Meet a (Won’t be a striker at all) – former Third Striker # 1

Ranapera Taumata is a Third Striker.  He murdered his girlfriend in 2019 by beating her to death with his bare hands. The Judge summarised:

Over the next 17 minutes or so, inside the sleepout you inflicted a prolonged
and violent assault on Ms Hira, rendering her unconscious and injured. At about
1.15 am you dragged her outside; she appeared to be unconscious. You tossed her to
the ground. You then proceeded to throw items of clothing and bedding outside around
where her body lay. A few minutes later you again grabbed her and dragged her by
the hair back into the sleepout. …

A post-mortem examination the next day determined the cause of her death
was head injuries. They were described as a subdural haematoma from blunt force
trauma. She also had rib fractures, a number of bruises, and abrasions to her body.

He has over 20 criminal convictions as an adult including five family violence convictions, assault with a weapon and aggravated robbery.  He is believed to have multiple convictions as a Youth offender, including for aggravated robbery.

Under the Government’s proposed re-introduction of Three Strikes 2.0, he will be on a clean slate.  His prior strike offences count for nothing, and he is a zero striker.

Just as bad, under the Government’s proposed Three Strikes 2.0, Ranapera Taumata would not qualify as a Third Striker at all!

This is because it is proposed that a person would only be a third striker if they had been sentenced to more than 24 months imprisonment for both his first and second strike offences.

For Ranapera Taumata’s first strike offence – an aggravated robbery – he was sentenced to 8 months home detention.

For Ranapera Taumata’s second strike offence – a robbery (which he committed while on prison release conditions) – he was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.Neither meet the Government’s threshold to be considered a striker AT ALL!

When the new Three Strikes law is released, we need to lobby Parliament to ensure it is an effective regime that doesn’t give third strikers a clean slate, and doesn’t make it that crimes such as aggravated robbery don’t qualify as strikes if the Judge gives a light sentence.

In Judge Geoff Rea’s sentencing of Taumata’s first strike, he said: “You have got an appalling Youth Court record. If you were being sentenced on that basis, quite frankly, the time would almost be there to throw the key away on you.”

Instead we’re wiping out his previous strikes, and making it easier for him to avoid future strikes.

This is the first of what will be a series of posts to highlight how lenient the proposed new Three Strikes Law will be and how it will result in many violent recidivist criminals not getting strikes at all.