Dubbo: A man has successfully reduced his sentence in appeal

A Central West man who performed a sex act on a child under 10 and sent explicit images to her mother is eligible for parole next year after his appeal case win. Here’s the latest.

Dubbo Courthouse. News reporter Ryan Young. Picture: Jedd Manning/Western Aerial Productions

A convicted Central West paedophile has succeeded in a Supreme Court bid to be released from prison sooner.

A 34-year-old Dubbo man, who cannot be identified because of a court order, is eligible for parole from April 2024.

During his 2021 sentencing in the Dubbo District Court, the court ordered an eight-year sentence dating back to his arrest in 2020 for conducting a sex act with a child under 10 and four counts of contravening an apprehended violence order by sending explicit images to the child’s mother.

Fighting his sentence, the truck driver has successfully won his appeal, which comprised of the sentencing judge failing to acknowledge the “onerous impact” of Covid.

The applicant proposed two other grounds which were not successful, however resulted in reducing his sentence to seven years of imprisonment instead of eight.

Dubbo courthouse. Picture: Ryan Young

In 2021, the court heard the man performed the sexual act between March 2016 and January 2017 with the victim who was known to him.

Breaching the child’s trust, the man took of her underwear and performed a sex act on her after saying “just let me look at something”.

The girl was told not to tell anyone about what happened, but after three years she told her mother.

The man was reported to police and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Following a sexual assault charge, the man was also charged with an appended domestic violence order to protect the mother and children in the family.

Shortland Correctional Centre at Cessnock. Picture: Supplied.

Despite being granted bail by the court and ordered to leave Dubbo and not contact the victim’s mother, the applicant sent several messages to her along with explicit photographs of himself.

In the appeal, the court considered that while the sexual act was a breach of trust, it was below the middle range of offending.

The court also agreed the ADVO offences fell more towards the lower end of the range as the offending did not involve any direct contact or threats.

The applicant is currently serving his sentence at Shortland Correctional Centre and will be eligible for parole in April 2024.