Community Protection Act
The Victorian Government faced the dilemma of respecting David's right to freedom and the protection of the community upon his release from prison. The government sought to keep David imprisoned indefinitely by introducing the Community Protection Act 1990. That legislation gave Victorian Supreme Court judges the power to hold David in "preventative detention" for twelve months if the judge was convinced by evidence before them that David was still a risk to the community and likely to commit further offences if released from prison.
David was an intelligent man, with significant literary, analytical and computer skills. But as he had a long history of responding to the most minor frustrations with violence, damage to property and self-harm, and refused on principle to co-operate with attempts to reduce such behaviours prior to his re-entry to society, the Supreme Court repeatedly applied the legislation to continue his confinement.
David committed suicide by inflicting wounds upon himself. They led to peritonitis and he died on 11 June 1993. At the time of his death aged 38, David was still a prisoner and had spent a total of 33 years in various institutions.
A similar act was passed by the Parliament of New South Wales in an attempt to enforce similar preventative detention against Gregory Wayne Kable. This act was challenged in Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) and overturned as unconstitutional.
The song, He's On The Run by Gene Bradley Fisk was written about David.
Read more about this topic: Garry David
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