspremonitionsinhersleep.:ee k:

jad n rich

I read yesterday that in QLD you can be convicted of murder without a body or bones or anything being found.

Life in OZ is 20 years not LIFE.

No parole is only a a recommendation of no parole, its still up to the parole board 14 or 15 years later. So if that is true this guy could still be out in 14 years, age 59 and ready to go again.

One bit of reading yesterday had the cops allegedly saying only 2 other boys were snatch and rape victims in the timeframe/locality of Cowans life, so it must be him. That alone leaves some room for error.

Like the rest of the population I have no idea what bits of what we are reading online are true.

My expererience of being on a jury led me to believe I would never ever want to be tried by one. One guy was a cop hater, would not have anyone convicted, no matter what they did. One lady found the very handsome accused quite endearing, wouldn't have a bad word said about him CCTV Video footage of the incident was shown, the cop hater looked at his feet all the time and passed evidence along unread. The video showed clearly the incident, yet 3 people said to them they couldn't see it was an incident The accused did not have to have his past criminal history revealed, yet the victims history was raised and hung out to dry by the defense.

The mood at decision time was , indifference, I have to go get pick up the/dog/ shopping/kids/get to work... i have better things to do than sit here...... really most people just wanted to go.

The vote was mostly innocent, despite the CCTV footage No way was it ever going to sway away from reasonable doubt as some people had a far more compelling personal agenda.

Back to Cowan, he no doubt needs to be in jail, be it for DM or the other boys, the sentences handed out for rape/murder of a child are a joke. I too wonder if he can appeal though given the way he was convicted. He should have been locked up longer on the cases where there was DNA, then tagged as a sex offender.

Kim67

His non parole period has been set at 20 years according to the reports yesterday.

jad n rich

Well that's what I thought but it was also reported that will still be up to the parole board at the time as that can only be a recommendation.


This article here too suggests 20 years is is 20 years due to act brought in by Parliament.

It also suggests that Cowan is going to appeal.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au...iller/2199813/

Kim67

Who knows, so many conflicting reports, his lawyer will appeal his convictions according to stories last night - let's hope he ends up with a "never to be released" sticker on his file and we can all just forget about him.

BadgeIsBack

I agree that some confessions are not worth much. But if the convictions were based on other evidence. It appears there was much the jury did not know.

I lost my original post. It matters not one jot to me whether sentences run concurrently - if one is pretty much life it cancels out the others. The conviction and sentences still stand.

As for parole - this is my view on the society in which we live.
There are some crimes where the criminal is so sick he needs to be taken out of society - for the protection of others - as we don't shoot people then we have to lock them up. This is one of those scenarios.

Elsewhere, I believe we should expect that a convicted criminal could be rehabilitated and this needs to assessed. Rehab is the other side of the coin which is deterrence/punishment. In fact, I think it's a human right. There are convicted killers on death row in the US who killed in a moment of young foolishness and aggression - but perhaps could have expected to be rehabilitated and would not reoffend.

I come to a sort of conclusion that if we bring back the death penalty then we should shoot all our serial murderers (some murders are manslaughter of course and there are murders where the intent was not quite so shocking) and crimes against children once we know they are guilty beyond doubt and where there is no place in our society for these sick individuals - I use the word sick in a non-tabloid meaning - 'ill'. But does that past muster? It's a deterrant but not a deterrant that would help the mentally ill. Do we treat ill individuals after we punish them and remove them from society? It is even possible.

BadgeIsBack

The worst sort of person on a jury is probably the sort of person that believes in tough justice and the sort of person that talks about 'them', sees leadership thoughts and learning in terms of 'they reckon' and 'they say' and watches too much TV and reads a tabloid newspaper. ;-)

paulry

No doubt about it he is the poor lad's killer. The recorded confession is here.

chris955

Its pretty sickening stuff to listen to, the way he just talks about his car and laughs and smiles with the other bloke. There are some sick f**** in this world.

paulry

Totally agree. And not a bit of remorse. Even the rope would be too good for that bastard.