Read this.

[taranaki]

I killed Coral
11 December 2003

The man who murdered six-year-old Featherston girl Coral Burrows was freed on bail four times in the year before he clubbed her to death in a drug-fuelled rage.


Steven Roger Williams was allowed to stay in the community despite facing serious charges including assault, threatening to kill and burglary.

South Wairarapa's former top policeman, Don Finlayson, said Coral's savage murder could have been prevented had Williams been denied bail.

In Masterton District Court yesterday, Williams, 29, pleaded guilty to murdering his stepdaughter on September 9. It was his 89th conviction in a criminal career that includes assault, arson, threatening to kill and drug dealing. He will be sentenced on February 5.

In court, about 20 members of Coral's family watched in silence as Williams was led into the dock to answer the murder charge.

He spoke one word – "Guilty" – before being taken from court for security reasons while the full details of his crime were revealed. Many wept but remained silent after a warning from Judge John Walker that he would clear the courtroom if there was any disturbance.

The guilty plea was the latest chapter in Williams' long and often violent life of crime. It can now be revealed that police held serious concerns about the danger he posed.

Last year he was charged with three burglaries – offences he allegedly committed while on High Court bail for serious drug offences.

He later pleaded guilty to the drugs charges and was sentenced to home detention, and bail for the burglary charges continued after that sentence expired.

Then, on July 26 – while the burglary charges were still outstanding – he was charged with assault and threatening to kill. He was again bailed, this time unopposed, as police expected he would be remanded in custody because he had a history of violent offending.

Mr Finlayson said Williams should not have been released and, had he been remanded in custody, Coral might still be alive.

"He should have been locked up over the last 18 months. I can't help but think this killing of an innocent little girl should never have happened. If he had been in jail where he belonged, she would still be alive. It was an avoidable death."

Instead, Williams was allowed to remain at large and, weeks after his last court appearance, he clubbed Coral to death with a branch after bashing her in the family car when she refused to go to school.

Williams, who had spent the previous night smoking the pure methamphetamine drug P, told police he flew into a rage when Coral answered him back.

He half-climbed into the back seat of the car and held her head with his left hand while he punched her with his right. Her jaw was broken in two places and was protruding from her chin. She suffered brain damage and was bleeding heavily from her mouth.

Williams said he panicked and drove around South Wairarapa looking for a place to dump her. In the first available layby, he removed most of her clothing and continued on, eventually choosing a long, lonely driveway on a remote rural road to dispose of her.

As he lay her on the ground face first, she groaned and Williams struck the back of her head with a branch. This blow – which an autopsy found was delivered when Coral was still alive – broke her skull in two places and caused further brain damage and death.

Williams – who claimed he hit Coral with the branch because he did not want her to suffer – left the body, and went home. He then tried to get rid of the evidence, throwing Coral's clothes away and burning stained carpets from his car.

He later returned and placed the body in a sack before driving to the northern shore of Lake Onoke, where he threw it into a clump of toetoe.

Coral's father Ron Burrows said yesterday Williams should rot in jail. "The state he left my daughter's body in was disgusting . . . if he got anything less than 17 years I would be absolutely disgusted."

Mr Burrows said that when he was told his children's stepfather was a P user he pleaded with their mother Jeanna Cremen to throw Williams out, warning her that it could end in tragedy.

Mr Burrows, a 38-year-old invalid beneficiary, said he knew P made people dangerous and he did not want his children around a drug user.

Coral's cousin Neils Jensen said Williams deserved the death penalty.

"He can plead it was the influence of the drugs that pushed him, but he made clear choices when he killed Coral. He also deceived us."

.................................................. ................................................


What can I add to that apart from my anger and disgust?And why does it seem so common for stepfathers to be implicated in violence against children?This man is a habitual criminal,a drug user and now a child killer.There is no penalty available to the court system that will bring justice for his actions,and even if there were,they most likely wouldn't impose it.The laws preventing negligent and cruel people from keeping livestock are stronger than the laws that are meant to protect children.

[DayDreaM BelieveR]

That is very fucked. I think that explains my sentiments sufficiently...

[Steel]

Whoever was stupid enough to let him free all the time should be put in prison as well.

[Xv7vX]

I'm assuming that this took please in the USA
It very sad that the country i love so much has a system bad enough to let this happen. I cant even imagine what she went through.

It is horrible acts like this that test ALL of my physolical beliefs.

