Bendigo deserves bushfire answers

MANY Bendigo residents will be shocked and angry today at news the Office of Public Prosecutions has dropped charges against two teens accused of lighting the Black Saturday bushfire that killed Mick Kane and destroyed 58 homes.It’s unimaginable that now no one will ever be brought to account for starting a chain of events that led to one of Bendigo’s darkest days.But while residents will be angry at the lack of justice, they will be infuriated by a DPP statement that said proceeding with any prosecution was not in the public interest.For the record, the DDP statement read: “The Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion SC has announced a discontinuance in the prosecution of two boys, aged 15 and 16, who were accused of arson causing death and intentionally or recklessly causing a bushfire on Black Saturday in which a 47-year-old man died. “A Supreme Court jury found in August that the teenagers were unfit to be tried due to their intellectual disabilities. “The DPP subsequently considered the state of the evidence and the circumstances of the offenders and came to the view that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction, nor was it in the public interest to proceed with the prosecution.” It’s understandable that with no reasonable prospect of conviction, the prosecutors would take the action they did.But to say it’s not in the public interest to proceed with a prosecution seriously undermines the effect the events of February 7, 2009, still has on this community to this very day.This was a major event with dramatic consequences, particularly for the family of Mick Kane, but also for anyone who lost property or even had a close call.Justice will not erase the memories for all of these people, but it would bring some peace of mind. The Bendigo community needs more answers than the three paragraphs delivered yesterday.