Lowe Blow

By Melissa Meehan
RIKKI Arney is a broken woman.
She will never see her son Cameron Lowe grow up, get married or have children.
Never again will she be able to see him smile, give him a hug or share a laugh – for her, that one final punch didn’t just kill him. It killed her too.
So when news broke on Friday that her son’s killer had won an appeal against his four year sentence, it left her an emotional mess.
“Our whole family died when Cam did, and now we’re ripped apart again by this decision,” Ms Arney said.
“It is disgusting.”
The killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was able to argue that his sentence was too tough. This resulted in his sentence being reduced by 12 months; six months for manslaughter and six months for assault.
He was originally sentenced in August to a four-year non-parole period.
The reduced sentence, taking into account the 228 days he has already served, will see him released from juvenile detention in 2014.
Speaking on the phone from Queensland on Friday, Ms Arney went through a range of emotions during a relatively short phone call.
She is angry that the killer will be free within two years, and saddened by the thought that the court didn’t value her son’s life as she did.
“We don’t have any rights to appeal, but Cam’s killer does,” she said.
“It makes me feel like the court didn’t value his life. He did nothing to deserve this.”
Ms Arney, who moved to Queensland late last year to give her family a fresh start, said she was surprised at the decision.
“It’s very much a surprise, I honestly thought they would reject it,” she said.
“To only get two years for manslaughter, it is a joke of a system.”
The only solace she can find is that Cameron is watching over her and her family – and his killer.
“Cam will haunt them, he won’t let the bastards sleep,” she said.
“I know I can’t.”
Now Ms Arney, and Cameron’s extended family are left with questions they cannot answer.
“What would happen if what happened to Cameron happened to a judge’s son?” she asks.
“Would they value his life differently?”
Cameron Lowe went to buy takeaway on the night of November 6 2010 when he was punched, for no apparent reason, knocking him to the ground.
He hit his head when he fell, but was helped home by friends and went to bed.
Cameron never woke up.
Last year the court heard his killer, now 18, had drunk 15 vodka energy drinks in three hours before the attack, and had knocked another boy unconscious just two weeks earlier.