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 NSW 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, 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 he’s done,’ her father, Mr Burgess, told 9News.
Tania’s mother said there was no justice for her daughter as her killer would walk free and remain anonymous.
‘Whether he was a youth at that age or 16 or now in this thirties as a man. I’ll never forget it,’ Ms Burgess said.
‘What I care more about is that he will not hurt any other family again like he did to us.
‘There’s no justice. It’s just a legal system we abide by.
‘What happened to Tania, there is no justice. Nothing to what happened to her and what we saw that day is justice.’
Tania was taking a shortcut home through Forrester’s Beach Resort (pictured) carpark when DL – a boy she caught the bus with but did not go to school with – attacked her
After being identified by a dying Tania, DL was arrested on the evening of the horrific murder. He received the maximum term of 22 years but on appeal had his sentence reduced by four years
The NSW State Parole Authority on June 23 accepted expert advice that strongly recommended DL should be released with supervision before his full sentence expired next year.
Justice James Wood said conditions of DL’s parole included around the clock electronic monitoring which was critical in keeping the community safe.
‘The priority is now supervision to foster his reintegration and the protection of the public,’ the report, by the Serious Offenders Review Council, stated.
DL must follow a total of 15 bail conditions including providing authorities with daily notifications of all his movements, be electronically monitored and engage with treatment by a forensic psychologist.
Justice Wood extended the parole authority’s deepest sympathies to Tania’s parents who were present in court during the hearing.
Tania’s parents, Chris and Mandy Burgess (pictured, with their murdered daughter Tania and their other daughter Gemma), are petitioning for the identity of their daughter’s murderer to be known to the public
That fateful day in 2005, Tania was taking a shortcut home through Forrester’s Beach Resort carpark when DL – a boy she caught the bus with but did not go to school with – attacked her.
Holidaymakers saw DL standing above Tania before they rushed to her aide as she lay dying in a pool of blood, struggling to breathe.
While most of the stab wounds DL inflicted were shallow, one reached Tania’s heart.
DL was arrested on the evening of the horrific murder after Tania identified him moments before she died.
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 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 petition 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.’
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