ALICE SPRINGS NEWS
April 23, 2010.




ABOVE LEFT: Timothy Hird's mother, with Karen Liddle, aunt to the dead man, and Joshua Spears' mother, leaving the court after sentencing to speak with the victim's mother, Theresa Ryder. ABOVE RIGHT: Mrs Liddle and Mrs Ryder (centre), addressing media after the completion of the case with a message to accept the ruling of the court. Earlier Mrs Ryder had wept bitterly in the court room, and left it, saying the five defendants may be "good on the outside, inside there is racism straight out". RIGHT: The partner of the dead man, Jade Keil, with his mother (at right).


Five men sentenced to years in prison for Ryder manslaughter

By KIERAN FINNANE

The five men convicted of the manslaughter of Kwementyaye Ryder were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment in the Supreme Court today.
Scott Doody is sentenced to four years from the date of his arrest on August 1 last year, but the sentence will be suspended after 12 months.
Having already served eight, Mr Doody will be released in four months' time. He will be banned from drinking alcohol for two years from the date of his release and from using or consuming any illicit drug for three years. The operative period of the suspension is three years, which means that if Mr Doody breaches these conditions over the three years following release he will return to gaol.
Chief Justice Brian Martin accepted Mr Doody's lesser role in the physical assault and lesser moral culpability.
For the manslaughter, he found that there was no significant difference in moral culpability between Timothy Hird, Joshua Spears and Glen Swain, and also Anton Kloeden, who although he remained in the car, had "set the events in train".
CJ Martin imposed a sentence of six years on Mr Hird, Mr Kloeden and Mr Spears, back-dated to their arrest, and fixed a non-parole period of four years. Their earliest release will thus be in three years and four months.
Mr Swain, allowing for his plea as well as his cooperation with police, received  five years and six months, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.
Mr Kloeden was also sentenced for recklessly endangering a life for the separate incident in the riverbed. He will serve five months for this count concurrently with the sentence for manslaughter.
His will also be disqualified from driving for three years from the date of release.
All five received reduction in their sentences because of their guilty pleas.


Ryder family are satisfied with court outcome
Offenders' mothers offer apologies and comfort

The family of Kwemetyaye Ryder have expressed satisfaction with the outcome of today's sentencing decisions by Chief Justice Martin.
Mr Ryder's mother, Theresa, had left the courtroom, crying and angry, and making the comment for all to hear that while the offenders may be "good on the outside, inside there is racism straight out".
Outside the court, after receiving apologies and comfort from the mothers of two of the offenders, she spoke to reporters.
She said she had left because she "couldn't stand being in the courtroom ... hearing about what happened, the story being read out about my son lying on the ground and being kicked".
Her departure came after CJ Martin began to speak about the penalties for manslaughter.
He had pointed out that life imprisonment, which she had called for in her victim impact statement, is reserved for cases in the worst category of manslaughter and said, "this crime does not fit that category".
The court had already heard  about the personal circumstances of the young men, who in all cases were deemed  to be of underlying good character and highly unlikely to re-offend.
Mrs Ryder said about her angry comment: "For a mother like me, the feeling inside me, I'd say anything."
She said she told the offenders' parents who approached her that "I appreciate them" for apologising.
"It sort of makes me feel satisfied. I've been waiting for that time, for the mothers, parents and that to come up and apologise and say sorry to me. Because I never ever blamed the families. They were at home not knowing what was happening, like me."
Flanked by her relative Karen Liddle, her daughter and several other family members, Mrs Ryder also spoke of her son: "There was no story read out about my son. He was a local himself, he was born here in Alice Springs, went to school here, made friends with a lot of white kids.
"There's still a lot of friends out there that miss my son as a good mate. And he also was a hard-working man.
"He was a good young bloke, he never got in trouble with the police in his life before. That's why I miss him so much, he was the happiest in the family, he brightened up everything for the family." 
She said "the pain will go on in me for as long as I live".
Mrs Liddle, also spoke.
"Myself personally I feel sad for everybody, for us, for our loss and also for those [the offenders'] families too, for how foolish those boys were in what they did.
"They ruined their lives, their families' lives, our lives, and [now they should] just stand up and be men and do their time, for their sake and their families' sake.
"We've got a lot of family support and we're just happy with the outcome today."
Mrs Liddle said that the community can learn from these events: "We all live in this community as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and long-term residents must stick together.
"We're satisfied with what has happened. They are only young men and their sentences, they are going to spend a long time in there."
Asked if the offender Scott Doody had been let off lightly, Mrs Liddle said; "We can understand the law and how it works and circumstances made it that he didn't participate as much as the other blokes. We've got to respect the law."


Back to our home page.