Attorney-General vows to stop community sentences for convicted paedophiles

Convicted NSW paedophiles continue to walk our streets despite tough new laws. These are the predators walking free and how the government plans to stop them.

The Attorney-General has pledged to stop courts sentencing historical child sex offenders to community-based Intensive Corrections Orders after last week’s controversial decision to allow serial predator Robert Van Gestel to remain on bail.

In the battle between the government which makes the laws and the judges who interpret them, the Attorney-General has also asked the state’s top prosecutor to look at seeking fresh detention orders to lock up Van Gestel and ponyclub paedophile Neil Duncan until they are sentenced.

Convicted paedophiles Van Gestel, 78, and Duncan, 67, have both been released on bail despite the government’s supposedly-tough new bail laws which intend to have serious offenders remanded behind bars pending their sentences if they will receive full-time jail terms.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Peter Garling rejected the arguments by both the counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions and Van Gestel’s own barrister that he could not be sentenced to an ICO despite his convictions for eight child sex offences on girls as young as four.

The judge said that the current law that said ICOs were not available for people who had sexually abused children under the age of 16 did not apply to Van Gestel because he had offended in the 1970s.

Serial paedophile Robert Van Gestel leaving the NSW Supreme Court on bail last week. Picture: Richard Dobson

Law reforms introduced after the child sex abuse royal commission said that paedophiles convicted of historical offences should be sentenced on present laws rather than those in force at the time of the offence which were more lenient.

Justice Garling criticised as “ambivalent” the new section 22B of the bail laws, which comes into play when a convicted paedophile or other serious offender will “on the balance of probabilities” face nothing less than a jail term unless they can show exceptional or special circumstances.

Paedophile Robert Van Gestel when he first appeared before Manly Local Court on 26th February 2020. Picture: Julian Andrews

Both Duncan and Van Gestel told the court they had medical issues which constituted special circumstances.

Attorney-General Mark Speakman said on Monday that he had asked the government’s legal advisers to look at previous cases and determine on what grounds medical needs may constitute “special or exceptional circumstances”.

Former pony club president and convicted paedophile Neil Duncan leaves Kings Street Court in Sydney on bail. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Van Gestel is due to be sentenced on October 21. Duncan is due to be sentenced on August 5 after being convicted by a jury on June 9 of nine charges dating back to the 1970s, including five counts of committing an act of indecency and assaulting a female under 16.

Mr Speakman said he had told Premier Dominic Perrottet that he would seek approval at the next cabinet meeting to reword the law and “ensure Intensive Correction Orders are not available as a sentencing option for historical child sex offences under any circumstances”.

“I’ve asked the Office of the DPP this morning to review the respective bail decisions in the Supreme Court regarding Duncan and Van Gestel and to consider whether fresh detention applications are warranted,” Mr Speakman said.