FREMANTLE councillor Bill Massie has taken over as president of victims’ rights group Justice First.

Founder Jim Richardson is retiring because he’s 80 and is battling cancer.

Cr Massie says he’s a reluctant president who’s only taking on the job in tribute to the efforts put in by his predecessor.

Mr Richardson established the group following the one-punch death of his son Grant in Yangebup in 2008. He’s pursued a hard-line agenda towards sentencing that’s upset plenty a soft heart along the way.

With Cr Massie urging law-makers and police to visit Malaysia and import its corporal punishment regime to Australia, it’s fair to say the organisation’s not heading anywhere moderate in the interim.

“We’re planning a serious membership drive,” Cr Massie says of his aims for the group, which has 96 members on the books.

“There are too many survivors of crime who aren’t willing to come forward,” he told the Herald.

He’s hoping to convince victim support groups, such as the Homicide Victims’ Support Group, to amalgamate under one banner, convinced that pooling resources will lead to better outcomes.

Mr Richardson says he’s tried to bring them together before, but thinks they were afraid he was trying to take them over.

Cr Massie says Justice First’s big success was its role in convincing the Barnett government to introduce WA’s first victims of crime commissioner Jennifer Hoffman, although Mr Richardson says he’s not convinced she’s been effective enough.

by STEVE GRANT