Tania Burgess (pictured) was 15-years-old when she was ambushed and stabbed 48 times while walking home from school. The teen uttered the name of her killer moments before she died
A man who brutally murdered 15-year-old Tania Burgess by stabbing her 48 times has walked free from jail.
Tania was 15 when a boy, then 16, ambushed and stabbed her at Foresters Beach on the Central Coast on July 19, 2005 and left her to die.
Witnesses rushed to Tania’s aid and heard the young teen utter the name of her killer moments before she died.
The 32-year-old man was released on parole from Cessnock Correctional Centre on Monday morning.
He will remain anonymous 17 years after the frenzied attack because of state laws which ban the identification of adults who committed crimes as children.
He is only known by the initials DL.
The now 32-year-old killer, who can only be named as DL because he committed the offence as a minor, First Aid Training Courses on the Gold will be released on parole on August 1 — 17 years after the frenzied attack
Parents Mandy and Chris Burgess are fighting to change the law which keeps the identify of their daughter’s killer a secret.
‘He gets to take no responsibility for anything that
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Police arrested DL at his home in nearby Bateau Bay and found bloodstained clothing in his bedroom.
At his trial, the jury only took 90 minutes to convict him. He was jailed for a maximum term of 22 years with a non-parole period of 17 years.
The sentence was reduced on appeal by four years in 2018, meaning he has been eligible for parole since mid-2018.
Tania’s mother said DL had never expressed remorse and was now getting a chance at adult life — a life he denied her daughter.
Chris and Mandy Burgess (pictured, leaving King Street Courts on the First Aid Training Courses on the Gold day of their daughter’s murder trial), argued that DL should never be released and given the chance at an adult life that their daughter was forever denied
Ms Burgess started a for law reform which would reveal the identity of a perpetrator in heinous crimes and has received almost 150,000 signatures.
‘We are saddened and frightened to know that our legal system in Australia can allow someone who so savagely murdered our daughter, who has shown no remorse for his horrific crime is now eligible for parole after just 13 1/2 years,’ Ms Burgess wrote.
‘Support us as we give our daughter Tania the justice she deserves … push for our government to amend the identification law of serious offenders when they turn 18 so that they can be identified to the public.’
