Abuser too sick for jail

Pedophile pleads guilty

A MORBIDLY obese pedophile who molested young boys while teaching at Dominic College, Burnie High School and St Virgil’s College during the 1980s will not go to jail for his crimes.

Peter John O’Neill, 61, has pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault and one of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person in relation to six children.

However, O’Neill — who is wheelchair-bound and lives in Canberra — will not be locked up at Risdon Prison, despite having confessed to the serious crimes, because he is medically unfit to travel to Tasmania.

On Friday, O’Neill attended the Supreme Court of Tasmania via phone link after extradition plans fell flat because of the costs of medical transport by air and the COVID-19 restrictions on transporting him to Hobart via land and sea.

Defence barrister Greg Barns said it would cost $25,000 to $40,000 to charter an aircraft to transport O’Neill — who has severe degeneration of the lumbar spine, spinal stenosis, chronic pain and difficulty breathing — to Hobart.

He said O’Neill had a fulltime, NDIS-funded carer, could not shower or use a toilet independently, was unable to leave home, had recently fallen and fractured his ribs, and was likely to have “psychotic depression” with auditory hallucinations.

“Normally there would be no question that Mr O’Neill would face a term of actual imprisonment,” Mr Barns said.

“A term of imprisonment must be imposed, but in the circumstances, the sentence would have to be suspended.”

One of O’Neill’s victims read a statement in court on Friday, detailing how the “fear and shame” of what had happened to him “was always going to be lurking”.

“What had happened to me as a child meant I’m not a whole person,” he told the court. “As a survivor of abuse, I have to acknowledge that I’ve lost a lot. I quickly stopped believing in God and I stopped trusting authority.”

Chief Justice Alan Blow said he was limited to imposing a wholly suspended jail sentence given O’Neill could not be locked up interstate for the Tasmanian crimes, didn’t have money to pay a fine, couldn’t undergo a community correction order due to his health and couldn’t be placed under home detention because he was unable to leave his home anyway.

He will sentence O’Neill on August 25.