Valmae Beck, Sian Kingi's killer, is 'close to death'
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May 07, 2008 10:38am
QUEENSLAND Senator George Brandis has defended the rights of child killer Valmae Beck to government-funded heart surgery and says she must be given the basic human right of health care.
Beck, 64, was placed in a coma last night after her condition deteriorated following minor heart surgery on Monday.
Readers on The Courier-Mail's website reacted with outrage yesterday when the story broke and Brandis today told ABC's morning radio host Madonna King that the newspaper was wrong to brand the story "'Let Her Die With Shame" in today's edition.
"The headline in The Courier-Mail this morning is a disgrace," Brandis said.
"It is an accepted basic civilised standard of the criminal justice system that prisoners be provided with reasonable health-care needs."
Backing Brandis on the subject was Labor's federal member for Rankin, Craig Emerson.
"Politicians should have enough courage to not take a populous line on this and I am delighted Craig and I seem to be of common mind here," Brandis said.
"We do not want to live in a brutal society.
"We want to live in a society in which people who commit crimes receive appropriate punishment.
"In the case of this person she received the most severe punishment that our society can impose."
Emerson said people needed to put their emotions aside when determining if Beck deserved health care which was a basic human right.
"I can understand the emotion because of the horror of the crime, but if we go past that first step where some of your listeners are saying she should die, who makes the judgment and in what circumstances," Emerson said.
Queensland police minister Judy Spence says Beck is receiving the basic health care although there is little hope she will survive.
She said some police wanted Beck to come out of her induced coma so they could question her on a several unsolved cases.
One of the cases is believed to be an unsolved murder.
``They are not holding a lot of hope for her future, but obviously she is getting good care in hospital,'' Spence said.
``There are a small number of police who would hope she doesn't die just yet because I know there are police who have dealt with her and Barry Watts over the years who believe that she still may have information on unsolved crimes.
``They would like, at this point of time when she faces her own mortality, see if she has something else to say.''
Beck has previously been treated for chest pains and shortness of breath and is believed to be 150kg - morbidly obese for her 160cm frame.
She is one of Queensland's most hated criminals, along with her former husband, Barrie Watts, serving a life's jail sentence in Rockhampton.
Together the pair plotted to rape and murder a virgin, in order to fulfil Watts's desire to be "the first and last sexual partner" of a young girl.
Along with Watts, Beck lured Sian Kingi, 12, into a car by pretending to look for a lost dog.
They took her to a forest, where she was tortured, raped and strangled in a crime that sickened detectives and horrified the Noosa community.
Six days after Sian's murder on November 27, 1987, the schoolgirl's body was found in Tinbeerwah Forest.
In 2005, Beck was moved to Townsville Correctional Centre from Brisbane where she was given a kitchen job and her weight ballooned to 140kg.
She was taken to hospital in July that year, and was again admitted in 2006 complaining of chest pains.
Last night one of Beck's six children went to Townsville to visit her in hospital.
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Have Your Say
Latest Comments:
perhaps her catholic priest can be persuaded to get her to confess and clear up a lot of crime.
Posted by: michael lockhart of toowoomba qld. 11:40am today
Reading the Hate and Kill messages it is not difficult to see how the likes of Beck & Watts evolve from such a society.
Posted by: Jeff of Brisbane 11:31am today
I cannot, even after all these years, drive past where Sian was taken from without thinking about her and remembering her. I have never met Sian or her family but the memory of her ordeal will stay with me always and that a mother did this. I also imagine that Valmae has been getting what she deserves in Jail. May she live longer to get some more.
Posted by: Martina Gaynor of Brisbane 11:27am today
I dont want revenge and I dont hate her but I dont wont others waiting whilst she is operated on or occupies a bed she should be last once everyone else is cared for and seen to regardless of how long it takes and she should be woken up and asked about other unsolved murders for the greater good and the sake of the victims and their families. This is not bile or blood lust just fair and reasonable and showing compassiion for the vicitms and families.
Posted by: Andrew Z of Brisbane 11:25am today
You must read comment 175. That shows what an animal Watts was. That man did it and Beck was aiding it. Capital punishment is the only way. Why did they end capital punishment and let people live for crimes so horrible?
Posted by: John of Qld 11:25am today
Hey Steve Bee of Brisbane, don't too harsh on 'The Don of Brisbane'. In my next life, I am coming back as a criminal. Why you ask? Well its gotta be better then getting up every day going to work, getting crappy money and watching criminals of the world getting 3 meals a day, medical care, a bed to lie on and gym equipment for free.
Let's just hope people, my concious and morals that I have now don't follow me in my next life.
Posted by: Alexis of Brisbane 11:23am today
Read all 218 commentswe are just wasting the money that is given to Queensland hospitals on this wast of skin! It seems if you need medical treatment then go to jail after all a person that has committed out right ha-nus crimes, your health is more important then if your a law abiding tax payer! as we have to be on the waiting list for surgical things in hospital yet the ones that are not paying taxes and don't obey the laws of the land get in and out so much faster let her die in pain and in a cell like she should.... she did not show any compassion to her victim yet now we have to try and fix her? why? so we can keep paying for her to be feed, clothed, and so forth shorley there is a better way to do this! the state government should be making it so that none of the public hospitals have to treat owe inmates make them pay for it them self or if there family wont's them to live then let them pay for privet health cover and not be a burden on the tax payers... personally i think that after the person is out of jail they should have to pay the state back for housing them, like they do with immigration detentions centers
Posted by: Mark Brown of inala 11:23am today
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