A view through a window in an exhibition area in a former prison in Cottbus
A view through a window in an exhibition area in a former prison in Cottbus November 4, 2014. Sunday marks 25 years since the collapse of the regime that imprisoned and persecuted them, but many victims of former communist East Germany are still so traumatised that celebrating the unification of their country may forever be a challenge. Picture taken November 4, 2014. Reuters

An Australian serial sex offender was sentenced to life imprisonment in March with a non-parole period of 20 years after he had been convicted of murder. However, Queensland's attorney-general appealed that the punishment, though five years above what was then mandatory for murder, would not be enough.

Brett Peter Cowan was convicted of murder of Daniel Morcombe. His mandatory custodial murder sentence was for 20 years. Director of Public Prosecutions Tony Moynihan QC for Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, on the other hand, said that it was not enough. He said that it was unreasonable to give him such a minor punishment while taking his crime and criminal history into consideration. Moynihan said that Cowan had kidnapped a child who was waiting for public transport. The heart of people's "way of life" was attacked by the idea, he argued. "The evil and monstrous nature of the killing needs to be deterred and denounced and Daniel's family vindicated, and it (the sentence) did not in any way facilitate the administration of justice." 9News quoted Moynihan.

Moynihan also argued that the punishment, being inadequate, had failed to protect the community. The Court of Appeal in Brisbane heard Cowan challenge his murder conviction. Moynihan's appeal followed the challenge immediately while both the appeals were heard in court. Moynihan also said that the offender did not show any remorse for what he had done. The sentence against him will fail to protect the community from the "real" danger which he represented. Court of Appeal Justices Margaret McMurdo and Hugh Fraser along with Supreme Court Chief Justice Tim Carmody reserved their decision on both the appeals. The judgment in both the appeals, at least Cowan's, is not expected until 2015.

Cowan's attorney Angus Edwards, on the contrary, said that the appeal for a harsher punishment was "simply insupportable." He earlier made an appeal for one day and a half that his client had not been granted fair trial. Edwards said that Cowan should have been acquitted or granted a retrial. He argued that Cowan's confession to officers posing as gangsters was under threat as it was an involuntary one. That was why the evidence should have been inadmissible.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au