Outrage over infant hurler's release

by Natalia Machado

April 1, 2008

A VICTIM support group is outraged a man convicted in 2005 of inflicting grievous bodily harm on his 3-year-old daughter has been released from gaol after only serving three years in prison.

“There is just one word for it, ‘mindboggling’,” Cathy Kezelman of Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse said. “The child has a life sentence for which she is not at fault, this is not justice.

“This man’s release brings concerns for the health and welfare of other children and families.”

On March 12 2005, Terrance John Bice tried to put his 3-year-old daughter to sleep but lost patience when she continued to cry. He threw the infant to the bedroom floor where she hit her head, lost consciousness and started having seizures.

The impact seriously and permanently damaged the child’s brain. Bice later acknowledged he’d  been influenced by amphetamines that may have contributed to his behaviour.

Bice was originally sentenced to five years prison, but his release on March 13 meant he only spent one day shy of three years in gaol. He is now in an intensive residential domestic violence rehabilitation program, where he will have to undergo regular urine analysis.

“This one life has been permanently altered because of this man’s actions,” Cathy Kezelman added, “and he has received a get out of a jail free card, absolutely incredible.”

The Prisoners Review Board reasoned Bice would benefit from the residential domestic violence program, that was unavailable to him in prison. As the sentence was Bice’s first term in the clink, the board reasoned, he would “benefit from the supervision and control of parole conditions”.