We’re still going far too easy on sex fiends
Sentences are meant to reflect community standards. For notorious child-sex offenders they often do not. As David Penberthy writes, these people have surrendered the right to exist freely in our community.
Almost 12 months ago I had the first of what have become many ongoing conversations with a man who for legal reasons can only be known as “B”.
B is one of Adelaide’s now-famous masked brothers, who along with his brother “A” was sexually abused at a Victor Harbor Christian camp in the 1990s by the disgraced lay preacher and youth camp caterer Vivian Frederick Deboo, whom A and B monstered outside the courtroom by following him around wearing creepy faceless masks.
Deboo is a self-absorbed grub of a man, forced by the weight of evidence to plead guilty, yet still regarding himself as enough of a victim to demand clemency in the form of home detention.
Happily, the court told him to get stuffed, and he remains in the clink. While Deboo’s life is now a total mess, and may fittingly end inside jail, A and B are doing remarkably well despite the hand life dealt them.
It is a pity in a way that they can only be known as A and B, as it dehumanises them, and stamps them as victims first, and people second, when in reality they are simply top blokes who have made such a great fist of their lives, holding down good jobs, loving relationships, with kids of their own.
The first time I spoke to B he made the following excellent point about the manner in which he regarded criminals.
It is worth repeating here as it is wholly in synch with the public mood, but carries more weight coming from someone who knows far too much about the topic.
“If a person had robbed a store but served their sentence and emerged from prison showing remorse, that person would be welcome for a beer in my home,” B said.
“I’ve discussed this with my mates, and it’s the mainstream view. But with these guys you wonder if leopards can change their spots. Sentences are meant to reflect community standards. For these crimes, they do not.”
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In the field of public opinion, no greater gulf exists between the judicial handling of child abuse and the views of the community towards the abusers.
This week has demonstrated that fact extremely well, with a string of cases where the most horrendous members of our community — people who by rights should have surrendered the privilege of counting themselves as members of any community outside of a jail — have been on the receiving end of some befuddling judicial largesse.
The NSW Attorney-General is considering his options after Supreme Court Judge Richard Button ruled this week that the notorious serial child-sex offender Michael Guider, convicted of killing Sydney schoolgirl Samantha Knight 33 years ago, be released on a five-year supervision order.
This horrible bastard hasn’t even told the police where he left the nine-year-old Bondi schoolgirl after he killed her in 1986, initially telling police she may have been taken by a UFO.
(As an aside, refusing to co-operate on such a question, and denying a grieving family the chance to draw some kind of line under such a horrific event, should surely disqualify you from ever being freed, as it is the ultimate demonstration that you have no morality and have not reformed.)
Psychiatrists who gave evidence in his latest court hearing said Guider still posed a risk but that the risk could (hopefully) be managed with the strictest supervision orders.
Justice Button imposed 56 conditions, saying: “while it could not be said definitely that I am completely convinced his attraction (sex attraction to children) has completely disappeared, the defendant has done all that can be done in terms of rehabilitation in a prison setting.
“A further period of incarceration would not serve any rehabilitative purpose.”
To which the public reply is: who cares?
If the guy can’t be rehabilitated, let’s just err on the side of caution, and leave them there to rot away.
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Meanwhile, in South Australia this week, a similarly generous judicial assessment was being extended towards a lifelong pederast with uncontrollable urges, Gary John Tipping, even though the court has been warned by a psychiatrist that Tipping has not reformed.
You could say Tipping is not even close to having reformed.
He was convicted of sexual offences against boys aged between eight and 15, committing some of those offences while he was on parole for other sex crimes, for which he received a suspended sentence.
A forensic psychiatrist told the Supreme Court they believed Tipping remained a high risk of reoffending, had poor insight into his crimes, and had not engaged well in treatment while in jail, where the 33-year-old has reportedly been in a sexual relationship with a very young male prisoner who looks like he could be a teenager.
“What the problem is, is that he has been in situations over many years now where whenever he has been in that situation it’s led to offending,” psychiatrist Dr Narain Nambiar told the court.
Despite evidence such as this, Tipping is free to go, albeit with onerous conditions surrounding his freedom that will (hopefully) prevent him from being physically able to attack anyone again.
The maddening thing about Tipping’s release is that earlier this year the SA Parliament moved in a bipartisan fashion to introduce new laws stating that child sex offenders who were unwilling and unable to control their urges — such as Tipping, you would presume — can no longer be released from jail.
The one heartening thing is that while the gulf between public opinion and judicial interpretation remains as wide as ever, the Parliaments are at least getting the message, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison releasing draft laws this week that would massively jack up penalties for the worst categories of sex offenders.
Of course, the extent to which these are Commonwealth matters is limited but, with any luck, state governments will examine what ScoMo is doing and respond in kind.
I totally agree with the judicial squeamishness about mandatory detention when it comes to little kids in Darwin stealing biscuits from the servo.
Good luck to the Law Society and the judicial purists winning that argument, however, when it comes to the Guiders and the Tippings of this world, who have surrendered the right to exist freely in it.