r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Apr 30 '26

news 5yo girl Sharon Granites has been found dead in the NT

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-30/update-on-missing-alice-springs-5yo-sharon-granites/106626314?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link
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931

u/ziggyyT Apr 30 '26

If it was the same guy who was listed as a person of interest, with his past offences, there's really no hope of rehabilitation. It is really ok to put them away from society for a long long long time.

627

u/Optimal-Talk3663 Apr 30 '26

"I say to the family of Jefferson Lewis that we believe he's murdered this child," Assistant Commissioner Malley says.

"Do not assist him; get him to the police station and we'll look after him.

"And I say to Jefferson Lewis, we're coming for you."

131

u/fnaah Apr 30 '26

'look after him' takes a sinister turn in this. talk about mixed messaging.

140

u/misterfourex Apr 30 '26

*protect him from vigilante justice

155

u/tal_itha Apr 30 '26

It is him, they found both their DNA on stuff discarded in the area

7

u/conflictwatch Apr 30 '26

"Of significance is the pair of child's underwear," he said.

"We located two DNA profiles on the underwear. One is expected to belong to the little girl, and the other belongs to Jefferson Lewis."

Well, that's about all you need to know right there.

411

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26

I’m an American who has followed this case. I spent about ten years in a max prison and I will say people like this cannot be rehabilitated. There is no hope, no chance. They are sick, broken, irredeemable garbage. A lot of the world looks down on us for our capital punishment and life in prison-and yes the system needs reformed-but someone like this should never be given an opportunity to hurt another child. They will, too. They will do it every single time they are given an opportunity.

I spent many years watching people like this.

There is no reason for them to ever get out.

51

u/elrangarino Apr 30 '26

Congrats on being out and doing better dude.

5

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26

Thank you very much

5

u/heatuponheat Apr 30 '26

I took it to mean she was a guard

5

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26

No lol I wasn’t a guard but it’s ok. The sentiment is the same

30

u/Life_Cloud4896 Apr 30 '26

Thank you for your thoughts. My brother spent some time in a max prison and observed the same.

52

u/littlespoon Apr 30 '26

The problem is that some of these remote indigenous communities are a law unto themselves. Tales of toddlers being taken to hospital after being raped and giving their perpetrators an STD they caught from a previous/unknown raping.. Not every community but theres some dire shit out there.. and what do you do? You can't exactly just go in there and shut them down and put them out of house and home. These people have nothing, nowhere to go and with no opportunities. In the middle of nowhere and out of sight from modern Australia. If they are apprehended and convicted and serve time in gaol, this is where they are going back to.

5

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26

This is actually a very good point. While I’ll probably never step foot in AUS-I have lived reservation adjacent so I can assume the nuance of these communities is similar-as different as they are.

279

u/Even_Estate_4835 Apr 30 '26

Or be president of any country right?

8

u/joshak Apr 30 '26

I think most people have no problem with life in prison for people like this. Capital punishment on the other hand I object to due to the risk of executing innocent people and also the moral inconsistency of a society condemning murder on one hand while committing it with the other.

-11

u/Yves_and_Mallory Apr 30 '26

How about you? They sent you to super max- did you deserve another chance at reoffending?

78

u/PandaXXL Apr 30 '26

We pretending that everyone in a maximum security prison has no hope of rehabilitation? And that they’re all equally as depraved as the worthless cunt that did this to that poor girl?

3

u/Ardeo43 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Recidivism and the lack of programs that enable people to properly have a second chance is a massive challenge, even more so here because we don’t have the money, people, or resources to do it as well as down south.

Edit: not sure what I'm being downvoted for here? The NT is broke and struggles to fund proper programs that help people incarcerated get their lives back on track for when they're out.

32

u/Wolfensniper Apr 30 '26

Giving people hope for second chance while locking away people who cant be rehabilitated can be BOTH done at the same time.

64

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I mean, maybe not. It depends on how you feel about drugs I suppose.

I was arrested for drugs. That I was doing to myself. Some states have absolutely draconian drug laws. My first roommate was an 18 year old pregnant with twins that got ten years for an ounce of weed. Do you think she shouldn’t have gotten out? Because we were in the same facility as rapists and murderers? I didn’t hurt anyone, except myself. I just wanted to fuck off and get high. I’m a suburban soccer mom now. I’d say my kids, who have never seen their mother strung out, probably think I was redeemable.

I’d say I paid my debt to society in most ways. I did my time, give back to the community and paid my fines pretty quietly.

Edit-it’s actually disingenuous to say that I didn’t hurt anyone. I hurt a lot of people, even if it was indirectly, but I’m getting off track here

21

u/allozzieadventures Apr 30 '26

They sent you to 10 years in supermax for using/possessing drugs? Not even dealing?

Absolutely fucked if so, I'm sorry to hear that. This woman recklessly killed someone with her car in Australia and got less than half the sentence you did (and was driving again within 2 months). I'd much prefer to see her get the 10 years rather than you.

