TAS: Steve Randell expected to be released soon

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2001
TAS: Steve Randell expected to be released soon

By Don Woolford

HOBART, Aug 1 AAP - Disgraced former Test umpire Steve Randell, who was jailed for
four years in 1999 for child molesting, is likely to be released in about two months.

Government sources said Randell, imprisoned in August 1999, appeared before the Parole
Board on Monday.

The board called for additional reports and will reconsider his case in late September
or early October.

But Randell has been a model prisoner and unless something unexpected is put to the
board, it is expected to release him on parole.

Randell, 45, had stood in an Australian record 36 Tests when a Tasmanian Supreme Court
jury found him guilty of 15 charges of indecent assault against nine girls aged 11 and
12 while he was teaching at a Catholic primary school in Burnie in 1981 and 1982.

In sentencing Randell, Justice Peter Underwood said he was a serious paedophile who
had used the girls as his "sexual playthings".

Immediately after being sentenced Randell, who had been share teaching with his wife
Angela, a former Miss Tasmania, at a Hobart primary school, was sacked by the Education
Department.

He also lost his Australian Cricket Board contract.

In September 1999 the Crown dropped a further 14 charges of indecent assault of five
girls between 1982 and 1996 because it believed it would be difficult to ensure a fair
trial.

The sources said Randell had been a model prisoner.

He was originally held in E Yard at Risdon Prison, an area for prisoners who need protection
like child molesters and suspected police informers.

He was transferred to the medium-security Hayes Prison Farm early this year.

Under the Tasmanian system, prisoners who have stayed out of trouble may apply for
parole after serving half their sentences.

AAP dw/ns/sb

KEYWORD: RANDELL

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