Less jail time bid fails

Appeal dismissed over ‘merciless cruelty’ to autistic child

A LAUNCESTON man who seriously abused an autistic child, once placing the boy naked inside a drum while running a tap over his head, has failed in a bid to reduce his jail sentence.

Joseph Edward Auton was 24 when he met the little boy’s mother and subjected him to “merciless cruelty” to manage his “challenging behaviour” on a rural property between August and September 2016.

He repeatedly beat the three-year-old, once smacking him so hard that he fell and hit his head on concrete, then striking him to the stomach, back and legs about 10 times.

Auton, now 28, also repeatedly taped the boy’s mouth and hands with duct tape to stop him screaming or crying.

On one occasion, he placed the boy naked in a drum with water running over his head so the boy had trouble breathing.

By the time an ambulance was called, almost the entirety of the little boy’s body was covered in “bruises, lacerations, scratches and abrasions”.

Auton was jailed for threeand-a-half years, with a nonparole period of two years, after pleading guilty to illtreating a child. He appealed his sentence earlier this month on the grounds his sentence was “manifestly excessive” and “extremely harsh”.

Auton claimed the sentencing judge didn’t take his early plea of guilty, or medical reports from his psychologist and psychiatrist, into account.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal, with Justice Helen Wood noting each act of violence would have justified “substantial terms of imprisonment”.

“The taping of the child’s mouth was done to stop him making noises, crying or screaming. The child, given his disability, had no other way of communicating his distress. The child needed comforting and yet he was punished in a cruel and most oppressive way,” she said. Acting Justice Brian Martin described Auton’s violence as “merciless cruelty”.

He disagreed Auton was out of his “right mind” and suffering a “drug-induced psychosis” from taking Xanax.

“The community is deeply disturbed by crimes of violence committed against children and sentences must reflect both the community abhorrence and the need to protect vulnerable children.

“There was no error by the sentencing judge.”