Kate Moir Activist

My name is Kate Moir.
I am the only survivor of serial killers.
I was very lucky to escape their clutches but I did not escape unscathed.

I am campaigning to revoke mandatory parole hearings for murderers in Western Australia and to overhaul parole legislation Australia wide.
I am also campaigning to improve our justice system through the instigating of harsher penalties for violent crimes including rape, pedophilia, grievous bodily harm, domestic violence and assault plus pushing for the introduction of uniformity of sentencing throughout the States of Australia.

In November 1986, when I was seventeen years old, I was abducted at knifepoint by David and Catherine Birnie, Australia's worst serial killing couple, whilst on my way home from The Claremont Hotel after an evening out with friends. Twelve hours later, after being their hostage and enduring two sexual assaults,  I was certain that they were going to kill me but with desperation I managed to escape.

My escape led to their capture and arrest. Although adamantly stating that I had agreed to go home with them and consented to sexual intercourse, they eventually capitulated and confessed to multiple rapes and the murder of four women. They were charged with four counts of deprivation of liberty and aggravated sexual assault and with four counts of murder for killing three women and a girl between October and November 1986. They were also charged with deprivation of liberty and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in relation to me.

In February 1987 they were sentenced to four life terms for their murder of Susannah Candy, Mary Neilson, Noelene Patterson and Denise Brown plus ten years for deprivation of liberty and twenty years for raping me twice. However, the life sentences effectively meant that their sentences of thirty years for my abduction and rape were forgotten. The Court ordered that their life sentences were to be served concurrently, meaning they were only to serve twenty years before being considered for release.

I always knew that they would be considered for parole and maybe get out when I was only thirty-seven years old. I have lived my life waiting for the day that they would re-enter society and their impending release has always haunted me. The crimes that they committed against me and the other women have never been far from my mind. I believe that if I had received justice, this would not be the case.

He hung himself in Casuarina Maximum Security Prison in 2005 but she has been up for parole four times since 2007, her latest parole hearing being in February 2016. I spent my birthday on the phone to the Parole Review Board. In Western Australia and in many other States it is mandatory for murderers to be considered for parole after serving their minimum sentence and the maximum sentence of life imprisonment is twenty years in Western Australia.

Twenty years is not life in prison. I am championing the peoples voice and speaking for all the victims who can no longer speak. I am speaking for the families, relatives and friends of rape and murder victims who are traumatized on a three yearly basis as violent criminals are considered for parole. I am speaking for the husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and children who live in fear of their loved one’s murderer being released. And I am speaking for everyone who doesn’t want to be the victims of these violent crimes at the hands of a recidivist.

I am campaigning for truth in sentencing as opposed to sentences immediately being reduced for a plea of guilty and time spent in remand.
I am campaigning for no parole for premeditated murderer and repeat sex offenders and the revocation of mandatory parole. Murderers revoke their right to return to society upon taking another’s life. Rehabilitation is not an option for the crime of murder. They have taken away the ability of another to live, love and enjoy life – I demand that they, in return, forfeit their life and are punished with life imprisonment. Similarly, repeat sex offenders have shown that they cannot be rehabilitated.

I am also campaigning for harsher penalties for violent crimes such as murder, rape, pedophilia, assault and incest.

Many relatives of murder victim’s have approached me from all over Australia. Their stories are traumatic and full of horror, sadness and injustice. For too long the legal system has been geared and strengthened to empower the perpetrators of crime with lessening resources being allocated to victims of crime and society in general.

Murderers get publicly funded Queens Counsels to represent them whilst a poorly resourced Police Service and Department of Public Prosecutions attempts to prove guilt and a sentence reflective of the gravity of the crime committed. Too often sentences are reduced on appeal.

This is an election issue and I will be fighting this fight until at least March 2017 in Western Australia before campaigning throughout the nation. When I win this fight I am going to tackle other taboo issues such as domestic violence, the Mental Health system and the inequity and horror of the Family Court. I am advocating for victims and survivors of crime and their relatives and standing up for the underdogs.

Please sign my petition https://www.change.org/p/the-attorney-general-s-reformation…
And please help me. Every donation helps me to get the laws changed.

Myself and others like  me have suffered enough. Thank you.