It is often said in favour of prisoner rehabilitation programmes that every offender has to be released eventually. That's not quite true.
The law allows those sentenced to "preventive detention" to be kept in custody indefinitely if they are assessed to be a continuing danger to society.
The family of Blessie Gotingco reasonably wonder why her killer, Tony Robertson, was released five months before he raped and murdered her on May 24, 2014. A year later, they saw him sentenced to preventive detention, on top of a life term with a minimum 24 years before parole can be considered. That should be enough to keep the community safe from him in future, but questions remain as to why it took a woman's death to prove he should never have been released - and if he had to be released, could he not have been kept under closer supervision?
The Gotingco family have waited a further year for answers to those questions. The answers are offered in a report commissioned by the Government from the Acting Secretary for Justice, Mel Smith. The information it provides on Robertson's character and attitude in prison makes those questions more pertinent. Robertson, now 29, has a criminal record that began when he was 16. His convictions include assault, aggravated robbery, possessing an offensive weapon and threatening to kill. At age 18, he committed offences much worse: abducting and committing indecencies on a child and attempting to kidnap two other children. He was sent to jail for eight years.
The sentencing judge called the offences "more sinister" than Robertson's previous crimes and noted the youth was "in complete denial" of his behaviour. "That may change if you are given time to reflect and accept help," the judge said. But he was sufficiently doubtful of that prospect to add that an extended supervision order might be needed on Robertson's release.
