'No justice for my Justin'
joebee
By James MacSmith
June 6, 2004
Wests Tigers have failed at the last hurdle in a bid to have a footballer
play who is serving time in jail.
Justin Bishop, a 194-centimetre, 115-kilogram second-rower, was set to train
twice a week with the Tigers and play in games on the weekend as part of his
work release program.
Tigers assistant coach Royce Simmons was behind the club's move which would
have seen the giant former Penrith junior wear an electronic bracelet and be
accompanied by a guardian as part of strict release conditions.
Bishop is serving six years' jail with a non-parole period of three years,
after being
convicted of five counts of dangerous driving following an accident on the
Great Western Highway at St Marys in January 2001. A car carrying five
teenagers turned illegally in front of Bishop, who was travelling at 100kmh
in an 80kmh zone.
Bishop was a former Penrith lower grader who played with the likes of Craig
Gower, Tony Puletua and Ned Catic.
He is incarcerated in the low-security John Morony Correctional Centre at
Windsor and already spends his weekdays working as a roof framer and his
weekends at home. He is scheduled for parole in September.
Bishop's fiancee, Michelle Keighran, told the The Sun-Herald she felt her
partner was being unfairly treated by prison authorities.
"Justin doesn't know that I'm talking about this," Keighran said.
"He decided it was best to let it go and not rock the boat and risk
jeopardising his parole hearing. But I can't accept that.
"We've done everything, along with the Wests Tigers, that was asked of us to
make it happen but they just keep shutting doors in our face.
"As far as I can see there is no incentive for people like Justin in the
prison system to improve and rehabilitate themselves while they are in jail,
and prepare themselves for life outside.
"Justin wants to provide for his family and start a life after jail and
they're just not letting him do that.
"We feel deeply for the victims and there's not a day Justin doesn't think
about it. But he's got to be allowed to move on with his life."
The Tigers were prepared to let Bishop prove himself in their Jim Beam Cup
feeder club Ryde-Eastwood, and then work his way through premier league and
into the first-grade squad.
But the bid has been denied by the discretionary power of successive
governors at John Morony.
At 26, time is running out if Bishop is to achieve his goal of playing
professionally.
"We were prepared to give Justin a go, but things haven't worked out as we
had hoped," Simmons said.
"He showed some interest in playing for us, and Ryde-Eastwood were ready to
give him a start there. He's been through some tough times, and showed some
promise when he was young, but time is running out if he wants to be out
there."
Former Kangaroo Mark Geyer was a mentor of Bishop's in his final year at
Penrith in 2000.
"He had the football world at his feet, and then he was involved in this
tragedy," Geyer said.
"He had the recipe for success, but then he went to jail. He's remorseful
about what happened and he's got a child to look after. Everyone deserves a
second chance but it looks like he is being denied his."
A Corrective Services spokesperson said the decision not to allow Bishop to
play football was based on previous community outcry when John Payne was
released to play for Manly's rugby union team in 2001.
"The Payne case was a precedent and two experienced governors have made the
same decision on Justin," the spokesperson said.
"He is already in our work release program, and there is a pathway prepared
for him as he looks at life after prison."
Ben Gussey
news:Nuswc.7788$rz4....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
> convicted of five counts of dangerous driving following an accident on the
> Great Western Highway at St Marys in January 2001. A car carrying five
> teenagers turned illegally in front of Bishop, who was travelling at
100kmh
> in an 80kmh zone.
I'm not sure exactly what happened but basically, he got pinned for going 20
km/h over the speed limit?
I don't want to condone dangerous driving but *everyone* I know has done
this at one stage or another.
Regards,
Ben.
Chris Cox
news:40c269e3$0$31679$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
Yep, but I don't know anyone that's killed people as a result.
Greg Vincent }:c{»
Except this time it contributed to a collision.
paul
wrote:
(snip article)
So if he's a good boy he'll be out in September, and will be able to
play next season. It could be a lot worse.
paul
Colin Lord
"Chris Cox" <cj...@bludgingatwork.optushome.com.au> wrote in message
news:2if8o4F...@uni-berlin.de...
6 years jail, for what was equally if not more the fault of the other car
"teenagers turned illegally in front"? Rapists, thugs, robbers etc get less
time than this. There must be more to it than this.
Any one know if the other driver survived and is serving 6 years in jail for
an illegal turn?
DaNRL
John Beaver
"DaNRL" <asrlto...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2iicbrF...@uni-berlin.de...
Hang on. First it says;
The applicant was acquitted of the more serious charges of aggravated
dangerous driving (exceed speed limit by 45 kilometres per hour) occasioning
death and aggravated dangerous driving, (exceed speed limit by 45 kilometres
per hour) occasioning grievous bodily harm.
Then it says;
The applicant was driving his girlfriend's Holden Commodore sedan west on
that highway at St Mary's at a speed of more than 100 kilometres per hour
but less than 125 kilometres per hour. It was an 80 kilometre per hour zone.
So he was travelling between 20KPH and less than 45KPH over the limit. Yet
he was charged with dangerous driving (exceed limit by 45 KPH), gee no
wonder he was acquitted of that.
John Beaver
Colin Lord
A little. Interesting that he didn't attempt to get into the mind set of the
other driver though. 5 quite young males in the other car starts ringing
alarm bells for me. Young hoons will often attempt to burn across in front
of on coming traffic just because they are bored/think its cool. Maybe these
kids weren't like that, maybe they were. Who attempts to cross in front of
another car with just 20-25% margin of error (80kph to 100+kph), way to
close for common sense. Considering he must have nailed them hard to
100+kph, dropping back to 80 he might still have hit them. Yet there were
exonerated of any fault.
Such is the way of judges.
DaNRL
I think what you'll find happened was that it was likely he was travelling
faster than 45 over limit but (as he wasn't actually sped tested at the
time) they could only prove he was going faster than the speed limit but not
exactly how fast (just that it was a min of 20 over) so he was acquitted of
the higher charge. The second paragraph is a statement of fact and can only
include things that were proved in court.
Daniel.
DaNRL
At the end of the day it was an accident ... no one meant for it to happen.
The only thing we do know is that Bishop was breaking the law by speeding
excessively. On another note I know this intersection its at the bottom of
a hill and there's only a limited amount of the road you can see ahead when
you're making that right hand turn. Speed limits are set at what they are
for specific reasons, if people choose to ignore them accidents are going to
happen and they have to live with the consequences.
Daniel.