6 months of periodic detention for sexual assault.

Is there a way of finding out why the charge of sexual assault was not pursued? Is the DPP accountable/transparent, or would privacy concerns override a public explanation?

sepi said :

AT this rate there will be noone in the new gaol, except people convicted interstate and transferred across.

Well we can’t let that happen. That would be just terrible.

Nobody in jail – what is the world coming to?!

AT this rate there will be noone in the new gaol, except people convicted interstate and transferred across.

You need evidence to have a successful conviction, I would suggest that there was insufficient evidence to prove “sexual assault” and that is why it was dropped down to “act of indecency” (just throwing it out there ??) Don’t be so quick to dis the DPP.

Higgins? Soft on crime? Never…..

And DPP won’t appeal the sentence. They would have been responsible for dropping the charge from “sexual intercourse without consent” (rape) to an “act of indecency” (which is also the charge if a guy is to squeeze a chicks bum as she walks past him on the bus…)

Gah we have shit Judiciary in the ACT.

~Ozi.

Agree with Skid and Jim Jones – the problem is with what he was charged and convicted for, not the sentence.

However – Higgins is a joke, and should not be passing judgment on offenders in accordance with societal views (and yes, I believe that is what a judge is supposed to do). He is completely out of touch. I would be interested to know if he gave the maximum penalty for that type of offence.

#9 Circus – I don’t have a problem with judicial independence. What concerns me is judicial incompetence. Tezz is a serial offender.

No the lowest common denominator come out when the process itself is fundamentally flawed and fails to carry out the action that it was designed to do ie protect society from criminals, punish those who do wrong and further deter criminal actions. Fail, fail, fail. In less “enlightened” times the wrong doer would have been publicly shamed, whipped/beaten half to death and exiled from the community to lead a rather nasty, short and brutish life.

How does 52 days over the course of 6 months in “periodic” detention (give me a break) teach this criminal anything. There is a very large gap in behaviour between thinking about or planning something like this and then actually carrying it out, a gap which our judicial system seems to have forgotten.

Let’s spin this around and ask ourselves what really has this criminal learnt from this experience? Remember an act of this kind is the guy’s fantasy this is how he gets off. He has learnt not to let his victim identify him so either wear a mask or disguise or attack a complete stranger. He has learnt to restrain/tie his victim so they can’t flee or carry a weapon and give the threat of aggression in order to make the victim compliant. He has probably figured out that oral sex isn’t going to work next time and to get his member wet. He has also learnt that victims are generally unwilling to face the full testimony of court and he can plea down to lesser charges and escape punishment.

He is now about to be put into the paths of many more like minded individuals who will laugh at the mistakes he made and how easy he has got it which only furthers to encourage him to do it again.

Starting to see why this type of offender needs to be put away and face some real consequences? Crimes against objects and things and animals in some cases are easy. Crimes against people are harder to commit and the degree of difficulty increases with the intimacy of the actual act (ie shooting someone is far easier than stabbing them or throttling them with your hands) so to perform a sexual act on an unwilling or unsuspecting victim is about as intimate and difficult as it gets.

Now let’s imagine the next scenario where he is a) better prepared b) more careful in his victim choice and c) adapting and learning and this time he carries a small knife just enough to scare someone but in this instance the victim struggles or does something to really annoy him and next thing you know we have another stabbing victim who will probably survive but be pretty messed up for life…

Everyone starting to see the picture now and why these crimes really do need to be dealt with harshly. The “process” which we don’t know a thing about is broken and was let to runs it’s disjointed and horribly over-lawyered course to this point today. It is up to society then to fix it and in this democratic world of ours means our politicians have to change something. The “process” failed in NSW and they fixed a part of it with the truth in sentencing laws and have probably saved many lives as a result. Simply saying it’s a process does not excuse it’s obvious failings and need of attention.

Also what ant said… spot on…. and Skid as always

I heard this reported on last night’s TV news (ABC, I think), and I just thought oh bloody hell, not another ridiculous sentance. I man breaks into a woman’s house and assaults her in some way, anyone who hears about this is furious that he doesn’t get what we feel is proper punishment…. is not the law meant to reflect the views of society on these things? It seems the law dwells in some alternative universe, divorced from our society. You get more punishment for driving too fast than for making a woman feel in danger in her own home, probably for the rest of her life.

What a load of rubbish it all is!

… sentencing guidelines set by government of the day. Must be relied upon and referenced in sentencing remarks by judge/magistrate or it will overturned on appeal. DPP lowered the charge so they could get a plea of guilty. Etc, blah blah. Seriously, why bother.

The lowest common denominator always come out to play whenever an ‘inadequate’ sentence is handed down without knowing the first thing about the process.