News Service from House Harris

Qld: Killer's life sentence too harsh, court told

BRISBANE, Dec 1 AAP - A young man who shot and killed his brother as a 16-year-old is seeking to appeal his life sentence, claiming it is too harsh.

Lawyers for the now 18-year-old killer, who cannot be named, applied for leave to appeal the sentence in Queensland's Court of Appeal in Brisbane on Monday.

He was sentenced in September for the July 2007 murder of his 19-year-old brother, whom he shot in the head with a weapon from the family's gun safe, at Pittsworth, near Toowoomba.

He was 16 at the time.

The teenager had pleaded guilty to murder, interfering with a corpse, stealing and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

Defence barrister Soraya Ryan told the Court of Appeal the sentence was too harsh compared with penalties given for similar crimes.

She also argued a court order allowing her client to be named, despite his being sentenced as a juvenile, should be overridden.

She said the identification of the youth had punished his family and served no purpose for the protection of the community as he was incarcerated.

Prosecutor Michael Copley SC told the court the young man had committed cold-blooded, premeditated murder and had shown no remorse or concern for his parents.

He said the motivation for the callous murder had never been established, although there was a suggestion he planned to use his brother's name as a back-up false identity.

Mr Copley said the sentencing judge had stated the crime fell into the worst-case scenario for murder and therefore the sentence could not be considered manifestly excessive.

He also said allowing the man to be named was within the law for such a serious crime.

Justices Patrick Keane, John Muir and Hugh Fraser reserved their decision.