Friday 31 January 2014

A Broken System Fails Our Children


Today NSW Lower House interfered with the justice system agreeing in favour of intitiatives to tackle Australia's night life deaths, with one of the initiatives being mandatory eight-year prison terms for anyone who fatally punches someone while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  Yesterday a repeat offender was given a sentence of seven years for the rape of a three year old girl in a public library, just meters from her mother, the sixth child victim he has been charged with raping over the past twenty years.  This man has received seven years, eligible for parole after only four and a half years.  There is something very wrong with a judicial system that deals with the senseless and stupid act of a young man with this kind of retribution and punitive initiative but allows a serial child rapist to be out and able to re-offend after only four and a half years.

Sign the petition for Change and Protect our Children.

In 2002 Andrew Davies was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of two six year old girls, following another predatory rape of another and for repeatedly lying in wait in other areas for children to sexually abuse.  Sentenced in Victoria.

Robert Fadon jailed for almost three decades in Townsville and Brisbane jails for serious sex offences against children and women, and was the first prisoner to be detained indefinitely under the state's controversial Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act, which was introduced in 2003.  Fardon was intially sentenced for the rape a 12-year-old girl and assault of her 15-year-old sister. He was released in 1988 and raped again while on parole.  In 1988, less than a month after completing eight years of a 13-year sentence, Fardon raped and sodomised a woman in north Queensland. He was jailed for another 14 years.  He is free now under 34 strict conditions, including notifying authorities of any intimate relationship; not visiting any place that houses children or people with intellectual disabilities and ongoing counselling.  Sentenced in Queensland.

Here are two Australian states that have responded in favour of the protection of children and the removal of the presence or strict control of the movements of these offenders.  Now to the way Canberra has handled serial child sex offenders.

Shane Williams, forty years old, has had a life of abuse and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his own father.  He has in his life abused at least 5 children.  In 1996 he was arrested and charged for the abduction and molestation of three girls aged between 6 and 10.  Already a repeat offender, he was sentenced to 5.5 years with parole after 3.5 years.  After his most recent rape of a three year old in a public place. he has been sentenced in Canberra to only four and a half years before being eligible for parole, a combined sentencing for the bashing of his neighbour and the rape of a three year old girl.  He is considered beyond reform and likely to re-offend.  Sentence handed down by Chief Justice Helen Murrell.

Michael Cooper received only 12 months of weekend jail term with two years suspended sentence for uploading videos of child sexual abuse and being discovered to have Australia's largest child pornography collection.  Canberran  judges deemed this sentence too lenient, he will be continuing weekend detention until November.

Russel Cornish, 70 years old is known to live in QLD and the ACT.  He is a repeated child sex offender and is still suspected of traveling to Asian countries to abuse boys.  One of his victims, a ten year old boy has been left suicidal.

Kimrae Fortaleza, 22 years old and sentenced to three years jail for his third incident of sexual abuse of a child, this third count for intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 16.

Paul Hayes, serial sex offender.  Found guilt in 2011 of five counts of assault and one count of attempted intercourse has been sentenced to two years.  He has a previous conviction for inappropriate touching of a minor in 2002.

Aaron Holiday, 28 years old, a self employed child care worker and trainee scout leader.   Pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography,  one count of committing an act of indecency on a child and eight counts of intercourse with boys.  This repeat offender will be eligible for release in 2016.  He has been found to be committing sexual crimes against children since the age of 21 with increasing severity and has not demonstrated any ability for reform.  Aaron Holidays sentenced was halved on appeal in 2013 despite the fact he has sent threats to kill, sending one boys family into hiding.  Holliday abused two of his victims while on bail for showing pornography to a third, despite court orders forbidding him from being with children. Sentence reduced by Chief Justice Terence Higgins, Justice Hilary Penfold and Justice John Dowsett. 
Justice Penfold recommended an 11-year sentence with a minimum of 6 years to serve.
But Chief Justice Higgins and Justice Dowsett, by majority, halved the sentence to eight years, with a non-parole period of 5  years.  Due to this reduction Aaron Holiday will be free in October this year.

Liam Taylor, aged 35, sentenced to a pitiful 6 months in 2011 for the molestation of a girl aged 4 or 5.  Sentenced by Chief Justice Higgins.

William Brady, aged 45, walked free in 2012 after being discovered grooming a 14 year old Canberra boy for sex and organising a ticket for the boy to travel to Sydney to have sex with him and his boyfriend.  Brady is HIV positive, he walked free after spending 58 days in custody because the presiding judge, Chief Justice Higgins was of the opinion that any sentence would be a death sentence.

Only one sentencing of a Canberran child predator has been stricter than the mandatory eight years for a one punch death, this was handed to a man who killed another man over a dispute and then raped his ten year old stepdaughter, kidnapping her and raping her again.  He received thirty years in prison for his crime.  He had previously raped a five year old and a nine year old.

All of these pedophiles have lived and committed crimes in the Canberra region.  All of them have demonstrated an increase in the depravity and severity of their assaults.  All of these pedophiles are repeat offenders.  The laws must be changed to ensure public safety from this type of criminal, particularly because it aims to improve the safety of the public's most vulnerable members and it is these children and disabled members of our community that this kind of depraved human being preys upon.