FEW crimes have provoked as much passion and fury in the Riverina as the brutal slaying of Stephanie Scott.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Leeton school teacher was the perfect victim – eternally effervescent, sunny and smiling.
Her killer, the sexually depraved Vincent Stanford, was the perfect villain, an outsider with a dark secret.
That their paths crossed in such a brutal and random manner both disgusted and compelled the nation.
The wheels of justice turn slowly.
More than 16 months after the killing and the first of the Stanford brothers has finally been sentenced.
Marcus Stanford, who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder, was on Wednesday handed a paltry 15-month prison term.
With time already served, he will be released in a matter of weeks.
The sentence will sit like a shard of glass in the minds of Ms Scott’s family and friends.
The maximum penalty for the charge is 25 years, yet the judge found it fitting to impose a sentence that amounts to just 5 per cent of the maximum.
The same judge described Marcus Stanford’s actions as those “of a man who put morality and human decency secondary to the interests of his murderous brother”.
A month after learning his brother had been charged with murdering Ms Scott, Marcus pawned two rings – including the engagement ring – belonging to the slain teacher.
Weeks earlier, he burned her driver’s licence in a bid to destroy the evidence.
His actions were both wilful and culpable, aimed at covering up his brother’s unconscionable and unprovoked killing.
How the judge believed those actions warranted just a small fraction of the maximum penalty is another mystery of the judiciary.
Indeed, it makes a mockery of the justice system.
If that system is a reflection of community standards and expectations, then the sentence is a manifest failure.
It is now incumbent on the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal the sentence and help restore a modicum of faith in the courts.
In October, Vincent Stanford will be sentenced for the murder of Ms Scott.
For the sake of her family and for the sake of justice, we demand the punishment fit the crime this time.