Killer Who Stabbed Teen 48 Times Walks Free, Name Still Suppressed

KEY POINTS

A convicted murderer in Australia was released from prison Monday
He fatally stabbed a 15-year-old teen in 2005 but cannot be named as he was a minor at the time of the killing
The victim's parents are now calling for the murderer's name to be made public

A man in Australia who murdered a teenage girl more than 17 years ago walked free this week with his identity remaining unexposed to the public.

The convicted killer, identified only as DL, fatally stabbed 15-year-old Tania Burgess after the minor hopped off a school bus and walked through the carpark of Forresters Beach Resort in New South Wales’ Central Coast on July 19, 2005, News.com.au reported.

DL, who was 16 at the time of the attack, stabbed Burgess a total of 48 times.

He was sentenced on the evening of the killing and was later convicted of murder, earning him at least 17 years and a maximum of 22 years in jail.

An appeal reduced the sentence by four years in 2018, and he had been eligible for parole since then.

DL, now 32, was released from Sydney's Cessnock Jail Monday, a report by 9News.com.au said.

In a hearing, Justice James Wood accepted the expert advice from the Serious Offenders Review Council, who said that DL should be released with supervision before his full-time sentence expired.

The priority is supervision to foster DL's reintegration and the protection of the public, the council wrote in their report.

DL must now provide authorities daily notifications of all his movements and undergo treatment by a forensic psychologist, along with other strict conditions.

He still cannot be named as he was a minor when he killed Burgess, according to 7News.com.au.

The deceased teen's family is now fighting to change the law and calling for DL's name to be publicly revealed in the interest of "public safety.”

"What I care more about is that he will not hurt any other family again like he did to us," Mandy Burgess, Tania's mother, told Channel 9, according to News.com.au.

"[I]t's not like they stole a car, they did something significantly more serious, so they should be accountable for their crimes, not just able to hide behind anonymity," Tania's father, Chris Burgess, told Sunrise last month.

The couple met with a handful of ministers to discuss the suppression order on DL.

A petition for law reform that would see exceptions to the anonymity rule for offenders of the most heinous crimes has reportedly gathered 150,000 signatures.