Offenders’ past suffering no excuse for soft sentencing

I AM sick of people using their past ‘”sexual abuses” to excuse their current crimes.

Yet another purveyor or child pornography, “who cannot be named,” walks free from court having paid a $1000 good behaviour bond (‘Man who shared baby porn walks free’, GCB, 8/3).

He was caught with almost 40 horrific images of child sexual abuse featuring children and babies, as well as almost 1500 other images of child pornography and yet another almost 40 images shared with others via Skype, on his laptop in 2016.

This paedophile, once caught out, then spent the next year getting treatment and can now “walk free” after being found with almost 1600 pornographic images, almost 40 of them showing “horrific images of child sexual abuse” – because, it would seem, he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and has spent a year getting treatment.

We often read this same old story having been “caught out, that they were the victim of sexual abuse as a child, then often in the lead up to their court appearances, they seek treatment for their current crimes, in the same breath blaming their past.

It’s just a pity that they don’t seek treatment before committing such horrific crimes against their victims. Some of these almost 1600 images were of little babies and some images were in the two highest categories of child porn, yet Judge David Kent released this paedophile on good behaviour, having been satisfied after reading medical reports that he was unlikely to reoffend.

I have to ask, what do you have to do in this country to be given the sentences you deserve?