Peter Middleton, 78, a former Adelaide TV reporter and political staffer, has sentence slashed on paedophile charges
Former South Australian politico and TV news reporter Peter Middleton has had his sentence for child sex offending slashed but will likely die in jail or in a secure aged care home.
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Former South Australian political adviser and television identity Peter Middleton will remain locked up, in some way, despite an ACT Supreme Court judge slashing his sentence for child sex crimes.
Middleton, 78, was in 2018 branded “morally corrupt” and sentenced to seven years jail with a five year non-parole period over a string of “disgraceful, disgusting and despicable” child sex crimes committed in Canberra in 2017.
Following a successful appeal earlier this year, the one-time adviser to former South Australian Liberal Premier Steele Hall on Wednesday had his jail sentence slashed to five years and five months, with a minimum non-parole period of three years and four months.
Justice John Burns said there was now detailed evidence that Middleton was suffering from dementia at the time and was less morally culpable for his crimes that the courts had thought when he was first sentenced.
“This would help to explain why a man in his 70s … would start engaging in sexual behaviour involving children,” Justice Burns said.
He said Middleton’s dementia helped explain his “lack of insight into the nature … and consequences of his behaviour”, an attitude which was previously described as “glib”.
Justice Burns said the reduced jail sentence “may be of little comfort to the victims” to whom “the damage has been done”, but said a criminal’s moral culpability was not “binary” but a “spectrum”.
Middleton’s pedophilic tendencies likely developed as his dementia worsened, and reached a tipping point as increasing brain damage left him less able to control his sexual impulses, experts found.
Experts also found he was likely to pose an increased risk to children as time passed, and that he would likely need to be kept in a locked facility even if he is released from jail.
“It is quite possible that you could reoffend,” Justice Burns said.
Justice Burns said Middleton “may die within the next five years” but said a long jail sentence was still justified, in part to protect the community and in part to punish Middleton for crimes which he planned and which he knew were wrong at the time, despite his offending.
Justice Burns said the ACT’s parole authority, the Sentence Administration Board, should only rubberstamp Middleton’s release if it was satisfied he would be kept in a facility secure enough to minimise his risk of reoffending.
Middleton will be eligible for parole in November 2021.