Lesley Martin Application for Home Detention Declined

Decision Of The Board

Home detention was declined on 30 June 2004 when the Board indicated it would reconsider it’s position on receipt of an unqualified acceptance of, firstly, the impropriety of Mrs Martin’s offending and, secondly, a requirement there be no public or media activity until statutory release date.

Mrs Martin asks to be reconsidered. She does not see herself as a threat to the community or to any person or in a position to influence the minds and actions of others insofar as she undertakes not to engage in public or media activity until her statutory release date.

The Board acknowledges her undertaking minimises concerns about risk.

However, section 35 (2) (b) (ii) and 35 (2) (b) (iii) of the Parole Act, which focuses on the nature of the offending and the prospect of rehabilitation, evokes overriding concerns for so long as Mrs Martin is unable unequivocally to acknowledge the impropriety of her offending or articulate how she might do things differently in a like situation.

Accordingly Mrs Martin remains unsuitable for home detention and her application is declined.

The Board remains prepared to reconsider home detention on receipt of Mrs Martin’s unqualified acceptance of the impropriety of her offending insofar as it involved, in an exclusively family context, the covert arrogation of a power over another’s life and death. Such an acceptance would be seen as a significant rehabilitative step.

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