Parole for Lim, all bar the shouting

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 30 October 2009

When Justice Jack Slattery sentenced Phillip Choon Tee Lim for the murder of the pioneering heart surgeon Victor Chang he said: ''The objective seriousness of the murder is not aggravated by the stature and status of the victim.''

It seems that a section of the public and the tabloid press disagree with that. To kill an important person deserves no release on parole, or maybe - depending on the direness of the bloviating - no release ever.

The copper who led the investigation into Chang's murder, the former inspector Dennis O'Toole, asked: ''How many people have died because Victor Chang isn't around?''