Child abuser Stephen Mitchell won't have to serve extra time in jail for indecently assaulting adult

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to sexual abuse.

A child abuser already serving a lengthy period of imprisonment won’t have to serve any extra time behind bars after he was sentenced for indecently assaulting his only adult victim.

Stephen Leonard Mitchell sexually abused six girls between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s when they were aged between about 10 and 15, while he held various positions that involved working with and coaching children in Canberra.

Earlier this year, a legal error saw the ACT Supreme Court resentence him to a total of 14 years and nine months’ jail, with 10 years’ non-parole.

Meanwhile, he was found guilty of indecently assaulting his only adult victim in a Magistrates Court hearing that ended last year.

When he was sentenced for this incident on Thursday (17 October), Magistrate Jane Campbell convicted him of a charge of committing an act of indecency without consent and increased his head sentence by three months, resulting in a total of 15 years’ jail.

However, she did not change the length of his non-parole period, which means he is still eligible to be released from May 2033.

“It’s the same, I haven’t made any changes to that non-parole period,” she said.

Magistrate Campbell said the victim in this matter was about 12 or 13 when she met Mitchell in the late 1990s through his work at a youth club and they developed a friendship as she grew up.

In the early 2010s, she was in her 20s when she returned to Canberra to help her mother who had developed symptoms of dementia.

Mitchell gave her a burner phone at the time because she told him about her abusive and violent relationship with her then-boyfriend.

“Come on, I’ll show you some defence moves so you can protect yourself when you go home,” she said Mitchell also told her.

While showing her a move during the lesson, he stood closely behind her “as if our bodies were glued together”, she said.

He then pressed his erect penis into her buttocks for a short time, which made her uncomfortable and she told him she understood how to do the self-defence move so the lesson would end.

“Every time I think of this man, Stephen Mitchell, I become an emotional wreck and start falling apart,” she wrote in a statement read to the court.

“Nothing can change what he did to me when I was so very vulnerable, and he took advantage of me.”

Mitchell’s lawyer, Peter Woodhouse of CODA, said Magistrate Campbell had found his now-58-year-old client had been genuine in his concern for the victim’s safety in the 2010s.

He said while his client met the criteria for a paedophilia disorder, he had recently started one-on-one counselling on sexual offending and would be subjected to the restrictions of the sex offenders register once he is released from custody.

ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel SC argued Mitchell had known his victim was vulnerable when he indecently assaulted her, as he knew about her mother and her boyfriend.

Magistrate Campbell said “his conduct abused the trust of his friend”.

She said while the self-defence lesson was not a “ruse” to engage in sexual conduct, this offending demonstrated him “taking advantage of a non-sexual situation to commit his crime”.

The magistrate also said the offending seemed to suggest he may engage in sexual offending if the opportunity presented itself.

Mitchell will be 67 years old by the time he can be released on parole.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.