A father-of-three who tortured and killed his baby could be freed after just 10 years behind bars, sparking outrage from the boy’s grieving relatives.
Shane Akehurst threw his 21-month-old son Corby so hard against a wall that his brain stem was severed.
In March 2015, Akehurst threw Corby’s small body against the wooden frame of a bed at his secluded rural property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
The impact on the child’s head was so forceful that it caused whiplash and his eyes bled internally.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics and doctors, Corby was declared brain dead two days later and his life support system was disconnected.
Although he was initially charged with murder, in 2019 Akehurst pleaded guilty to manslaughter and torture and was sentenced to 12 years and six months behind bars.
But with the sentence already served, Akehurst’s 10-year non-parole period will end early next year and he could be released.
As they are six months away from their minimum sentence, the state parole board has told Corby’s devastated family that Akehurst can now begin the process of applying to be released.
Corby Akehurst died at the hands of his father at his home in 2015
Father-of-three Shane Akehurst (pictured) who killed his own baby could be released from prison after serving just 10 years of his sentence, upsetting the boy’s relatives.
“He should have been given life,” Corby’s furious maternal aunt, Tanya Jeffrey, told the newspaper. courier mail.
“He gets a second chance at life; Corby never got one.”
An autopsy found Corby had 81 separate injuries.
They included crushed ribs that were weeks old, a missing fingernail and extensive facial injuries.
Akehurst told investigators he felt Corby’s ribs “pop” after giving him “a really good squeeze.”
The boy’s penis and scrotum were also bruised and the skin broken, which was probably caused by a forceful pinch, the court heard during sentencing.
Akehurst threw her 21-month-old son Corby (pictured) so hard against a wall that his brain stem was severed.
The father of three told police he had anger problems that sometimes caused him to lose control.
He also admitted, on multiple occasions, to hitting Corby’s head when the boy woke up and called his mother during the night.
Mrs Jeffrey disagreed with Akehurst’s charges being reduced to manslaughter and torture and said he should have faced a jury charged with murder.
“I had to give up for a while because the system was driving me crazy,” she said.
‘Where is our justice system?’
Ms Jeffrey contacted Liberal National Party police spokesman Dan Purdie, a former Child Protection detective who led the team that investigated Corby’s death.
Purdie has written to the parole board requesting that Corby’s family receive updates if Akehurst requests his release.
An autopsy found Corby (pictured) had 81 separate injuries, including extensive facial injuries.
‘It was a traumatic crime. The team I worked with worked diligently and around the clock to secure a conviction for a criminal who had gone to great lengths to cover up his crime,” Mr Purdie told the courier mail.
He and Detective Stacey Marshall sat with Akehurst in a Queensland Children’s Hospital waiting room for several hours and eventually obtained a confession from him after he had tried to cover his tracks.
By the time the arrest team brought Akehurst to the Brisbane guardhouse, they had been working for 48 hours straight.
“These are the types of crimes where there are never witnesses and the criminal never boasts,” he said.