"Justice has been done for our little boy.”
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With those words Patrick Jackson, the father of murdered toddler Jakeel Jackson, summed up the feelings of the boy’s family almost 18 months after he was killed in a Brisbane Street unit.
In Sydney Supreme Court yesterday, 21-year-old Matthew Allen James Dennis was sentenced to a backdated term of 26 years and 8 months in prison for Jakeel’s murder.
He will serve a non-parole period of 20 years, which means the earliest he can be released is April 16, 2028.
In sentencing Dennis, Acting Justice Graham Barr referred to Dennis’ prior character and the severity of the attack.
“I may say confidently that the offender’s assault was out of character,” he said.
“The manner of the attack on such a young child and the serious nature of the resulting injuries tend to make this objectively a more serious case.
“In my opinion this case falls in about the middle range of objective seriousness, perhaps a little below it.”
Mention was also made of the circumstances surrounding Dennis’ time in jail.
Acting Justice Barr told the court that Dennis is “at risk of attack from members of the general jail population because of the nature of his offence”.
He also made mention that Dennis has been been out of his cell for only two hours during any period of 24 hours, a state of affairs which may continue for some time.
An 11-member jury found Dennis guilty in October after a trial that lasted 14 days in Orange Supreme Court.
During that trial, media outlets were unable to name Jakeel for legal reasons.
However, with the permission of both sides of Jakeel’s family, today we can do so.
Yesterday, after Acting Justice Graham Barr handed down the sentence, members of Jakeel’s family spoke of their relief.
“I would have liked to see him get life but it’s not up to me,” Patrick Jackson said.
“At the end of the day I am happy that he will be serving a lengthy sentence for what he did. Justice has been done for our little boy.
“I was happy when the jury found him guilty and I am happy today. Hopefully now Jakeel can lay exactly to rest because we’ve found out what happened to him.”
Jakeel’s grandfather, Greg Cross, echoed Mr Jackson’s comments.
“It’s the best sentence that could have happened,” he said.
“Obviously we are not happy with what happened, but we are happy that the person that did it will pay the price for what he did.”
The case dates back to the morning of March 21, 2008, when Jakeel, who was 23 months old at the time, was found unconscious and not breathing in his cot.
Ambulance officers attempted to revive the boy but were unable to do so.
Strike Force Yarrol was established to investigate the circumstances behind Jakeel’s death and on April 17, 2008, Dennis was charged with murder.
His trial was held at Orange Supreme Court in October of this year, where an 11-member panel decided that Dennis had murdered the child by ramming his head up against a wall on numerous occasions.
During the trial, the court heard that Jakeel died as a result of injuries caused by “multiple applications of blunt force trauma to the head”.
That statement came from Professor Timothy Lyons, the man that performed the autopsy on Jakeel.
The autopsy revealed that the youngster had suffered a severe skull fracture as well as bruising and swelling to the brain.
ben.walker@ruralpress.com