Attorney-General challenges early release for Emma Lovell’s killer

Queensland’s Attorney-General has launched a High Court bid to keep the killer of Brisbane mother Emma Lovell behind bars.

The teenager who murdered the mother of two during a Boxing Day home invasion had his 14-year jail sentence reduced by almost 18 months on appeal last month, leaving him with a little over five years to serve behind bars.

Emma Lovell was killed and her husband Lee was injured during the confrontation at their North Lakes home on Boxing Day in 2022.

The boy, who cannot be named as he was aged 17 at the time of the murder, fatally stabbed Lovell in the heart after he broke into her family’s house north of Brisbane about 11.30pm on Boxing Day in 2022.

Immediately following the teenager’s appeal, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said she would consider trying to overturn the decision in the High Court.

She revealed on Monday that an application for special leave had been lodged with the High Court under her instruction.

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“I have spoken to [Emma’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,” Frecklington said.

The high-profile deadly home invasion contributed to the LNP’s creation of “adult crime, adult time” laws, which formed a key plank of its election platform to address youth justice in the lead-up to the 2024 state poll.

The legislative changes, passed by the LNP government shortly after its landslide election victory, mean youth offenders will be handed mandatory life sentences for murder with a minimum 20 years before parole.

“Our first act in government was to deliver stronger youth justice laws and under the Crisafulli government’s ‘adult crime, adult time laws’, this murderer would have been sentenced to life in prison,” Frecklington said.

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Justice Tom Sullivan in May 2024 sentenced the teen, then aged 19, to a maximum of 14 years with a requirement to serve 70 per cent of that time in detention, after he found the crime to be “particularly heinous”.

But the Court of Appeal last month allowed the teen’s appeal against the length of his sentence, finding it was “manifestly excessive”.

Justice David Boddice found the 14-year sentence should stand but reduced the detention period to 60 per cent.

He cited the teen’s guilty plea, “genuine remorse and prospects of rehabilitation” as special circumstances justifying his release from detention after serving less than the statutory 70 per cent.

The High Court challenge follows a pattern of appeals from Frecklington who has sought to push the government’s tough on crime agenda through the justice system.

With AAP

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