Janine's killers got 'cruel' treatment

EXCLUSIVE

Teen killers' life sentences attacked: A report in the Herald on June 23, 1990, on the trial of Matthew Elliott, left, who was 16, and Wayne Jamieson, who was 22, when they murdered Janine Balding, right, pictured with her fiance. Photo: Supplied

The life sentences handed to two teenagers who committed one of the state's most notorious and abhorrent crimes are a "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment", the United Nations has found.

The abduction, rape and murder of 20-year-old Janine Balding in 1988 devastated a loving family and shocked citizens because of its brutal violence and the fact the pre-meditated "thrill kill" was undertaken by a gang of homeless youths.

Bronson Matthew Blessington and Matthew James Elliott, aged 14 and 16, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, never to be released unless they were dying or so physically incapacitated they could not commit a crime.

Killed: Janine Balding was 20 when she was abducted and murdered. Photo: Supplied

In a judgment that will rekindle debate about the criminal culpability of minors and victims' rights, the United Nations' Human Rights Committee found that the sentence breached the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as there was no genuine chance of release, even if the men were fully rehabilitated.

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According to the UN, the prison term and highly remote prospect of parole breached article 7 of the covenant that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

The sentence contravened another article in the covenant that juveniles be punished as minors and that penitentiary systems have rehabilitation as an "essential aim".

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Janine's killers got 'cruel' treatment