RELEASE HER: Top QC Tom Percy says serial killer Catherine Birnie has become a "church mouse'' in prison and should be released. Source: PerthNow
REVILED West Australian serial killer Catherine Birnie has become a ``church mouse'' working in a prison library and should be released from jail, one of the state's high-profile lawyers says.
Earlier this week, WA Attorney-General Michael Mischin accepted a recommendation from the state's Prisoners Review Board and kept Birnie behind bars for a further three years.
Birnie, and her partner in crime David, were jailed for 20 years for raping, stabbing, strangling and clubbing to death four victims in their Willagee house, in Perth's southern suburbs, in 1986.
They were caught when a fifth intended victim, a 16-year-old girl, escaped after being abducted at knifepoint.
Under law, Birnie's life sentence is reviewed every three years, and her latest review was turned down in January.
But high-profile QC Tom Percy, an STM columnist, says the notorious killer, now 61, is unlikely to be a risk to the community and should be freed from Bandyup Women's Prison.
``She has been there 30-odd years and you would think it might be time for us to say she has done her time, she has done her statutory minimum prescribed by the court, which was in possession of all the facts,'' Mr Percy said.
``I am not sure she could really be a threat to anyone any more, and all my information from Bandyup prison is that she is a little old granny that goes about her work in the library like a church mouse.
``You can't think there is any point in keeping her in there.''
In March 2010, former attorney-general Christian Porter decided Birnie would not be given parole or put into a re-socialisation program.
WA's attorney-general in 2007, Jim McGinty, said Birnie should never be freed.
A 2007 review found a low risk of Birnie reoffending but her release was rejected because of the extreme nature of her crimes.
The pair were handed strict security life sentences for the murders. While incarcerated they exchanged more than 2600 letters, but were not allowed any other form of contact.
When David Birnie hanged himself in his protective custody Casuarina Prison cell in 2005, she wasn't allowed to attend his funeral.
Birnie's next statutory parole review will be in 2016, but Mr Percy feared she would never be released.
``We parole all sorts of murderers on a daily basis,'' Mr Percy told 6PR radio.
``This one just so happened to be one that caught the public attention, even though she was not the prime mover in it. He (David) is now dead.
``What's the point of keeping her in there? Sadly it looks like she will never get parole, but I think she probably deserves it.''
