The Daniel Morcombe Verdict
While I sit and write this piece, there is another mother on the Sunshine Coast who is finally allowed to really mourn the loss of her little boy. Yesterday marked a significant milestone for the Morcombe family. After ten painful years, Brett Peter Cowan, was found, trialled and found guilty for the abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe. Today this man was sentenced to life in prison, with a 20 year minimum sentence. The judge told the parole board that it would be advisable to never allow this man parole.
What angers me the most about this situation is that we found out that Daniel would be here today if Brett Peter Cowan had been kept in jail. He has a prior record. The sins of his life were aired yesterday after the verdict was read out, and I must say that I can not understand how a man like this could ever pass a parole board. There is something wrong with our system. It needs to be fixed. Our children should be allowed to be children. They have a right to feel safe and secure in the world, and they have a right to remain blissfully innocent.
Unfortunately, there are others out there who have outwitted the system and are now free in our society. They shouldn’t be. The judicial system needs to be challenged because families, like the Morcombes, should be not be allowed to be ripped apart and emotionally tortured by these offenders who just don’t care about what is morally right in our society. They don’t care about the families they hurt.
Over the ten years, since Daniels abduction we have all watched and prayed for an answer. As a mother, I can’t even fathom what it was like for Denise and Bruce, let alone Daniels brothers. The Morcombe boys may be grown up now, but the day Daniel disappeared changed them in a way they will probably never recover from. I look to the strength that Denise and Bruce have held onto over the years, and I admire the pact that they made together to stand strong for Daniel. Many marriages would have crumbled under the pressure of losing a child, but not the Morcombes, they held on to each other for dear life. They decided to help and educate others. Their Daniel’s experience birthed a passion in them that helped keep them together, and so, out of Daniels tragedy birthed the the idea for the Daniel Morcombe foundation.
I hope that our school invites the Morcombes to speak with our kids about safety and what to look out for. The Daniel Morcombe foundation is one that we all should give money to. Click here to check out the Daniel Morcombe Foundation website. The Morcombes are passionate about keeping children safe.
The Daniel Morcombe foundation objectives are:
1. To educate children regarding their personal safety (including abduction).
2. To assist victims of crime, particularly where crime involves children.
3. To remember Daniel with suitable child safety community awareness events.
4. To support the families of Missing Persons particularly where it involves children
Daniels legacy will live on through the foundation, and I encourage you all to check out their website and see what they are up too. Make a plan to contribute to the foundation. I pray that through Daniel’s death that our broken system can be fixed.
One Comment
Beth Donna Mathews
I am constantly amazed that sometimes the most evil things people do show us the amazing ‘goodness’ in others. I was amazed (and brought to tears many times) after the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School fifteen months or so ago, in the middle of all that horribleness the stories came out about what extremes those teachers did to try and keep their kids safe and calm and try to distract them from everything going on around, even though they must have been terrified themselves. And I guess I see the same thing when I look at Daniel’s parents. No parent should have to go through that, and, as you said, it would have been so easy to fall apart, and no one would have blamed them if they had done so. But they have taken that terrible experience, and turned it into something good – a passion to teach kids safety so that no other parent has to go through what they do. And occassionally I hear stories of kids who are here safe and sound, because they did something that the Daniel Morcombe Foundation told them to do if they were in danger. What an amazing legacy Daniel’s (far too short) life, and his heartbroken parents’ are leaving in the world. I don’t know if I could do what they did.
And some people deserve to be locked up and the key thrown away. I can’t wait until the community’s safety is more important than some constant re-offender’s “right” for freedom after they serve some piddling sentence.