*Please Note - THERE was an error in the Editorial which appeared in the print edition of the Northern Daily Leader on Friday (24th June), which referred to 'claims Mr Turner had been under immense stress' leading up to the shooting incident in July 2014. It should have read "There's been claims (in court proceedings) Mr Turnbull was under immense stress". We apologise for any misconceptions and distress that error may have caused.
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To go further and be clearer - there is no excuse for murder. Mr Turner's young children will grow up without him, his wife will not grow old with him, all because one man decided he was above the law. There's no excuse for his behaviour - the judge made that abundantly clear when handing Mr Turnbull a 'defacto' life sentence and we as a community applaud that. No one is above the law and that should be a warning to others. Some in the community would have us believe this was an issue over land clearing - it wasn't, it never will be. This was about one man who did not respect the law, nor his fellow man, and Glen Turner and his family have paid the ultimate price for that absolute disregard.
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Finally the book has closed, at least officially, on one of the darkest episodes in our region’s history.
Yesterday, Croppa Creek farmer Ian Turnbull was sentenced to 35 years jail for murdering environmental officer Glen Turner in July 2014.
The 81-year-old will spend at least the next 24 years in jail, in what the judge has described as a defacto life sentence, after he was found guilty last month of the shooting death of Mr Turner.
The father of two young children was gunned down on the job, which was the culmination of a long-running dispute between the farmer and the department over land clearing issues.
The judge described the murder of a public official as a very serious offence, and rightly so, saying that Mr Turner was just doing his job.
No matter where you stand on the issue of land cleaning, and let’s not pull any punches, it’s a contentious issue out in the bush where our farmers are under pressure from all sides, but it does not justify murder – no matter how you look at it.
There’s been claims Mr Turnbull was under immense stress and no-one for a minute doubts that, but it doesn’t account for a life taken in such horrific circumstances and a family left to grieve, left to face the challenges of life without a father, a husband, a brother.
In this case justice has indeed prevailed.
In effect it’s a life sentence for Mr Turnbull because, at 81 years of age, he will never be a free man again.
It would be fair to say there are no winners in this case, indeed everyone is a loser.
