Queensland’s attorney general, Deb Frecklington, will appeal to the high court to increase the sentence for Emma Lovell’s murderer.
Lovell was stabbed to death after a home invasion by two teenagers on Boxing Day in 2022. The case became a flashpoint amid a statewide debate about youth crime.
A teenager – who cannot be identified because he was 17 at the time of the offending – was convicted of her murder in 2024.
The Queensland supreme court justice Tom Sullivan sentenced him to serve 14 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 70% of his total sentence, the maximum possible for a child under state law.
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Sullivan found that the murder was “particularly heinous”, a legal standard required at the time to sentence children to longer than 10 years’ prison.
In August the three judges of the Queensland court of appeal unanimously upheld the “particularly heinous” finding and the 14-year sentence.
But two of the three judges found that there were “special circumstances” justifying a shorter non-parole period. Citing the teen’s guilty plea, “genuine remorse and prospects of rehabilitation” they reduced it by about 18 months to 60%.
The court ruled that the sentencing judge “allowed the seriousness of the offending to overwhelm those factors. In doing so, the sentencing judge misapplied sentencing principles.”
On Monday Frecklington announced she would ask for special leave from the high court to appeal against the judgment.
Frecklington said she would argue that that the “special circumstances” did not exist.
The attorney general has lost two bids to increase sentences in high-profile cases. In June the supreme court dismissed appeals against the sentence for a man convicted of assault and deprivation of liberty, and last month for a teenager convicted of causing a triple-fatality crash in Maryborough.
Frecklington said she would continue pushing for harsher sentences.
“I’m not ever going to apologise for my direction here to ensure that we do apply for special leave to the high court, irrespective of the outcome, because we have made a commitment to the people of Queensland that we will keep them safe, and that is exactly what we do,” she said.
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The attorney general lodged an application for special leave to appeal against the judgment on Friday.
She said she had spoken with Emma Lovell’s husband, Lee Lovell, “and I have reiterated the Crisafulli government’s commitment to do all we can to ensure the murderer who took Emma’s life is held accountable”.
“What this is about is to ensure that Lee Lovell and his daughters know that we will leave no stone unturned in relation to the offender’s sentence,” Frecklington said.
She added that under the state government’s headline “adult crime, adult time” laws, the teenager would have faced a mandatory minimum sentence of life behind bars, with a decades-long non-parole period. He was charged before the new laws took effect.
The government has conceded that the laws violate human rights and discriminates against children on the basis of their age.
The second teenager involved in the home invasion in which Lovell died was found not guilty of murder, manslaughter and malicious act with intent in December but was convicted of one count of burglary by break in the night in company, and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm in company. He was sentenced to 18 months’ prison but released with time served.
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