❓ Mr Katsambanis questions the Attorney General on the effectiveness of dangerous sex offender legislation, citing the case of Liam Timothy Hutt. The Attorney General defends the legislation and highlights upcoming changes.
AnsweredQoN 37Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DANGEROUS SEXUAL OFFENDER
— LIAM TIMOTHY HUTT
37. Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Attorney General:
Before I ask my question, on behalf
of the member for Cottesloe, I would like to welcome into Parliament today the
year 11 students from Scotch College. It is a very, very good school.
How exactly is the Attorney General's
dangerous sex offender legislation the toughest in Australia, given that
paedophile Liam Timothy Hutt, who was jailed in 2018 for stomach churning child
abuse material, only served half his sentence and has now been jailed again for
further child sex offences?
— LIAM TIMOTHY HUTT
37. Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Attorney General:
Before I ask my question, on behalf
of the member for Cottesloe, I would like to welcome into Parliament today the
year 11 students from Scotch College. It is a very, very good school.
How exactly is the Attorney General's
dangerous sex offender legislation the toughest in Australia, given that
paedophile Liam Timothy Hutt, who was jailed in 2018 for stomach churning child
abuse material, only served half his sentence and has now been jailed again for
further child sex offences?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for his
question. The offence that Hutt was convicted of was not sexual assault, which
would bring him under the Dangerous Sexual Offenders Act, but rather the
possession of child exploitation material, which was a series of disgusting
photographs involving children. He had been convicted of this offence
previously and was serving a period of parole when he offended again. When
police executed a warrant, they found in his possession a mobile phone, which
was against his parole order, and a series of disgusting images on that mobile
phone. He was then taken into custody and prosecuted for that series of
offences, for which the court imposed a further two-year sentence and ordered
parole. He does not come under the dangerous sex offenders legislation per se,
but I have discussed this case with the Director of Public Prosecutions, and I just
want to inform the Parliament that we are still within the 21-day appeal
period.
I would like the community to
understand that with these types of offenders, it is very important to keep
supervision on them after release, and
because he is not within the dangerous sex offenders legislation, he does not
even fall within the legislation that the previous government brought in, which
was for post-sentence supervision orders, because it is not a violent
offence. However, by the time Hutt has served his time in jail—a year
with parole; as I said, upon which he will be supervised—hopefully the
other place will have passed our High Risk Offenders Bill. I think that has
been amended to the High Risk and Serious Offenders Bill. Applications will be
able to be made in relation to offenders such as Hutt similar to under the
Dangerous Sexual Offenders Act. There is no doubt, and there can be no
argument, that the dangerous sex offenders legislation, which we amended, which
the former Liberal government refused to amend to reverse the onus of proof and
refused to have presumptions against bail, and voted against us on our
amendments—when we came to government we brought in the toughest DSO
laws in Australia bar none, and members opposite know it. Hutt's
possession of child exploitation material is the crack in the floor. But we
have a bill that the member and the opposition voted for—thank you very
much—currently on the floor and being debated in the upper house, and,
hopefully, that will pass into law and people like Hutt will fall within the
rubric of the new legislation.
question. The offence that Hutt was convicted of was not sexual assault, which
would bring him under the Dangerous Sexual Offenders Act, but rather the
possession of child exploitation material, which was a series of disgusting
photographs involving children. He had been convicted of this offence
previously and was serving a period of parole when he offended again. When
police executed a warrant, they found in his possession a mobile phone, which
was against his parole order, and a series of disgusting images on that mobile
phone. He was then taken into custody and prosecuted for that series of
offences, for which the court imposed a further two-year sentence and ordered
parole. He does not come under the dangerous sex offenders legislation per se,
but I have discussed this case with the Director of Public Prosecutions, and I just
want to inform the Parliament that we are still within the 21-day appeal
period.
I would like the community to
understand that with these types of offenders, it is very important to keep
supervision on them after release, and
because he is not within the dangerous sex offenders legislation, he does not
even fall within the legislation that the previous government brought in, which
was for post-sentence supervision orders, because it is not a violent
offence. However, by the time Hutt has served his time in jail—a year
with parole; as I said, upon which he will be supervised—hopefully the
other place will have passed our High Risk Offenders Bill. I think that has
been amended to the High Risk and Serious Offenders Bill. Applications will be
able to be made in relation to offenders such as Hutt similar to under the
Dangerous Sexual Offenders Act. There is no doubt, and there can be no
argument, that the dangerous sex offenders legislation, which we amended, which
the former Liberal government refused to amend to reverse the onus of proof and
refused to have presumptions against bail, and voted against us on our
amendments—when we came to government we brought in the toughest DSO
laws in Australia bar none, and members opposite know it. Hutt's
possession of child exploitation material is the crack in the floor. But we
have a bill that the member and the opposition voted for—thank you very
much—currently on the floor and being debated in the upper house, and,
hopefully, that will pass into law and people like Hutt will fall within the
rubric of the new legislation.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.