Bashing killer out of jail one year ahead of sentence end

A “callous” killer who bashed a woman to death a month after meeting her online has been released on parole a year shy of his decade-long sentence. Matthew Shane Dodd, was convicted and jailed for 10 years in 2012 over the manslaughter of 27-year-old Ms Pearce, whose decomposed body was found in bush near Geraldton on Christmas Day in 2010. The pair had met a month earlier on a social networking site called “Divas Chat”. Dodd, then 25, had verbally and physically abused her as they travelled from Perth to Geraldton. A jury was told it appeared Dodd had attempted to have sex with Ms Pearce — of Carnarvon and whose first name is not named for cultural reasons — but he lashed out when she rejected his advances. The mother-of-four’s body was found in an area of coastal scrubland seven days after the savage attack, which left Ms Pearce with fractures to her upper and lower jaw, a broken nose and missing teeth. Dodd, whom the trial judge said showed a “callous indifference” to the victim, failed to appeal against his conviction in both WA’s Court of Appeal and the High Court. Nine years later, Dodd has been allowed to walk out of jail. The Prisoners Review Board decided his release would “present an acceptable risk to the safety of the community”. Dodd, who had completed “three intensive treatment programs”, will be monitored which the board said “is likely to offer more protection to the community in the long-term” than his release at the end of his sentence without any supervision. As part of his parole conditions, Dodd is banned from contacting Ms Pearce’s family and entering within 20km of the Geraldton town centre or 5km of the Carnarvon town centre. He is also to abstain from alcohol and drugs and cannot enter licensed premises.