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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Peter Brewer

A year of pain: how tragedy lit Tom McLuckie's fuse for change

Another day, another damning social media post - and Tom McLuckie isn't going to let up any time soon.

"If you are going to be convicted of a crime, make sure it's in the ACT," he said as he delivered yet another fierce online broadside to the government, calling out the territory's justice system for its "soft" sentencing of recidivist offenders.

If the walls could talk within the office of the ACT Attorney-General, it would no doubt report expletives every time Mr McLuckie effectively pulled the pin on his next verbal hand grenade and launched it via his active online blog, ACTnowforsaferroads.

The impassioned flame of social justice burns fiercely in the Scot-born immigrant because 12 months ago, something very precious was taken from him.

On May 19 last year his 20-year-old son, Matthew, was driving home from his part-time job at Canberra Airport, his car carefully climbing Hindmarsh Drive in the left-hand lane. He had dinner in the fridge at home, and his two dogs eagerly waiting to hear the key in the door.

Yet seemingly out of nowhere, a stolen car appeared almost directly in the dual lane carriageway in front of Matt McLuckie, the oncoming grey VW Golf travelling at what police estimated was 177kmh.

Tom McLuckie by his son's graveside. Picture by Elesa Kurtz

It was driven by a young, unlicensed driver, 20-year-old Shakira Adams.

Why Adams was on the wrong side of the dual lane carriageway, speeding in a stolen car, late at night, is not yet fully understood because the Supreme Court is yet to determine whether she is fit to face multiple, extremely serious charges including manslaughter, culpable driving causing death, aggravated reckless driving, driving a vehicle without consent, and unlicensed driving.

The head-on impact was horrific.

Matthew McLuckie died at the scene, while Adams suffered extensive, life-changing injuries.

A third driver, who was reported to be racing Adams' car but on the other, correct side of the road, fled the scene. That car has been recovered, along with DNA from it.

Although racked with grief by the loss, Tom McLuckie began to study more closely not just the incident which claimed his son's life, but the others involving the ACT's recidivist offenders: the home invaders, the car thieves, the meth addicts and burglars.

It was a world of crime and violence - the wealthy territory's seedy "underbelly" - at which many Canberrans simply look the other way.

In an open letter penned for the anniversary of Matthew's death, Tom' partner Sarah Payne described how the more they began to discover about Canberra's spiralling car theft rates and repeat offending, the more alarmed they became.

"We started reading the news more carefully and were catapulted from our comfortable cocoon of naivety," she wrote.

"We learned that these kinds of reckless life-endangering events were happening every other day in this so-called 'safe' city.

The horrific crash site on Hindmarsh Drive, where the stolen VW Golf hit Matthew McLuckie's car head-on at 177kmh. Picture supplied

"Maybe we could turn this terrible tragedy into something positive for the community."

Tom McLuckie's research took him deep into sentencing databases. He also met with politicians, police, first-responders, people working in the criminal justice system and family members of offenders caught up in its cycle.

"Everyone was saying the same thing. The system was broken," Sarah Payne wrote.

Mr McLuckie remains strongly defensive of the police, yet fiercely critical of the ACT judicial system.

"I'm probably the only person who has read every Supreme Court judgment in the ACT over the past two years," he said, admitting he was also doing the same with the far more numerous NSW judgments.

"And what I've seen is quite alarming."

A constant thorn in the side of both the Attorney-General and the Justice and Community Safety directorate, Mr McLuckie continues to campaign vigorously for a full and independent review of ACT sentencing.

An ACT Law and Sentencing Advisory Council was announced in August last year but no terms of reference have been announced in seven months, nor any panel members appointed.

The ACT government said the initial procurement process for the council "unfortunately was unsuccessful".

"Procurement work for this service is ongoing. The ACT government intends to explore opportunities to establish an interim solution as soon as possible," the statement said.

The government was also "currently reviewing whether there is an alternate model that could be used to establish the [council] as fast as possible on an interim basis".

Flowers and a card mark the location on Hindmarsh Drive where the fatal collision occurred. Picture by Karleen Minney

After weeks of hearings and submissions, the ACT Legislative Assembly's inquiry into dangerous driving concluded in April, and handed down 28 recommendations including the introduction of vehicular manslaughter, greater power for the Sentence Administration Board, and a "neutral" presumption of bail for serious and dangerous driving offences.

Mr McLuckie is convinced the issues with the ACT judicial system are linked with those of an overcrowded, under-resourced, one-size-fits-all single prison for the ACT. It's also the most expensive per-prisoner facility in the country.

"I think the jail is part of the problem; magistrates know that when they send people there they come out worse than when they went in," he said.

Read Sarah Payne's heart-wrenching letter to Matthew here.

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