Mugshots Invade Convicts' Privacy

(Melbourne, Australia) I think I've developed a cramp in a neck muscle from shaking my head on this story.

From the Herald Sun:

Murderers, rapists and pedophiles have won the right to stop the media publishing their police mugshots.

They did so after convicted rapist Simon Smith complained about police releasing his mugshot to a suburban newspaper.

Smith, 25, was jailed for 10 years in 2004 after admitting stalking, abducting and twice raping a 60-year-old woman and injuring a 73-year-old woman.

The State Privacy Commissioner, Paul Chadwick, presented the absolutely ridiculous complaint to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) who ruled that police can no longer release mugshots to the media. The tribunal apparently considers the practice a form of punishment.

So, the convicted scum criminals have to be protected from mugshot punishment since it's an invasion of their privacy. This must be a bizarro life episode. Are not convicts regularly subjected to cell searches, strip searches, and body cavity searches? All that is okay, but no one should see their mugshots? Some people need to lay off the Fosters Lager.

I feel a headache coming on.