Bikies take parole board to court
Posted Fri Jul 8, 2011 5:20pm AEST
The Court of Appeal has found that the parole board breached its statutory obligations
Western Australia's highest court has found that the state's parole board breached statutory obligations in the way it dealt with three offenders.
Two men with bikie links and a convicted murderer took the Prisoners Review Board to the Court of Appeal over its decision to cancel their parole.
They argued were dealt with unfairly and in a judgement today the appeal court upheld some of their arguments.
It found that the board failed to provide the men adequate reasons for its decision to cancel their parole and adopted an inflexible policy on whether they should be allowed to appear before it.
However the court ruled the men had not established that their parole cancellation should be overturned, although it invited their lawyers to make further submissions on the matter.
Former Gypsy Joker President Lennard Kirby was one of the men who took the board to court.
His lawyer Garry Massey says although the court has invited further submissions on his client's case, he was disappointed it had not overturned the decision to cancel his parole.
"It would seem on the face of the judgement the Prisoners Review Board can exist in a situation where it's not required to provide procedural fairness or adequate reasons," he said.
"Now that's probably an issue for Parliamentarians as to whether that's the sort of board or body that we want governing the release of prisoners."
