Outrage after data reveals shocking sentences for Queensland child sexual offenders
Child sexual offenders in the Far North are receiving lower sentences than criminals convicted for drug trafficking, car theft or burglary, it can be revealed.
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Child sex offenders in the Far North are receiving lower sentences than criminals convicted for drug trafficking, car theft or burglary, it can be revealed.
A Cairns Post investigation of Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council data found the average imprisonment time for indecent treatment or unlawful carnal knowledge of a child was just one year.
That’s the same sentence for stealing a car and less than the 18-month average for burglary.
Two in ten of those convicted of child exploitation material do not get any time in jail for all types of child exploitation material charges, and 72 per cent of those receive a suspended sentence.
The average sentence for rape is six and a half years.
A sex abuse survivor group says Cairns courts has made calls to increase the sentences for perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
Adam Washbourne from Fighters Against Child Abuse said he did not agree with the reasons for giving such low sentences.
“There is nothing in a person’s history, no mental illness, no survivor victim stories — every survivor victim I talk to would not want to inflict that hell on their worst enemy. It means there is no justice for survivors as they are ones with the lifelong sentence,” he said.
Among the cases Mr Washbourne cited included Matthew Charles Knowlton and Keith William Marshall, who both raped young teenage girls.
QSAC data shows both received less than the state average sentence for all rape offences.
Mr Marshall, the pedophile who laughed at a 12-year-old girl after raping her, was sentenced in September to four years jail but his parole eligibility means he could be out by September 2025.
The data also shows his sentence was also less than the state average sentence for drug trafficking in Queensland which is four years and six months.
Mr Knowlton, a 27-year-old mechanic from Mareeba, was sentenced to six years in prison in September, but with one year served and an early parole date, he could be out by this time next year.
It comes amid a chorus of criticism to the Government Sentencing Advisory Council’s review into the sentencing of sexual violence.
Angela Lynch from the Queensland Sexual Assault Network said there could be low custodial sentences for child abuse leading “perpetrators to believe that offending against children is less harmful than offending against adult survivors”.
It's a sentiment echoed in the submission by counselling and advocacy group Full Stop Australia, who say child sexual abuse sentences “can be low and inconsistent” and this “re-traumatises to the victim-survivors of those crimes”.
Mr Washbourne said he was also concerned about the sentencing of Michael Sale, arrested as part of Uniform Kalahari, who was immediately released after being found guilty of pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge with a 15-year-old girl, assault - which included whipping the victim with a phone cable, two charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, and one charge of using the internet to procure children under 16 to have sex.
He spent just over a year in custody — less than the average sentence term for robbery in Queensland, which is 3.2 years.
While Ian Alexander Peachey, who pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Cairns to 26 charges relating to offences against eight children qguxg included four counts of indecent treatment of a minor under 16 years, three counts of grooming children under 16, one count of sexual assault of a minor over 16 years and 18 counts of supplying drugs to minors., including five who were abused between 2020 and 2022, got a four-and-a-half-year sentence in September.
He has been in custody since August 2022 and could be out in June 2024 because of the parole eligibility date.
Investigation into sentencing five years ago shows the trend has been consistent — Morgan Myles Holland, 35, raped and molested a nine-year-old girl, served 18 months in prison and was released on parole in 2019.
Ms Lynch from the Queensland Sexual Assault Network said sentences were too often downgraded because of guilty pleas and that offenders with no criminal history often used this fact to mitigate their sentences, reinforcing “community attitudes about who perpetuates sexual violence”.
“Many victims feel betrayed by the court,” Ms Lynch said, arguing that too much of a sentence reduction is given guilty pleas and “people are given reduced sentences because of their standing in the community and then go onto reoffend”.
“The problem is that the legal system is prefaced on notions of property. This means children are just not worth anything,” Mr Washbourne added.
Mr Washbourne said he knew of people who had child abuse material made of them.
“One woman I know can’t walk down the street. All it takes is for a guy to look at her sideways down the street, and she starts to think, ‘Have they seen it? Do they know?’ Survivors of abuse material are always looking over their shoulder, he said.
“Sex offenders need to spend a lot of time behind bars,” Mr Washbourne said.
“They are destroying the innocence of the most vulnerable members of society.”
Scott Osborne, Principal Lawyer with Osborne Butler in Cairns said: “The maximum sentences available for serious sexual offending against a child (particularly a child under 12) are significant. And rightly so.”
But he cautioned against simplistic analysis of sentence lengths.
“Looking at historic sentencing statistics that relates purely at the length of prison terms imposed can be misleading as other orders are often made simultaneously that include punitive and rehabilitative orders such as a probation order which can have a three year duration. This is particularly applicable when suspended sentences are imposed”.
He said sentencing was “subjective”.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence; Yvette D’Ath told the Cairns Post that “I personally find child sex offenders to be abhorrent and disgusting”.
“It is vitally important victims have confidence in our judicial system and that sentencing reflects community expectations”.
She said the state had recently toughened-up its sex offender laws.
“How well those laws are working is important to analyse,” she said.
“That’s why the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council is also currently reviewing sentencing practices for sexual assault and rape offences. I look forward to reading and considering QSAC’s findings when the report is finalised next year.”
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