An Australian man who stabbed a British woman to death has had his sentence reduced by almost 18 months on appeal.
Emma Lovell, 41, a mother of two, was attacked in her home in North Lakes in Queensland on Boxing Day in 2022, when two teenage boys broke into her house.
Ms Lovell and her husband confronted the duo and were attacked. She later died of a stab wound to the heart.
The attacker, who cannot be named as he was 17 at the time, pleaded guilty to the murders and admitted to charges of burglary and assault last year and was sentenced to 14 years in jail. He is now 20 years old.
He challenged his sentence in June, arguing that his sentence was manifestly excessive.
“The matters that were articulated by His Honour and created special prominence did not make an offence of particularly heinous,” his lawyer Andrew Hoare said at the time.
On Friday, the Court of Appeal granted the appeal. His sentence has now been changed and he will be released under supervision after serving 60 per cent of his 14-year term, as opposed to the 70 per cent he was previously set to serve.
This means he will spend around eight years and four months in jail, instead of nine years and nine months.
Queensland attorney general Deb Frecklington has said she will appeal to the High Court.
“The murder of Emma Lovell rocked the state and Queenslanders made it very clear enough is enough and change needed to occur,” she said, according to ABC News.
“The community and Emma’s family will be devastated by this outcome and our thoughts are with them on another very difficult day they should never have had to endure.”
Justice Tom Sullivan said in May 2024 that the murder of the British woman was a “particularly heinous” crime.
At the time of sentencing, he described the victims as a “loving family” who were building a life for themselves in a new country. “They were ordinary citizens enjoying their family life in their home where they were entitled to feel safe. What happened... violated that entirely,” Justice Sullivan said.
According to Queensland legislation, juveniles can typically be ordered to serve a maximum of 70 per cent of their custodial sentence, unless special circumstances warrant otherwise.
Justice Sullivan said that the teen’s offence falls under the category of a violent act, meaning that he could hand him a jail sentence over 10 years.
While the court of appeal judges agreed that the crime was a “particularly heinous offence,” they said that asking the attacker to serve 70 per cent of his sentence in jail was indeed excessive.
Additionally, they felt that his “guilty” plea should have carried more credence, as it spared Ms Lovell’s family the distress of a “traumatic” trial.
“The utility of the plea of guilty is a matter of significance in the exercise of sentencing discretion,” Justice Boddice said in the judgement.
“When combined with the applicant’s genuine remorse and prospects of rehabilitation, a finding that there were special circumstances justifying an order for release from detention, after serving less than the statutory requirement of 70 per cent, ought to have been made.”
The attacker now has five years left to serve and will be released in 2030 and stay under supervision till 2036, based on the new ruling.
The other offender in the case, also a juvenile, was found not guilty of murder in October last year. He was found guilty of burglary and assault and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The stabbing took place outside the Lovells’ home and was captured on the family’s CCTV. The court was told that the couple were woken up by their dogs barking in their home in the suburb of North Lakes, about 45km north of Brisbane.
Outside in the garden, Ms Lovell was stabbed in the heart with an 11.5cm knife. The police arrived on the scene to find her two teenage daughters crying and calling for help before medics performed open heart surgery on the front lawn of her home.
Ms Lovell died shortly after she was taken to hospital.
Her death led to widespread outrage in Australia and ultimately resulted in the state of Queensland passing stricter youth crime laws.
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