A teenage boy who murdered a 15-year-old girl as she was walking home from school almost two decades ago will be released from Cessnock Jail in Sydney on Monday.
The parents of Tania Burgess are now fighting to change the law, which has kept the identity of their daughter’s killer a secret from the public.
Tania’s parents are pushing harder than ever to make his identity known.
The teenage boy who stabbed their daughter 48 times is now a man who is about to walk free, 17 years after the frenzied attack at Foresters Beach on the NSW Central Coast.
Only known by his initials, “DL”, the 32-year-old has had his identity sealed because he was just 16 when he committed murder.
“He gets to take no responsibility for anything that he’s done,” her father, Chris Burgess, said.
Tania’s mother, Mandy Burgess, said she would never forget the face of her daughter’s killer, and says she has not had justice.
“Whether he was a youth at that age or 16 or now in this thirties as a man. I’ll never forget it,” she said.
“What I care more about is that he will not hurt any other family again like he did to us.
“There’s no justice. It’s just a legal system we abide by.
“What happened to Tania, there is no justice. Nothing to what happened to her and what we saw that day is justice.”
Victim’s advocate Howard Brown believes people convicted of murder, rape, and gang crimes where kids are between 14 and 18, need to be named.
“When they hide under a veil of anonymity there is no encouragement for them to participate in rehab programs because as far as they’re concerned no one knows, so no one cares,” he said.
A petition for law reform which would see exceptions made for the most heinous of crimes now has almost 150,000 signatures.
Once released, “DL” will be under intensive supervision.
A total of 15 bail conditions including wearing an electronic monitoring ankle have been considered “imperative” by the state Parole Authority for the protection of the community.
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