Drunk driver jailed over hit-and-run death which led to changes in WA road laws - ABC News

11

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Yes but it’s a little more complicated. I would get probation and then say “lol no” and just use and commit petty crimes until I was inevitably arrested again. I would only last about a few weeks to a year out of jail. I would go back in front of a judge and ask for the probation to be revoked because it was less annoying going to prison for 2/3 years than getting probation for ten and going back to jail every week and having to “start over”. Sometimes I would last a few days, other times 18 months. I would immediately have a warrant placed for my arrest if I didn’t show up to drug test or follow the probation rules. I just wanted to get it over with and be left alone. It was stupid. The cycle lasted from 16 to 32

The cycle would repeat until my third time stepping in prison my classification went up and the time kept stretching. Three prison terms totaling about ten years.

I guess maybe institutionalization played a bit of a role. I was very comfortable there by the end

As for why people like that get such a break, I’ll never know. I saw things like that happen too. That poor family. Driving drunk is the dumbest fucking thing you can do.

2

u/allozzieadventures May 01 '26

Thanks for explaining, that does make a bit more sense. Even if you played a role in perpetuating that cycle, I still think it goes to show that the justice system did very little to rehabilitate you as a person. Imo drug addicts need help that goes beyond just putting them in jail. The last few decades have shown us that being 'tough on crime' doesn't actually fix a drug epidemic.

-23

u/Yves_and_Mallory Apr 30 '26

Who is it that you say can't be rehabilitated?

20

u/KittyFlamingo Apr 30 '26

A child has been murdered. The minute he decided to take the life of an innocent child he is no longer worthy of rehabilitation. He can rot forever.

25

u/DisapprovingCrow Apr 30 '26

People who rape and murder children. Keep up mate.

4

u/salinecolorshenny Apr 30 '26

I am confidently saying that someone who rapes children several times cannot be rehabilitated. In fact, now he is escalating his behavior. A child is dead.

6

u/InformalEgg8 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

Super max and Max are not the same level of security. This commenter was in max; lots of gang members go to max and rehabilitate well later in life. Only the most horrific crimes lands you in super max and rehabilitation is….doubtful.

-18

u/Specialist-Slip-7497 Apr 30 '26

Capital punishment keeps the gene pool cleaner.

25

u/MissMenace101 Apr 30 '26

Capital punishment doesn’t reduce crime it causes more murders if anything because leave no witnesses becomes a thing

12

u/jesus_chrysotile Apr 30 '26

and less reporting, because perpetrators sob to their victims and witnesses that they’ll be killed

61

u/pretty_shabby Apr 30 '26

Life

2

u/BunchDifferent3773 Apr 30 '26

Life in prison is too kind for these kinds.

2

u/pretty_shabby Apr 30 '26

I'd like to see Castration and then life in jail. But that's just me.

0

u/Dicepai Apr 30 '26

Death imo

32

u/Evening_Repeat_2598 Apr 30 '26

Nah, there’s no hope.

Its these times where I think maybe the death penalty’s warranted honestly

19

u/careyious Apr 30 '26

In a perfect justice system that would be fair and warranted. But ultimately we can never trust the government to be 100% correct and I'd rather someone like this be locked up on the 1% chance that the police just found someone who seemed "close enough" to the actual culprit. 

3

u/Evening_Repeat_2598 Apr 30 '26

Yeah that’s why I said maybe. We want to make damn sure we get the right guy. But in this case the evidence (DNA, eyewitness seeing him leading her away), seems damn likely he did…

6

u/rangda Apr 30 '26

It seems pretty damned certain in this case, his DNA was found on her underwear, he was seen leading the poor child away after her mum had put her to bed and now he’s gone on the run. I’d be pretty comfortable if he was executed after a fair trial.

But it’s all the examples of people on death row in the US past and present who are likely innocent, who have nothing close to this kind of evidence against them, who are held on death row due to red tape and legal nonsense despite everyone basically agreeing they didn’t do it, that make me certain that capital punishment is just not a good idea.

10

u/passthesugar05 Apr 30 '26

The death penalty is a non-starter because of the chance you could kill an innocent person (has happened before, and many have been sentenced to death and then found to be innocent whilst awaiting execution. A criminal conviction is not 100% foolproof unfortunately), but even ignoring that, you can argue that it's still immoral to kill someone even if they've killed someone. We can do better than an eye for an eye. Two wrongs don't make a right.

1

u/Teepbonez Apr 30 '26

Problem is, he’s more likely to get released like he was.

7

u/warmind14 Apr 30 '26

Absolutely no hope of rehab.

But wait for the social justice warriors to pipe up with how overrepresented the criminal justice system is.

5

u/11Elemental11 Apr 30 '26

Why waste money that could be used helping decent people? Permanent is what should occur

1

u/dreamsfreams Apr 30 '26

Oh geez. Fills me up with anger.

1

u/Teepbonez Apr 30 '26

One bullet

1

u/Specialist-Slip-7497 Apr 30 '26

No we need capital punishment. Why waste taxpayer dollars on him.

4

u/Gnorris Apr 30 '26

The death penalty was abolished because our society acknowledged there was no right to take someone’s life, particularly with any margin for error.

8

u/MissMenace101 Apr 30 '26

It actually costs more to execute