HE ‘STOLE MY INNOCENCE’ Victim living in fear of seeing Fardon

INFAMOUS sex monster Robert Fardon’s rape survivor is living in fear and had to be treated for chest pain after finding out he would be released into the community.

This comes as the state’s top cop said Fardon would not be monitored by a GPS tracker and refused to reveal how often he must report to police, instead spruiking the man as an example of rehabilitation.

Sharon Tomlinson, who was raped at gunpoint by Fardon when she was just 12 years old, said a court-enforced oneweek suppression on the fact the 70-year-old would no longer be subject to a supervision order made her feel as though she was protecting the man who raped her as a child.

“When I found out there there was no GPS tracker, all bets were off for me,” she said. “How will I know now if he will be in my suburb, or if I’m going to be in his suburb?

“I am now looking over my shoulder wherever I go because I don’t know where he is. It’s so frightening that I could run into him on a train, in a shopping centre. I have to be super vigilant. The survivors have been given a life sentence and we will never feel safe until he is dead.”

She wondered if the Supreme Court judge who granted Fardon his freedom would want him as a neighbour.

“Would Justice (Helen) Bowskill or the AttorneyGeneral be prepared to have him live next door to them?” Ms Tomlinson, 53, asked.

She said she was admitted to a medical facility because she believed she was having a heart attack after being told the Supreme Court had ruled Fardon would be freed.

“The gag order forced me to protect the predator that stole my innocence while he found a comfortable place to live,” she said.

“On the day I found out and was told, I couldn’t speak about it for a week – I had chest pain and had to go to the doctor, but it turned out to be a massive panic attack.”

Commissioner Ian Stewart yesterday said Fardon’s release was an example that Queensland’s rehabilitative system was working.

“The person that we talk about is described in that judgment as someone who is more than 70 years of age whose health is not good,” he said.

“They are demonstrating that the system works, that there is hope for people who make reasoned decisions … I do not condone the actions of this person … but the system that we run as a state is one that is designed to assist people to make better decisions, to become members of our society that don’t offend – and that’s what’s occurring in this case.”

Child justice advocates and politicians were yesterday asking why the release of the state’s most notorious sex offender into the community was hidden from the public.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington described the lifting of his supervision order and the subsequent suppression order keeping the decision a secret for a week as unacceptable.

“I am deeply concerned that Fardon has been walking free on the streets for the last week and nobody could say anything. Queenslanders have a right to know,” she said. “The public should be made well aware of where this sadistic thug is roaming.”

She also slammed the secrecy surrounding how Fardon will be monitored, including exactly how often he must report to police.

“The people of Queensland should be allowed to take some comfort from having the Government tell them what their plan is in relation to this serious sex offender,” she said.

She blamed the Government, saying he would still be under a strict dangerous sex offender supervision order if the LNP’S laws had been passed last year when Labor pushed through its changes.

She said under Labor’s plan the public were trusting Fardon “to report to police to say everything is OK”.

Ms Frecklington said the saga strengthened the case for a public sex offender register.