State Parole Authority secretary Paul Byrnes admitted community outrage over the possibility of child killer Austin Allan Hughes being released was “understandable” as “the crime was dreadful, there’s no way of getting around that”.

However, he believed a release now was in the community’s best interests.

Hughes and a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons were initially jailed for 21 years for bashing to death the woman’s six-year-old son John Ashfield in a unit in Shorland Place, Nowra, on August 4, 1993.

Their sentences were later reduced in separate appeals to 19 years, leaving them eligible for parole two years ago, while the sentences will expire in August 2012.

Mr Byrnes said when Hughes’ sentence finished he would be released without any conditions or ongoing monitoring if he had not been released on parole earlier, and would even be free to move next door to family members of the young boy he killed.

“The best way to protect the community is to release him with some conditions, some controls,” Mr Byrnes said.

He added the SPA could not go back to increase the original sentence imposed by the judicial system, but could only look at how to best protect the community.

However family members of John Ashfield are determined to keep Hughes and the boy’s mother behind bars.

John’s aunt, Annette Ashfield, questioned why Hughes should be allowed to go free when John would never be freed from his grave at Kanahooka.

“He’s still a young man, he could get out and have kids, start a new life,” Ms Ashfield said.

“He should never be allowed to have kids,” added Ms Ashfield’s cousin Audrey Golden-Brown of Nowra.

Ms Ashfield said John’s surviving siblings all suffered continuing impacts from the bashing death of their brother, particularly as they were forced to take part in the attack, being made to jump from a bunk onto John.

The children were later forced to lie to police and the community about the incident, appearing on television saying a gang of youths had bashed John while walking through Lyrebird Park.

Ms Ashfield said the surviving children were all still traumatised by the event.

“Why should he (Hughes) be allowed to walk free when these kids who were left behind are still going through hell?” she asked.

“They still have nightmares all the time, they’re afraid Austin is going to come after them to try and finish the job,” Ms Ashfield said.

“They’re trying to get on with their lives but they can’t, the past keeps coming back up.”

The killing was so shocking it prompted an independent review into the Department of Community Services, to which the family had been reported several times during years of abuse.

It also prompted widespread community outrage, and ugly scenes outside Nowra Local Court when Hughes and the woman appeared, as protesters called for the death penalty and even offered their own nooses.

Sister haunted by the way her brother died

LITTLE John Ashfield never stood a chance.

The six-year-old, bashed to death by his mother and her defacto Austin Allan Hughes, walked into a brewing storm when he arrived home from school on August 4, 1993.

John’s younger sister Melissa Ashfield was just three years old at the time, but remembered there were problems between her mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Hughes.

“There was lots of tension, lots of yelling,” Melissa said of the day.

“Then when John got home he became the target.”

A sickening attack followed, during which John was repeatedly punched and kicked, was hit on the head with a hammer five times through a phone book used to prevent bruising, had his head bashed against a wall, and was shoved into a cold shower.

A post mortem examination showed he had more than 100 bruises on his young body including 34 on his head and neck, 16 on his chest and abdomen, 24 on his upper limbs, 17 on his lower limbs and 12 on his back.

Hughes and the mother initially claimed John was attacked in Lyrebird Park by a gang of youths after being sent with a brother to buy milk and bread, and they even appeared on television as they made tearful appeals for information about the killing.

Melissa said that was the start of lies about what happened on that day, which continued as Hughes and the mother blamed each other for the young boy’s death.

They even tried to put the blame on John and Melissa, saying the six-year-old had touched his three-year-old sister inappropriately, but Melissa said that was another lie.

Melissa said she still carried guilt over the killing, thinking she was in some way to blame for what happened to her brother.

That contributed to flashbacks and nightmares in which she still saw her brother on the floor, with Hughes and the mother forcing the other children to jump off a top bunk onto the dying child.

The mother continued to deny responsibility for what happened on the day as recently as two years ago when Melissa visited her in jail.

“There’s no remorse, there’s no sorry, nothing, they’re only sorry they got caught.”

Melissa said she had heard nothing from Hughes since the killing.

“In 16 years he could have written a letter to me or my brothers saying he’s sorry, but has he? No,” she said.

Melissa waived her statutory right to anonymity to speak out in an effort to keep Hughes behind bars.

“It’s not just Austin the parole people have to think about, it’s what my brothers and I have to live with every day.”