I'm at a loss for words to truely express how i feel.

[zebrathree]

Originally Posted by Xv7vX

I'm assuming that this took please in the USA
It very sad that the country i love so much has a system bad enough to let this happen. I cant even imagine what she went through.

It is horrible acts like this that test ALL of my physolical beliefs.

I'm at a loss for words to truely express how i feel.

I think you should look up the place names on a map.

WTF is physolical?

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by Xv7vX

I'm assuming that this took please in the USA

Sad to report that it happens all over the world.This time,it's New Zealand.


What disgusts me almost as much as the crime itself is the petty and sef-serving way that the Justice ministry is trying to duck out of failing this little girl so badly.


Locking Coral Burrows' murderer in jail instead of freeing him on bail would not necessarily have saved the six-year-old's life, Associate Justice Minister Lianne Dalziel says.


"In this particular case I suspect that the tragedy is that it was going to happen anyway; it was just a matter of time," Ms Dalziel told Parliament yesterday.

She faced questions from several MPs about how Steven Williams, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering Coral, had been allowed out on bail four times in the year before he killed her.

Williams had clocked up 88 criminal convictions for offences including burglary, violence, threatening to kill and serious drug crimes. At the time he killed Coral he was on bail on burglary charges.

Ms Dalziel rejected claims by former Wairarapa policeman Don Finlayson that, had Williams been kept locked up, Coral might never have been killed.

"The tragedy may well still have occurred later on once he was released from jail," she said. "This man seemed to be on a trajectory, starting with offences that go back into the 1990s."

Ms Dalziel said courts had decided when to bail Williams and, on at least one occasion, that had been against the advice of police.

National MP Tony Ryall asked if the case highlighted the Government's soft-on-crime policies. Ms Dalziel said laws were changed in 2000 so that bail was not automatically granted to inmates.

United Future MP Marc Alexander asked how effective the laws were, when Williams had been freed four times in the year before he killed Coral. National's Gerry Brownlee suggested the laws might need a revamp.

NZ First MP Ron Mark reminded Parliament that Justice Minister Phil Goff had often criticised National when it was in government over the number of crimes committed while offenders were on bail.

But Ms Dalziel said MPs were playing politics with a tragedy. "The blame for that appalling and tragic crime must be placed firmly where it belongs, which is at the feet of Steven Williams, who has now been convicted of murder. There is no point playing politics with this appalling tragedy."

The blame for this tragedy would never have needed to be allocated if perhaps the justice system would recognise that a drug addict with 88 prior convictions[and God only knows how many other undetected offences] should never be allowed loose in the community.This pathetic excuse for a man should be left to die in jail.Executing him would never bring Coral back,but it would rid this country of a worthless liability.

[Oz]

Get ready for another exciting round of 'pass the blame' from the politicians.

Absolutely pathetic. This tragedy could serve a greater purpose if it can be used to change the system that allowed it to happen.

I am absolutely disgusted that it happened, and more disgusted at how similar politics is worldwide.

[jon@af]

What a wonderful world. It really makes me want to bring children into it someday

[Ace$nyper]

I almost feel bad for the people who let him go really think about what they have to live with knowing they caused. still what they did was wrong and its a shame to hear.

[bobby28384]

That is really sick!! Sympathy for her family. I have a really young sister just her age.....

Another example--why the FUCK should this person not get the death penalty?? Would all the crying, PMSing, death penalty hater mothers think this person should waste our resources and money to rot in jail? Hell no!! Just kill the damned bastard!!

[zebrathree]

Because we are a civilised country.

[gtkriss]

that really sucks, i mean, cmon! Letting that dude out all those times! Jesus Christ, what has the world come to?

[banditkiller]

Who knows what the world has come to. I sure as hell dont. That story is absolutely fucked up. Im not sure what else to say. Seeing as I have a newborn son of my own, I dont know what I would do as a parent if I were to lose him. I can only try and imagine what that poor girls father felt when he hard what happened. Shoot the fucker... better yet.... kill him in the same fashion he killed that little girl... just so HE has an inkling of what it might have felt like. End rant.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by zebrathree

Because we are a civilised country.

How can you justify that claim when we can let people like this out on bail?

[airforceone]

88 convictions? There is something be said about that. Back in Michigan, three convictions equals a life sentence. Having 10 plus and getting bail? No way. Terrible what happened to the little girl, and it was not a matter of time before it was going to happen!