PEOPLE POWER: Fight to keep Mackay child rapist behind bars
‘This is the only way to help the poor child and her family.' Petition pushes to have a tougher sentence for sex abuser Rogelio Acosta Ruiz.
Police & Courts
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A GROUP of concerned Mackay citizens are petitioning the Attorney-General to increase the court penalty handed to a convicted sex offender who raped an eight-year-old child in the region.
Rogelio Acosta Ruiz was jailed for three years on November 6 this year with the sentence to be suspended after 12 months.
Because the 35 year old had already spent nine months in pre-sentence custody, he will walk free in February next year.
Now members of the community are petitioning for the sentence to be immediately reviewed and appealed.
Ruiz walked into the child's home, made her put his penis in her mouth and told her "think of it like a lollipop".
He also touched her inappropriately and made her touch him. She told him 'no' on at least one occasion.
The little girl washed her mouth out in a sink after the assault.
The man pleaded guilty to the oral rape and indecent treatment of a child under 12, which occurred in Mackay in the second half of 2017.
"I know this is a big ask to make, but this is the only way to help the poor child and her family bring this (to) justice and review our justice system," one of the petitioners wrote in a post on social media.
The petition has called for "the need to urgently review the sentence of recently convicted child sex offender Rogelio Acosta Ruiz".
"Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to ask the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D'Ath to immediately appeal Ruiz's sentence," the petition states.
The Daily Mercury has contacted the Attorney-General for comment on whether this case was currently under review.
Under Queensland law, appeals must be filed within 28 days of the sentence date unless an extension of time is permitted by the courts.
"I've referred this matter to the DPP seeking advice on the prospects of an appeal," Ms D'Ath said.
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