Victim's mother will face killer

Victim's mother will face killer



A woman is coming face-to-face with the man who was convicted of murdering her daughter 21 years ago.


Whilst I can see the benefit of victim and prisoner coming together as part of a restorative justice project, this is another kettle of fish altogether. I cannot see the benefit to anybody of reading out a victim impact statement 21 years after the event. The odds are already stacked against the prisoner obtaining release, and this has the potential of tilting the imbalance even further on the side of injustice.

I am surprised that after 21 years the location of where the killer put the victim's body has not been discovered. It would appear that discovering the whereabouts will be a bargaining chip on whether the killer gets his release. The problem with shifting the goal posts like this is that the primary purpose of continued detention being risk to the public of re-offending gets lost.